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Quote from: Razor on November 14, 2010, 01:56 PMAgreed. Chilli, cumin and methi are surely the three key spices; omit any one, and you have to ask yourself "can this still be authentic BIR ?".
To me, it (methi/fenugreek) epitomises the BIR aroma.
Quote from: Razor on November 14, 2010, 01:44 PMAmazing : I didn't even know there were such things as kite races. But I still don't understand how they can work : to get a kite aloft, you have to pull on its cord, do you not ? So how do you then race them ?
Kite is Manc rhyming slang for face, as in, Kite Race = Face, lol
QuoteThe only Veg that I can really eat cooked on their own are, potatoes, peas and onions, anything else has to be curried, stir fried or whatever.Much the same as me : potatoes (cooked almost anyhow, except in their skins), onions, peas (Batchelor's Processed or Mushy, fresh only on sufferance), spinach and green/red/orange/yellow peppers : the last two because they were probably the only vegetables not to be forced down my throat at primary school, so I never acquired an aversion to them !
Quote from: Razor on November 13, 2010, 11:10 PMIt's amazing how language varies as one moves across the country : I don't think I have ever heard of "pulling one's kite" before, although I think I can guess what it means !
... and she pulls her kite, when I suggest going for an Indian meal.
Quote from: Razor on November 13, 2010, 11:10 PMNow this is interesting, because I too am a carnivore through and through, and yet I feel reasonably confident that I could become a vegetarian if I lived on the sub-continent : Sag Aloo / Bombay Aloo, and -- best of all -- Masala Dosa, are (to my mind) wonderful dishes, and lift mere vegetables from the mundane to the sublime.
I've tasted it, and I don't like it but then again, I'm not a veg lover, hence my lack of interest in topics on Saag Aloo or Bombay potato. You never know, I just may have stumbled upon this taste by accident.
Quote from: JerryM on November 13, 2010, 08:58 AMThis provides useful insights, Jerry : like, I suspect, many others, I misunderstood the thrust of the thread. But I have to say, for me the "Specials" section of the menu in most BIRs leads to terrible disappointment only too often, in that the so-called "Specials" are almost invariably based on pre-tikkad chicken/lamb/whatever rather than using "fresh" (or non-tikkad but pre-cooked). So now I make it a rule that whenever I want to try a new restaurant, I will first try their Chicken Madras or similar, so that I can judge them on their basics. If and only if these are OK will I return and perhaps try one of their specials, but even then I will grill the waiter as to whether the primary ingredient has been pre-tikkad, and if he assures me that it has not, and it is, I send it back !
a bit more explanation - these are the dishes that are very few. they are the ones that the chef really likes and cooks particularly well. i often find them in a restaurant that i've not visited before and usually are down to a friend who know's the place recommending the dish.
Quote from: Razor on November 13, 2010, 09:26 AMIf they offered this along with black pudding, would that make it a blood donor kebab ?!
... along with the good old donor kebab
Quote from: commis on November 12, 2010, 10:42 PMWell, if you read the small print at bottom right, it says "Indian and Fast Food Takeway", so it may well do pizzas as well as curries if pizzas (pizzae ?!) can be counted as "fast food".
Sorry if I was not clear.Is this a curry only TA because on the chopping board is red onion but there is no receptacle to place it in.The set up looks more like a pizza place?
Quote from: Secret Santa on November 09, 2010, 02:37 PMWhich, for some inexplicable reason, my wife prefers ! (I prefer cherry tomatos, on the vine, but never cook tomatoes at all).
The only way I could see tomatoes withstanding any cooking and still look like tomato pieces is if they're those monstrous varieties found in supermarkets that taste of nothing and are usually as hard as snooker balls because they are severely under ripe.
Quote from: Panpot on November 09, 2010, 02:15 PMMany thanks, PP : I have never had the privilege of watching an Indian (or Pakistani, or Bangladeshi) chef at work, so most of my ideas come from a combination of KD & experience, but it is most useful to know how the real chefs do such things. One thing I have done is watch Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi on video, but only preparing tandoori/tikka and biryani (the last was an eye-opener !) : I shall go back to see if he demonstrates anything as "simple" [1] as a Chicken Madras.
Phil, I have had the pleasure of being backstage at one of The Ashoka restaurants and have watched a number of chefs at work in open plan set ups in TAs and other BIRs and Ray's general approach especially adding the base over two or three separate chef spoonfuls is how it's done. ...