I think you make good points here Ray. I guess a lot of us (me included) are both very critical and seeking some kind of perfection that we might never reach.

As a result I focus 100% on the sauce flavour and don't faff around with nice extras like pilau rice, nan breads, bhajis etc. I just make a chicken, lamb or vegetable curry and eat it with plain basmati rice. Once I'm really happy with the curry sauce I'll move onto the extras.

Last night's curry was very good indeed!

Those Wagon Wheels and Curly Wurlys sure look smaller!

Paul.

Hi DD, I've only made 3 bases: SnS 2008, CA and Taz but I have cooked a lot with all of them.

I would tend to agree that the curries I have made with these taste fairly similar and none of them have helped me produce 100% BIR so far.

I've settled on the Taz one for main use but hope to receive some more spices soon to try out different approaches to the final cooking stage. I would be interested to know what kind of spicing you are using for the final cooking stages.

Paul.

Hi Emin-j,

I now always use fresh garlic. I have tried the paste but don't like all the preservatives and other stuff. When making a base sauce I also only ever use fresh garlic and ginger.

I must admit when cooking a curry I do use ginger in a jar but I don't put much in.

Regarding BIRs I think most seem to make their own garlic and ginger paste so in essence it is fresh as it won't have the preservatives.

I'm planning to getting around to making my own garlic and ginger paste and freezing it in ice cubes.

Paul.

I must admit I wasn't too impressed but without tasting the dish it is pointless to guess at the taste.

Paul.

I tried the Farmfoods 3 bags for a tenner of frozen chicken several months ago.

I found the meat was too salty and watery and had a poor texture, and ended up giving the remaining 2 bags away. You don't need to add salt to frozen chicken so why do they do that? I know the water is to increase the weight.

Each to their own I suppose.

Paul.

SS,

The last korma I made was like this:

CHICKEN TIKKA KORMA

- Over medium-high heat add 3 tbs sugar and 4 tbs coconut powder to the pan
- Add 3 tbs of almond nut powder (or cashew nut powder)
- Add 200ml of Taz base.
- Add 200ml single cream
- Add pre-cooked chicken tikka
- Reduce down a little until the oil separates from the edges of the pan

The recipe is Josh's except I dropped the sugar from 4 to 3 from memory.

The consistency of the sauce was fine. But then again I don't like BIR kormas at all - I cooked it for somebody else.

Paul.

I use Maggi's coconut milk powder. It tastes good, it isn't grainy at all and it mixes well with water. The last korma I made using it was fine - not too thick at all.

This is the stuff:

http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2espicesofindia%2eco%2euk%2f&WD=maggi&SHOP=%20&PN=Indian%2dFood%2dMaggi%2dCoconut%2dMilk%2dPowder%2ehtml%23aGRO011_2dp#aGRO011_2dp

Quote from: Willyeckerslike on March 01, 2010, 12:01 PM
The Lasan BIR does  ;D,
The use of mustard oil in it did suprise me as the bottles I have seen say for external use only.  Is there any bottles that say ok for food?  If you are not allowed to use it for food why are lasan using it?  Its probably some EU directive :

Will

Yes you can't sell mustard oil for human consumption in the UK or the States or Australia I believe. There was some research years ago that showed it was really bad for laboratory rats.
That's when it got banned. Later research showed that pigs and humans are not affected unlike rats. So it is ok to eat it but at your own risk

CA's vindaloo was one of my best curries to date, although to me it tasted more like I would expect a madras to taste. Depends on your chilli powder strength I guess.

You should try it Domi as it's nowhere near as hot as I remember vindaloos.

Paul.

I don't think I'd be too happy tasting the marinade complete with raw chicken before it is cooked.

Paul.

...Whoops I missed the bit where Jerry said he tasted them before adding the chicken.