Quote from: haldi on October 21, 2010, 08:31 AMMy book turned up

I've lost track, Haldi : which book is this that has just arrived ?
I'm planning to submit a review of Kris Dhillon's most recent book, but am still waiting for an answer from the list admin as his preference for the category in which to post it, and I could also offer a review of Dave Loyden's "Undercover Curry" if that hasn't been adequately covered already.

** Phil.

It seems to me that all we need is one additional main thread (call it "Recipes by author", say) within which there are links to the original articles classified as at present.

Let's put this sub-thread to rest, please : George complained, Jerry apologised, so there should be no reason to prolong this digression any further.  It's the CURRY that matters, surely, and any temporary personal misunderstandings are best laid to rest as soon as possible.

Quote from: chriswg on October 20, 2010, 08:18 AMOn the base subject, I'm so glad they mentioned the chicken. This is coming up more and more. I bet a couple of Knorr stock pots added to a base would have the same effect without having to boil chicken bones.

As you may have seen from some earlier messages of mine, I use chicken or rabbit stock whenever possible, but rather than stock cubes you might like to consider trying Knorr Stock Pots : they are really good 

Quote from: jb on October 18, 2010, 11:07 PMArrived at 7.30 and got out at 10.45 all for 25 quid

They paid you only 25 quid for 3 1/4 hours work ?   Cheapskates !

But more seriously, well done : like every forum member, I await your full report with considerable interest.

** Phil.

Quote from: Secret Santa on October 18, 2010, 10:26 AMI can see why you'd be appaled by thye inclusion of vinegar but what's wrong with potatoes?

To be honest, I can't even see why V-C would be appalled at the inclusion of vinegar : approximately 10% of the hits for "vindaloo" returned by Google also contain the word "vinegar", so it's by by no means unknown for vindaloos to include this ingredient. Kris Dhillon writes in her most recent book "Traditionally, a combination of clear and dark vinegars is often used to make vindaloo", Dave Loyden has it in his recipes for vindaloo (with the alternative of lemon), and doing a search on CR0 for vinegar within the vindaloo sub-forum also throws up about eight hits ...

OK, so looking at the stats for recent messages I can see ten active members.  We can almost certainly safely double that, because those stats go back only nine hours or so.  Assume, then, a minimum of 20 active members,; on that basis we would each need to chip in a fiver a year to cover the running costs.  Sounds good value to me.  Count me in.

** Phil.

Quote from: jb on October 17, 2010, 08:27 PMWhat is that big pot of red sauce on the go???

Pure "Essence of Phal"   ;D

Quote from: haldi on October 17, 2010, 06:50 PMDoes oil in a pan ,heated by gas, get hotter than a deep pan fryer?

Yes, a deep fat fryer will normally go little higher than 190C, because that is the optimum temperature for the second cooking of chips (the first cooking should take place at about 160C).  Oil can get much hotter than that (300--400C has been quoted), but there are no foods of which I am aware that need much more than 190C, and of course there is considerable danger in raising a vessel of oil to anywhere near its flash point (from WP : "Oils that are suitable for this purpose must have a high flash point. Such oils include the major cooking oils - canola, sunflower, safflower, peanut etc. Tropical oils, like palm oil, coconut oil and rice bran oil, are particularly valued in Asian cultures for high temperature cooking, because of their unusually high flash point.")

I've never tried cooking a poppadum in a deep-fat fryer; I always use a wok for them.  I've also never measured the temperature of the oil at which they fry best, and searching the web has thrown up only one hit : 375F, = 190C.  So if yours are not cooking properly in your DFF, it may not be reaching the indicated temperature; do you have a suitable thermometer with which you could measure it ?

I've never tried making lime pickle (never even considered it, in fact) but if you go to a large specialist cash-and-carry such as See Woo in Charlton, you will be able to buy a catering size jar for (the last time I was there) just over six quid.  Not sure how much they are today, but they still represent a substantial saving over individual consumer-size jars.  Sadly my favourite Burmese one (Chinthe) doesn't have a catering-size version