That looks beautiful  It's the kind of madras i hope to be served in a restaurant - just meat and dark spicy sauce. It puts me off when they're lightly coloured or not oily enough.
Madras works really well for variety too. You know when you're doing a curry night and you dont want people thinking the curries are too similar to each other?
When doing a curry night i always do a madras and a korma because they're so different . Then i do a dansak or pathia or jeera.

Rice looks bang on too!

Wow, it's got 'the ripple effect' with the oil! Looks good to me! Bread looks perfec too  ;D

This one looks beautiful dude! Nice one

Quote from: Mikka on January 27, 2010, 11:22 AM
How does anyone know that nothing like a spiced puree is added sometime during  simmering?

I add most of my ingredients at the simmering point. I pretty much only boil the onions.
The other ingredients i use are g/g puree, evaporated milk, creamed coconut block and spices so they can be added after the blending.
It seems you're not in the habit of cooking your sauce after it's blended. I find this pretty much crucial. It helps combine the flavours. We've seen all the restaurants do it.
As for this one incident? Who knows. Once you've blended it you need to cook it until the oil rises again.
Adding spices towards the end is fine and is what i do when the full taste isnt there. Maybe that's all you needed?

Quote from: jimmy2x on January 26, 2010, 02:05 PM
the thing i see missing from my curries is the intitial lip sting of the chilli you get when you take your first mouthfull, my chilli allways seems too deep with momentary lapse before i feel the heat. Any restaurant ive gone to always has this initial sting in its curry.

Wow, this shows the difference in people's taste.
I regard the deep delayed taste/effect of chilli as a success, something to strive for. An initial lip sting tells me the chef doesnt know how to prepare chillies properly or they're using bad quality or strong powder.
If using fresh chillies i deseed, wash and soak in warm salty water to get rid of excessive harshness and get a more rounded flavour. So if you want the opposite i suppose you shouldnt do any of that! That way you should get the stinging sensation you get when you go to the loo or scratch your eye after handling chillies.
As for using chilli powder, which most places seem to use over fresh, try buying a cheaper/stronger brand rather than a quality one made from kashmiri chillies.

I agree that a sauce takes a long time to cook. Mine was never fully cooked after the hour or so that was stated in recipes.
I tend to boil my onions for about 45mins then blend with the other ingredients and slowly simmer for about 3 hours. It is then often left on the stove with a lid on to cool overnight (by which point it is not fully cooled) and sits there until the next evening. It tastes good and a lot better than frozen (and fridged i think).

Quote from: Panpot on January 22, 2010, 03:10 PM
I've just left the meeting and due to unforseen circumstancees the chef could not accomodate me today but has agreed to share next month.

The owner did explain why curries taste different today than the 70/80's and that is down to regulation and marination controls. cheers PP

Very interesting. Any more details on what regulations? Did they give any hints?
I wouldnt be surprised if they left the meat marinating at room temperature. India is not known for having fridges in all kitchens (even today, let alone historically).
My question is - should that make it taste better? Well, i know that cold temps dull taste: Classic examples are cheese, red wine, tomatoes. However they regain their flavour when warmed up.

Quote from: JerryM on January 21, 2010, 07:23 AM

Quote from: chinois on January 21, 2010, 02:19 AM
Did it taste like a chilli sauce you've bought before

Most definitely No. Chilli sauce is here https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4076.0

Interesting. There are so many bottles of chilli sauce in the shops and this one is very different again. Anyone else tried it? Did you need to ammend the recipe?

I agree that the cornflour wont do anything for the flavour apart from dull it slightly so i would leave this out also. I suppose it's common to put starch in chilli/garlic sauces to get the right consistency so i reckon they just havent questioned their own recipe yet.

I'm keen to try this. This looks like a standard chilli sauce recipe but with chilli powder instead of fresh chillies as a shortcut. Did it taste like a chilli sauce you've bought before Jerry? Buying a jar might be easier for some people is what i'm thinking.
I've been noticing that prepared pastes/sauces seem to be 'the secret' if anything is. Whether you make them or buy them, they always have one thing in common: strength and balance of flavour. Check the below list and notice they all have saltiness, sweetness, sourness and savoury.

Mango chutney This is my favourite BIR tip. My dansak and pathia are the most popular of my dishes.

Tomato ketchup As with chinese food and ragus this just works. Of course it should as there's tomato in most curries and it's savoury and sweet: exactly what you're looking for. I had to apologize to my girlfriend for not believing it's credibility in cuisine until Heston Blumenthal used it!

Bunjara This tastes beautiful on it's own and is very moorish. I used quite a lot in the finished dish to start with but i think i've realized that it just needs to be seasoned correctly when made. It should be sweet, savoury and salty with a bit of sourness (and bitterness?) from the tomatoes.

English mint sauce I havent used this myself but have spotted it in tandoori and chasni recipes. If i remember rightly it's quite sour. The coolness of mint also adds a dimension (in the same way chilli does).

Sweet chilli sauce Like tomato ketchup, it's a classic that works it's magic in almost any cuisine. I havent used it for a while in BIR but something normal like maggi or linghams is what i'd go for, rather than a caribbean one that tastes of scotch bonnet or a thai/chinese one that's overly sweet and gloupy.

This garlic chilli sauce Yet to try it but should probably be classified with the sauce above.

I think i found the amount of oil in the recipe too much. Basically there needs to be enough to caramelize the onions. I used too much once and they were deep frying/poaching so they wouldnt caramelize properly. They didnt get sweet.
Lots of oil should be poured on and stirred through at the end.

I also prefer to grind the cumin seeds and add them later on. I guess i'm concerned they'll burn or be too obvious. Anyone else found this?