Disappointing George, but I don't think plants from the tropics are going to thrive in near freezing temperatures.  IMHO Curry Leaf is an ingredient that I can usually omit without much impact on the dish.  I do have the benefit of growing my own plant but to me it is an underwhelming ingredient anyway, and I rarely use it except in Sri Lankan Fish curries.

Quote from: Robbo141 on August 15, 2024, 11:47 PM
This video, making a madras from scratch shows his baked onions base.  I think the result of just pan cooking them in oil could be similar but it's interesting.
https://youtu.be/j-7-iBRjJcg?si=HTEE2Ei7P_ZSF0WM
The finished dish looks very good to me, the colour, the texture, so I sought out his other stuff.

This is the vindaloo paste he makes in a HUGE batch.
https://youtu.be/E7wl9hbsH6Y?si=qzCyS7Fmgle-amOe

And the vindaloo he makes. A bit heavy on the spuds for me but in my never ending search to recreate BIR vindaloo, I have to give it a bash.

https://youtu.be/YLx_u3ZUL1s?si=lhHO0hQg--SNx-T0

Robbo

Robbo, Rik is putting together an extensive catalogue of videos. He tried to get back on this forum a few years ago but was thwarted by password failures etc, at a time when many of us were having the same or similar problems, so he just gave up.  I was chatting with him quite frequently at the time.  I've made his Madras when it was first released and since. I've also made his Madras Curry Paste, which I still use today. I should imagine his Vindaloo recipe will be pretty good as he most certainly knows his way around the kitchen and in particular a curry pan.  Check out the video he released today on a quick Chinese Curry Paste. Potato Chips in Curry Sauce looks pretty good and I'm thinking along the lines of another Curried Prawns and Rice in the near future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nW8OFImovw


Now, at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, have you tried Julian's (Curry Academy) Vindaloo?  Here is the link to the very brief thread about it.  It appears that not many here on the forum went to the bother of trying it.  I know I saw it way back then, but I don't recall ever cooking it as Vindaloo heat is not on my family eat list.  However, I may need to give it a try just out of curiosity.  He certainly seems to suggest that this recipe is on par with the best available BIR Vindaloo.
https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=11823.msg93699#msg93699

Yep.
Recent 100 posts, 10 pages of 10, over the last 45 days with total activity accounted for by only 10 members.  In no particular order, myself, R141, T63, KB, CH, UF, PP, NJ, Onions and George.  I think I need to make a concerted effort to capture the stuff I might wish to preserve for my own future use.

Incidentally, I cooked a curry last night, but it wasn't Indian.  Thai Yellow Coconut Fish Curry using 4 large (250 g) tail section fillets of Barramundi, served with Basmati rice touched up with both black and red rice plus steamed (microwaved) vegetables.

I have visited this site before and cooked the base gravy as well as a few dishes.  From memory they were ok.  It throws the cat amongst the pigeons though for Kashmiri Bob.  These guys reckon you can cook a Balti without even a whiff of Cassia Bark. 

Click "Latest Curry News" and the first few recipes are for Balti, with no cassia. The link to the Base Curry Gravy used shows no cassia is used there either. 

I was pretty sure this has been discussed on the forum previously, but I couldn't see anything in searching.

Edit:  I remember now.  I came across this site while searching for Chip Shop / Chinese Curry Sauce.
https://royalcurryclub.co.uk/2020/11/25/how-to-cook-chip-shop-chinese-curry-sauce/

I'll be interested to know what spices you are going to use Bob.  I can't glean even a hint from what I'm watching and listening to.  At around 5.30, when he first covers the pan, it has oil, onion, garlic, ginger, green chilli fresh tomato and salt.  At 7.00 when we return to the pan the fresh ingredients are completely broken down and the golden brown / yellow colour of a spiced masala sauce to which he adds chicken and cooks it again under cover.  It has completely changed under cover.  Following that when the chicken is cooked, we see more green chilli, tomato puree and the whole peeled tomatoes and then fresh coriander leaf immediately before flame out.

I think I heard the following spices mentioned throughout the video at different times, but you see nothing going into the pan.  Early you can clearly hear him say Chilli powder, and I think he says panch phoran. Later I think he says jeera, (I think).  I copied the Hindi transcript into a translator (interestingly hopeless) and the only spice captured is turmeric (that I could see anyway).

Part of the translation reads "The earth is just the first potato that ripens."  I didn't see any potatoes.

Are you going to cook it or visit the establishment Bob?  I watched the video and there is a big hole in between the initial pan and what appears to be a spiced curry near completion.  Once again, the 3 additions of tomatoes.  Cut fresh to begin, puree added and then whole skinned plum tomatoes "squished up" towards the end.

Once again it looks very similar to the repeated script of cook from scratch Chicken Balti.

It is a very impressive, clean and open spaced kitchen.  How good would it be to have a go in there?  I really do wish I could get a naan like that over here.

It is very satisfying to do something like this. It is a lot to do, but also a lot of fun if you enjoy cooking curry.  It was great to have all dishes turn out as planned and hoped for.  Not a single dud on the table.

Base gravy goes such a long way.  I only did about 1.2 kg of onions and with re-using the stock from the pre-cooks instead of water to thin it out for the respective chicken and lamb dishes, I ended up with very rich and flavourful dishes.  I still have enough base gravy to do half as much again.  Going to the effort of preparing the Fried Onion Paste is well worth the trouble as it really adds to the dishes when used appropriately.

It was a big effort with 4 full days of cooking and trips to the shop but very tasty.  I ate curry again last night and will tonight as well and probably tomorrow.  My daughter came back yesterday and took some home.  Her Brazilian friend and his daughter loved it as well so she took extras for them.

Navratan is the vegetable curry of preference for us. Pre-cooked vegetables, nuts of choice (cashews this time) and fried paneer all in a tomato cream curry sauce.  I first cooked it nearly 20 years ago and used to follow a recipe but now I just wing it BIR style.

A green banana prawn is just an un-cooked prawn of the species known here locally as Banana prawns.  Different type of prawn to a King or Tiger.  I believe the Banana prawn are a farmed prawn.

There was way too much to photograph and post. We barely made a dent in it but there is plenty to eat through the week.

Apologies, as no matter what I did the photos would not rotate to correct orientation. I've never had this problem before today.

I wish you could try it Robbo.  I've cooked way to much. We'll be eating curry for a week.
Tonight's menu.
Starters: Chicken Tikka, Malabar chicken mini spring rolls, onion bhajis, salad, lemon wedges.
Chicken dishes: CTM, Mild chicken curry, Madras, Butter Chicken, Mango Chicken, Jalfrezi, Korma.
Lamb: Mughlai Gosht, Lamb Aloo Rogan Josh, Mild Lamb curry, Pasanda
Seafood: Masala Prawns
Vegetable: Navratan Korma, Bhindi Masala.
Other: Papadams, mango chutney, rice, naan, paratha rotis.
All up I used about 6 kg of chicken, lamb and prawns plus 4 kg of onions and others vegetables.