Just finished scoffing this lot and very nice it was too!

At the top, Saffron Pilau rice, bottom left, Bombay Aloo, dry style, bottom middle Beef Madras, bottom right, fried Okra or Bhindi Bhaji. I know the Okra dish looks like it's burnt, but it isn't, the colour is coming from the heavy caramelisation of the onions which produced an very intense sweet spicy dish, quite lovely.

I could eat that lot again!

Quote from: StoneCut on April 09, 2013, 04:43 PM
Have you had curries in Germany? Yes, they are really bad most of the time ... I'm just wondering about your backgrounds for saying that.

I haven't had any in Germany, but I've had them in Spain and they were dreadful - some of the worst I've ever had, anywhere.

Quote from: Sam33 on April 09, 2013, 03:53 PM
Has anyone tried buying herbs and spices online? Im finding getting all the ingredients in the shops very costly!!

I buy a lot of my items from Spices of India as they have a good range and selection of items at reasonable prices. Other things I get in Southall whenever I'm up that way.

As you rightly say, buying a lot of these spices from Supermarkets can get expensive in small quantities and many items you just can't get.

I've always found Spices of India to be pretty good and I generally buy a big batch in one go to save on postage.

Quote from: DalPuri on April 09, 2013, 04:18 PMBIR's and TA's are the same up and down the UK. You get good chefs and you get bad chefs. No one region is better than the other.

I agree 100%.

I think it's a fallacy that you get good and bad BIR areas, the quality of the dishes are totally dependent on the quality of the restaurant and the Chef's and Cooks who cook it.

Quote from: uclown2002 on April 09, 2013, 10:47 AMWhat base did you use with it?

I don't really follow any specific recipes for a base but produce a fairly generic one which is a work in progress. It contains the usual ingredients - about 1kg onions, 30 grams or so each of Garlic and Ginger, balanced with about 300g of savoury components, I think this one had 1/2 a carrot, 1/4 green capiscum, 1/4 of white cabbage and I tried for the first time 1/2 a sweet potato. It also contains about 1.5 - 1.75L of water, I just fill it up to the level in the pan and about 250ml of vegetable oil.

This is brought to a boil, then to a simmer for about 2-3 hours, pureed and returned to the pan. I add about 1/2 can of pureed plum tomatoes, a squirt of tomato puree and about 4 teaspoons of this mix powder, plus about a tablespoon of coconut powder. This is brought back to a boil and then to a simmer until the oil separates. Left to cool and sieved.

It's quite a thin base sauce and I add water to get the right consistency.

As I said, SD's powder worked well with this and produced a very nice basic Chicken curry.

Quote from: Salvador Dhali on March 11, 2012, 12:23 PMAs said, no surprises, but I find it works well...

And indeed it does work well!

I fancied a change from my usual mix powder and was browsing through this forum section looking for one when I came across yours, which looked good, so I thought I'd try it.

Gave it a go this week to spec, and included some in my base sauce.

Knocked up a pretty decent standard BIR chicken curry using this mix powder with some pre-cooked chicken thighs on the bone. Very nice indeed.

Highly recommended and a big thumbs up from me.

Thanks for sharing it.

Quote from: goncalo on March 24, 2013, 03:38 PMThat is an excellent tip. I suppose this will vary depending on the number/size of potatoes, size of pot and power of hob jets though? I will definitely play around with those settings though

Sorry Goncalo, I hadn't seen your follow up questions.

Yes, everything will always depend on your own settings.

Timings will vary depending primarily on the size and type of potatoes you will use, burner size, pot size and so on, even if you use salt in the water or not! Naturally smaller potato pieces will cook faster to 'doneness' that larger ones will. Just experiment a little till you find the right settings for you.

Quote from: goncalo on March 24, 2013, 03:38 PMOne more question, when it starts boiling and you start your counter for 6/7 minutes, do you lower the heat from the moment they start boiling?

Yes.

I bring water to the boil (sometimes if I'm in a hurry I boil water in a kettle first and use that, but it's better to boil from cold in the pan in my opinion) once it's boiling I add the chopped, rinsed (always worth rinsing chopped potatoes in cold water to get rid of possible starch) and strained potatoes to the water. The water will then go off the boil as the cold potatoes are added. I then add a pinch of salt and turmeric and then bring them back to the boil. As soon as they start boiling I drop to a simmer, put the lid on and start timing. As I mentioned, on my hob, 10 mins is usually done, so I simmer for about 6-7 mins.

Quote from: goncalo on March 24, 2013, 03:38 PMAlso, regarding maris pipers, I can't easily source them here in most super markets. I suppose potatoes is something we have in different varieties around here (I think the irish are known for their potatoes) but either they exist and aren't tagged as such, or there is no tag at all, which is more often than not the case.

Ahh okay. Well Ireland is the place for potatoes!

You want a floury type rather than waxy, but not so floury they disintegrate. I find Maris Pipers and King Edwards to be pretty good all round potatoes.

Just experiment till you find a variety you like really.

Quote from: goncalo on March 24, 2013, 03:38 PMI never had the methi aloo, but I'm sort of curious. The aroma from methi used to make me feel pretty sick, but I think it's grown on me. Same for cumin, so I'll try it some time -- maybe the methi gosht that has been discussed recently

I love Aloo Methi, it's by far my favourite vegetable dish and I always ask for it in any Indian Restaurant I go to even if they don't have it on the menu - more often than not they just nod and up it comes. It's just another of those little tests, if they've never heard of it or don't know how to cook it, it's not a good sign!

In my opinion Methi/Fenugreek is probably the most important ingredient to capturing that BIR smell and taste. Just smell some ground fenugreek and compare that smell to the smell you get from inside an Indian Takeaway bag, both the smells are very close together.

Understanding Fenugreek in all its forms, seeds, ground, dried/fresh leaves is really key to achieving BIR flavour in my opinion.

Quote from: goncalo on April 08, 2013, 07:10 PMCautious there. I'm sure spiceyokooko meant it in a verbal way and far from physical violence.

He knows exactly what I meant Goncalo.

In Phil's eyes it's perfectly acceptable for him to belittle my opinions but not okay for me to realise what he's doing and get annoyed about it.

Notice how Phil's stopped discussing the issues and is now doing what he professes to dislike - ad hominem-ing the person.

Typical Phil irony and puerility.

Quote from: Phil [Chaa006] on April 08, 2013, 05:55 PMIf so, this might help to explain some of our former disagreements on this forum.

Don't belittle me please, because otherwise you really will see me get angry and that hasn't yet happened on this forum. It's not a pretty sight.

The difference between us Phil, is that as far as I'm concerned you want to stifle debate, discussion and opinion into sanitised over-moderated sterility.

There's a world of difference between someone being bluntly rude and offering opinion without necessarily being able to offer constructive advice.

You seem to think if you criticize, you have to so constructively, I believe you can criticize without being constructive but without being rude. Therein lies the difference.

That's what discussion, debate and opinions are all about and that's the difference between us.

Quote from: Phil [Chaa006] on April 08, 2013, 11:17 AMNo, absolute not :  it is not "negativity" at all but "constructive criticism"; they as different as chalk and cheese.  "I think the photo of your curry looks like dog's vomit" is pure negativity; "if I had been you, I would have tried to introduce additional warmth into the image so as to make it visually more attractive even if less real" is constructive criticism.

So what you're really saying here is, don't say anything or express an opinion if you can't either be 1/ Nice, 2/ offer constructive advice on how to improve something.

That would in effect rule out such comments such as: 'I made that base to spec as the recipe intended, but the dishes I made from it I didn't like and lacked something I can't pinpoint nor suggest how it might be improved.'

I think you can see how that wouldn't work, particularly for newer forum members, you want to stifle discussion and opinion, why?