Quote from: Cory Ander on February 04, 2008, 11:47 AM
Can we please discuss and agree WHY
Finding good recipes can be easy at CR0. They are there, somewhere, lurking within the relevant category. Some recipes even come with images! Some do not. Some use mls, some use grams. Others use tsps, tbsps, desert spoons, chefs spoons, ladles, oz, floz and even cups. I have found that this lack of standardisation has impacted negatively upon my results.
Sometimes someone may list a recipe, only to discover that there are errors in their post. By this time other members may have printed, or even followed the recipe. I have ended up with a freezer full of useless base sauce before because of a similar mistake.
Other users may just post quickly in a poor format with bad grammar and spelling. After all, English may not be the first language of a sizeable portion of our members. Many Indian chefs may have limited English when compared with ourselves. I'd bet we could all do with their recipes though!
Rather than getting bogged down in these issues - reading an entire thread - interpreting what's being said and ensuring no corrections have been suggested, wouldn't it be great to have a selection of not-up-for-discussion, no-nonsense recipes. These would be verified, standardised, fully illustrated and certified as good recipes by the CR0 Mafia.
These recipes would represent finished products. There would be no experimental new bases, or myths about how to achieve the 'taste', just high quality, '100 percent success rate if you follow the instructions' recipes.
This showcase could be offered through the use of a wiki. This is particularly useful because a wiki is dynamic and so our development team can amend recipes as we discover new techniques. Rather than mere static web pages, our recipes will be able to evolve. Since standard forum members will not be permitted to directly write to the wiki, the proposed implementation of standards is made easy.
If a user wants their recipe added to the wiki, the wiki development team can help them. If an experienced Indian chef with limited written English comes to us bearing recipes, we can strive to understand. If he doesn't have a digital camera, or doesn't know how to upload images, we can make the dish and take the pictures.
The real goal of the wiki would be to take the responsibility of posting top notch, verified, standardised recipes away from the user, and placing it in the hands of people who are better experienced to deal with this. We may not all be Zen Curry Master Elites but I can offer my technical abilities, and I'll help try out recipes and take pictures. I am also happy to make suggestions and comment on work.
As others have said before, I think that the knowledge on this forum is easily enough to compete with the likes of KD's Curry Secret. We have a huge pool of related information - to my mind better than any curry books I have read. I think we have a fantastic opportunity to allow people to view our information in this way for the first time and I really believe the results could be great.
I was dubious about this recipe - with the use of Cabbage of all things but now that others are saying the base is good quality I am surprised and excited to give it a shot ;D. Most of the bases I make are very similar to each-other, so this very different recipe is going to make for a really interesting change. What I am most curious about is the texture this base will achieve.
