Quote from: telecaster445 on November 08, 2010, 09:59 PMWhat are the obvious difference of a London BIR, to a Scottish one?

Some 20 or so years ago, I had reached the distinct impression that the further that one got from London, the milder the curries were.  So, when I had a few hours to kill while waiting for a flight from Glasgow Airport, I decided to go for a curry, and as Glasgow was so far from London, I ordered a Bangalore Phal, expecting it to be about Madras strength on my personal scale.

Oh what a mistake that was.  That Bangalore Phal was seriously hot, and I had to nurse it in my insides all the way from Glasgow to London on a Trident : never again !

** Phil.

Quote from: Razor on November 08, 2010, 09:29 PMMy Method;

Heat 4 tbs veg oil
Fry off 1.5 tsp garlic/ginger paste (careful, it spits like mad)
Pan off heat, add spices and stir,
Back on low heat, and cook out the spices, stirring all the time for about 30 seconds,
Turn up heat to full, add 100ml of base,
Reduce by half, then add a further 100ml of base,
Reduce again slightly, than add remaining 100ml of base, and precooked meat.
cook on high for about 3-4 mins then add Fresh coriander
Stir through and remove from the heat
Serve with fresh coriander sprinkled on top.

Hmmm, this is much closer to my old-style "traditional Indian curry" approach, which never really worked for me (clearly it works for Ray !).  But a philosophical question : do you think that a typical BIR would use so many distinct stages ?  It seems to me that, over time, they must have optimised their methodology to use as few stages as possible ...  Just a thought !

** Phil.

Quote from: trucker5774 on November 08, 2010, 08:45 PM
Thanks Ray. I can see that now. Just wondered if there was a rule of thumb, or if I had missed a basic section or FAQ somewhere.

I don't know if there's a FAQ, or even if all recipes follow the same procedure, but for the style that I cook, heating the base sauce with adequate oil (e.g., 5 tablespoons of oil for 3/4 pints of base sauce) is the starting point.  Once that is at a gentle boil, the pre-cooked chicken, ground chillies and salt are added; after about five minutes, the heat is reduced and additional spices added; after a further three minutes, things such as fresh chillies and coriander stalks go in; and after a further couple of minutes the excess oil is poured off, the finished dish garnished with chopped coriander leaf, and served.

** Phil.

Quote from: Razor on November 08, 2010, 07:20 PMI, and I suspect a few others would be horrified at the very thought [of] biting down on a cardamom !

Oh, they're wonderful,  Ray : can't understand how anyone could dislike them !  In fact, I regard them as one of my great culinary formative influences, along with dried shitake mushroom in "Duck Cantonese" -- cardamoms were a great part of the attraction of curries, as shitake were of Cantonese cuisine ...

** Phil.

Quote from: Graeme on November 08, 2010, 11:32 AM
George, page 20 in the book below

Graeme, what is "the book below" ?  I can't see where you list it or link to it.
** Phil.

Quote from: samson on November 07, 2010, 11:06 PMI've tried quite a few different Chicken Tikka Recipes over the year's from the inedible to the good but i aways found myself questioning the recipe normally because of the over powering taste(as in harshness)of the spice or that unwanted vinegar taste from paste.

I can certainly go along with that : that was exactly the impression I got from my own attempts, and from those of well-intentioned friends (even those who were otherwise excellent chefs).  Finally last year I managed to produce both a tandoori chicken and a chicken tikka that avoided these traps, and we served them at a barbeque : they were extremely well received !  I will now have to compare your recipe and methodology with mine, to see how they differ.

** Phil.

Quote from: Razor on November 07, 2010, 10:23 PMThe beauty of Dipuraja's CTM is that, it really requires very little skill, as it a "bung it all in" type of method, plus, he has videos to demonstrate each process.

Ray, I must be missing something (probably looked in the wrong place), but looking under Main dishes / Tandoori the first reference I find to Dipuraja's CTM is from Cory Ander, who writes :

Quote from: Cory Ander on April 03, 2010, 04:18 AMFrom: dipuraja1:

To make tikka massala you need 1cheff spoon of vagtable oil,3tablespoon of almond powder,2tablespoon of coconut powder,1tablespoon of sugar,cheff spoon of massala sauce,then add small pieces of chicken tikka or meat of your choice,6 cheff spoon of base gravy mix togther then cook for 4-5mins on high gas mark to finish off your massala add 1 tablespoon of single cream.

So Dip seems to assume that one already has the chicken tikka prepared, unless I am missing something.

** Phil.

Quote from: joffy on November 07, 2010, 10:08 PMWill search here for a Tikka Masala one I think. 

I think (but I may be wrong) that CTM is perhaps a tad ambitious for a first dish, mainly because you have to master two quite distinct styles : the tandoori/tikka side, and the sauce side.  I would be inclined to recommend something simpler to start off with, maybe just a Chicken Madras or similar.  What do you think ?

** Phil.

Quote from: Razor on November 07, 2010, 09:32 PM
Oh no Phil, you've finally sunk down to my level lol ;D ;D ;D

It's the curry, Ray : drives us all down in the end.  Why do you think so many pukka sahibs went doolally ?

Quote from: Razor on November 07, 2010, 09:27 PMOh dear, I've become a spotty teenager again :

Well, even I am inclined to investigate further now that I know that there is a BJ Administrator : "Invalid Question ID / Question has been deleted or moved by the BJ administrator."

But do they do deep (th) rotis, I wonder ?

** Phil.