Quote from: Gezh on October 28, 2010, 12:42 PMNow, I always thought Saag was spinach.

Saag is actually a generic term, and so saag aloo does not necessarily consist of spinach and potato, though it frequently will.  If you want to be sure of getting spinach and not (say) mustard leaves, you should ask for aloo palak (of course, this won't guarantee that you will get aloo palak, but at least you will have asked for the right thing !).

** Phil.

Quote from: Razor on October 27, 2010, 09:59 PMWhere is this referenced?, I haven't come across it ?

It appears under some member's names, before their "qualification", as in

Dibb117
* CONTRIBUTING MEMBER
* Sous Chef

and presumably indicates (some of) those who have used the "Donate" link in the past.

** Phil.

Quote from: Razor on October 27, 2010, 05:26 PM
I can't believe that we've failed to reach a target of 99 quid. 

Seconded.  I pledged GBP 5-00 shortly after this thread started, and I'm listed as a "Contributing Member" so I assume I have also donated in the past, but there do seem to be some regular contributors who haven't yet announced their willingness to donate: I can only think that this is an oversight on their part rather than real stinginess.

** Phil.

Quote from: JerryM on October 27, 2010, 04:56 PMgot round to trying a BIR take on Chaa006's recipe.

i had a look at KD2 recipe which adds coconut milk. this may move it in the right direction. other than that i'm struggling to get it away from "madras". i feel i need to taste BIR version to get a better steer.

Thanks for the feedback, Jerry.  I think in retrospect you are right -- the dish is really a "Chicken Madras with added eggs" rather than a "Chicken Bombay" per se.  It is a while since I last has a Chicken Bombay, but my recollection is that it is lighter in colour than either you or I achieved, and less heavily spiced.  What a shame I didn't see this message yesterday : we went to the Taj of Kent last night (Tuesday Night Special : one starter, one main course, one side dish, one rice or naan :

Maybe Admin can send some of these complimentary messages to Messrs Asda & Waitrose to encourage them to advertise their curries on this site    Not so sure Sainsbury's will be impresssed, though ...

Leaving the question of authorship [1] to one side, there is something I don't understand in the recipe as found at Natco.  It includes (among others) the following stages --

> Add oil and heat.
> Add basic sauce (along with fresh chicken/other meats if using them)
> Add all of the spices and salt

> Although the curry is now cooked, further frying is now required
> and this must be done in individual portions.

> 1. Add some oil to your 'individual curry' pan.
> 3. Then add the required amount of sauce and meat/cooked vegetables
> for one portion

So you've added the chicken (say) early on, immediately after "Add oil and heat.  Add basic sauce", yet you are then told that "further frying is now required" and at the frying stage "add ... sauce ... and meat" (i.e., chicken).

So in fact you have added the chicken twice : once when making the basic sauce, and once at the frying stage.

Am I completely mad, or is there a real inconsistency ?

[1] Or has it, in fact,  been stolen and cocked up in the process ?  As Chriswg observed at https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4813.msg45748#msg45748, the Natco recipe is remarkably similar to the "Not Delia" one : http://www.notdelia.co.uk/british-indian-restaurant-curry-introduction/

Yesterday I decided to try some of the ideas from Dave Loyden's base recipe, and in view of the discussions in this thread, added one teaspoon hing [1] and one teaspoon fenugreek to a green base consisting of pureed leeks cooked in rabbit stock(it was meant to be chicken stock, but my wife didn't bother to tell me she had already frozen the freshly made chicken stock and made room for it in the freezer by taking out some rabbit stock !). Anyhow, apart from those two ingredients I made the sauce in my normal KD-ish way, and then this evening cooked a chicken madras using yesterday's base.  I omitted the fenugreek as this was already in the base, and -- to be honest -- the end results were not markedly different from any other madras I have ever made.  Very pleasant, good texture and flavour, but you wouldn't drive ten miles to eat it if you had a perfectly good BIR in your own village !

** Phil.

[1] Yes, really a teaspoon, not a desert or tablespoon.  These days I make just enough base for a couple of curries, so all ingredients are scaled down accordingly.  To give an idea of the scale of the operation, there were just two leeks in the green stage-1 sauce.

Quote from: Secret Santa on October 25, 2010, 04:07 PMYou need a steam cleaner Phil.

Argh, my wife always wants to buy one of those when we go to things like the South of England show, and I always try to convince her we don't need one.  She will be pleased if I tell her that we now do !

Or maybe not : it looks as if the boil with a biological laundry tablet has really had some effect (apart from taking out the mains to the house when it overflowed and tripped the RCD); I may be able to avoid giving in about the steam cleaner after all  ;D

** Phil.

Any tips on de-gunging a deep-fat fryer ?  The dishwasher is failing to have any impact, so I have just filled it with boiling water and a biological laundry tablet and will run it for a while at the lowest setting to see if that helps.  If not, does anyone have any better ideas ?

** Phil.

Quote from: Ramirez on October 25, 2010, 10:56 AMAlso, is there not a method of soaking cloves in a bowl of water that makes the peeling process much quicker (something from the Undercover book)?

Yes, Dave Loyden writes of soaking the cloves for a few hours to make them easier to peel.  I've not yet tried it, but it makes good sense.

** Phil.