My method is similar, a hotch potch of my own ideas, together with the corpus of curry books (KD etc)available and some great ideas from CrO people:

I chuck a chopped chillie into a heavy based frying pan containing 3 tbs of oil, and when it is sizzlingI know the temp is high enough to cook the raw spices without burning them  (Bruce Edwards' idea this one!). I wait a further minute to allow any fried chillie flavour to develope, then I bung in  garlic puree followed by (diluted) tomarto puree and cook till moisture evaporated.  Next goes in spice mix, chillie powder, ground dried methi leaf (C.O. KD), salt and a tiny pinch of sugar ( most of which caramalizes in the hot oil).

After cooking the spice for a min or so, toffee aroma, then add base in stages bringing back to boil after each edition.

Instead of lemon juice I add blizzed tinned toms to sour, about 3 or 4  tbs, I believe CK (?) does this also, and a lot of chopped corriander just before serving, it does not need 'cooking-in' The finaly chopped stalks actually givce a much better flavour than the leaves ( I just use those to garnish) - slightly 'lemony' rather thatn 'candle wax'!

Might have one tomorrrow!!

Interesting reading emin-J !  I've being 'frying-in' dried methi at an early stage of the cooking process and am CONVINCED it works better than adding it at the end (or adding none for that matter!)

Keep up the good work!

I agree with you there, those Mozambique chickens were quite thin on breast meat as I recall, and they were quite small birds.

I use butterflied chicken breasts for several dishes, that might work, although off the bone, as I'm sure you're aware, can end up tasting a little dry if you over do it.

Anyhow I'll have a go to and we can compare notes!

I've been looking for a recipe for this for ages, but the info I got in Africa varied so much depending on who I heard it from, interestingly this recipe contains all the ingredients that appeared in every the version I heard about, combined.  Problem was each individual method I was given missed out a key ingredient, possibly deliberate for all I know!

Hi Jerry and 976

If it helps Jerry your Piri piri looked a lot like the stuff I ate a few times in Maputo in Mozambique (an ex-portuguese colony), Yummy!

The stuff I ate was made from decidely skinier looking chickens, much thiner, which probably down to what was available locally.  That probably helped with the cooking times!  Their version looked more the colour of roast chicken, but I've no idea of how they cooked it.  I think you probably right to give it the 'mallet treatment'!  Unfortuntely I can't recall whether they scored the skin, as it was back in '92!

Keep the good work, I'm going to try this one out myself!

Want to give this atry!

CK, how much base sauce to you use?

me too!

Well done Sir!  It's a lot of work doing tests like this, but I think it's the only way to go.

Thanks Derek. it's not the whole story but if deffinately adds something, glad you had a similar result.  'Artificial' chicken stock is so far off the mark that it just isn't worth using, has to be the 'real Mc Coy'!

I put  a qtr lev tps of ground-up dried methi leaf (KD recommends grinding dried methi leaf in her first book), into the hot oil along with a (BE) spice mix, chilie powder etc, when I do a madras.  As the oil is warming beforehand I chuck in a finely chopped chilie, and when it starts sizzling briskly, I know the oil is hot enough to fry the spices without burning them  (a Bruce Edward's technique). 

I also use a very heavy frying pan, this helps contol the heat also.  It's very easy to burn spices in a thin wok-type pan.

In goes the spices plus methi, followed by 30 seconds to a minute of frying, then in goes the base in stages.  It's not perfect by any means but the results are better than any of my local BIRs, but I would say not quite up to the best BIRs in the land!

I tried leaving-out the methi, and also adding it later, but neither is as good.

Interstingly I still rate KDs base, although my version has evolved, I include home made chicken stock, small  quantities of carrot & celery, and one or slight variations in technique.

May seem obvious, but just to be complete: I throw that congealed fat from the surface, that IS NOT the stock.  I say this beacause something I read here before lead me the think that some members think the congealed stuff on the surface IS the stock!  It's the 'aqueous'phase underneith  that is the stock of course!