I have been making a very concious effort with my cooking to cook the BIR style I am used to - but different tasting dishes.

A few fantastic Indian restaurants in Glagow only have about ten things on their menu - and they all taste unique.

I really cant understand 10 dishes all using the exact same spice proportions and just different amounts of chile powder and main ingredients.  I dont even like eating in those types of establishments.

how much Onion?

can they be shallow fried?

This is Regional Vindaloo cooked in the BIR style. More suited to here.

Any questions just ask.

[Vindaloo Marinade]

This is enough for 4 individual dishes.

1 tsp x Cumin Seeds
8 x Cloves
6cm x Cinnamon stick
12 x Peppercorns
10 x Dry Curry Leaves
2 tsp x Paprika
1 tsp x Tumeric
100ml White Wine Vinegar
20 x Dried Red Chiles
2 tsp x Concentrated Tamirind Paste
2 tsp x Light Brown Sugar
10 x Garlic Cloves
3" x Fresh Ginger

1. Roast the whole spices individually, grind them up and mix with the powdered spices
2. Soak the spice mix in enough water to form a paste
3. Blend the chiles with the Garlic, Ginger, Vinegar.
4. Mix this with the spice paste, Tamirind and Light Brown Sugar.

[Vindaloo] - Serves 1

1 x Portion of Vindaloo Marinade (1/4 of above)
1 x Main Ingredient (lamb, chicken, pork, or beef) - Not precooked.
1 x 250ml Preheated portion of base sauce (Any mild base sauce will do - Kris Dhilon or Pat Chapman bases work fine)
1/4 x Onion Sliced into rings
1/4 x Sweet Bell Pepper (sliced)
2 tbsp x Tomato Paste (I use sundried) - Mixed with 2 tbsp x water to thin it out a little
2 tbsp x Chopped Coriander
1/2 tsp x Cumin seeds
3 tbsp x Oil (I use 2 tbsp Rice Bran Oil and 1 tbsp Butter Ghee)

1. Cube the chicken and mix with marinade - cover and refridgerate as long as possible - at least 4 hours - 24/48 hours is best
2. Heat Oil in pan.
3. Add cumin seeds and wait till they start popping
4. Add tomato paste.
5. Add Onion and Pepper slices and fry for 30 seconds.
6. Add marinaded chicken - with all the paste and cook until tender
7. Add heated base sauce a little at a time - watching for oil rising and adding more.
8. Once all the base has added, and oil has risen and base has thickened up a little add the Coriander
9. Serve.

ok I have picked up chili seeds for growing and seedling pots.

can you give a dummy 101 on how to get started please?

I had one exactly like it hanging from my front door canopy thing.... our area is infested with spiders but never found out exactly what it was - was nothing in it.

Quote from: George on March 07, 2008, 09:29 PM

Quote from: Rai on March 04, 2008, 01:09 PMGeorge, if you strongly doubt its the length of time of cooking the onions, what else do you suggest it could be?

I'm no expert of the science of onions or bitterness but my guess is that the cooking time is not a factor, whether it be 20 mins or 2 hrs. If the onions are acidic (if that's what bitterness is) then the acid needs to be removed or neutralised, e.g. by adding a bit of bicarb of soda. I have no idea where any other bitterness could come from in a base sauce.

Regards
George

Salt is your neutraliser for Onions. If you add salt to chopped onion it will start reacting almost straight away.. and why does Tomato taste SOOOO good with salt sprinkled on top? The neutral ph is much more apealing to the palate

Also lets make the distinction of bitterness and sourness (which is the tounges ability to taste acidity).

Quote from: smokenspices on March 07, 2008, 12:23 PM

Quote from: Rai on March 06, 2008, 03:05 AM
Is this also true for their big stock pots?  Or is it also speculation?

No, it's not speculation Rai. Their large cooking pots are often aluminium and they certainly do not fuss about the possiblity of the metal "reacting" with tomatoes - or any other ingredient!

As I said previously, the pan material is extremely unlikely to be the cause of bitterness in any gravy (certainly not to an objectionable concentration).

If cooking tomatoes only, or a tomato based sauce, then yes perhaps a bitterness will occur, but not with the relatively small amounts used in most curry base gravies.

It is also worth noting that reactive aluminium cookware is banned in the UK as well as many other european countries. The aluminium cookware sold here is dipped in some sort of acid which changes the molecular structure - In some sort of electron stabilisation thingy (Chemistry from school is only just fresh in my head)

Was down at KRK on Woodlands Road picking up meat, spices and a new tava and noticed an Indian Restaurant I never knew existed - said est 1966 on the door so I thought must know what they are doing if they have been open that long. I was meeting my brother for lunch and we were going down to the Wee Curry Shop on Byres Road for a delicious curry, but it was pissing down big time and we thought **** it, let's try in here.

Very busy - good start.

Well it was a 2 course meal for about 7 bucks.

Firstly seen people eating spiced onions and popadoms, but we had not been offered any so asked for some. The spiced onions were dry and tasteless.

Had a chicken pakora. Enjoyable but tasted like a run of the mill chicken pakora from a kebab shop. Nothing special. My brother had some tandoori chicken on the bone. Not much meat - Less than expected. Again tasted ok, but nothing to write home about.

Main meals. I had a chicken saag karahi and my bro had lamb karahi.

Came out and I was very unimpressed. If you are bringing out a iron karahi it really means something special if it comes out sizzling to you. On touching the karahi it was warm and that was it - either made like that or has been sitting on a hot plate for ten minutes. The sauce was dry, cold, lifeless and stodgy. Had that taste of Indian food from years and years ago - curry has evolved in Glasgow way beyond this. My bros lamb karahi - again it was cold, tasteless and they had destroyed the sauce with red food colouring - not a vibrant looking red, but a dark browny red. Very dry and stodgy again.

Didnt stay for a desert. Both unhappy. Neither of us finished the meal. Bill came out and they had charged us ?5 for two cokes, and had the cheek to charge ?3 for the spiced onions and popadoms --- I didnt know that there was even a curry house in Glasgow that charged for that anymore... obviously I am wrong.

Needless to say wont be back.

thanks

Posting recipe today.

The colour of the balti and the kitchen worktop allows the true colour of the photo to be photographed. When taken from inside the pan it doesnt picture the true look. Also..... when I pour a serving into the searing hot balti it causes the oil to rise up more which has been coloured with the tomato paste already.