~Just catching up with this thread and just wanted to say I'll definately be there. 

Now - I view this as exactly what Chris originally proposed - a laid back chance to meet people and socialise in a pleasant setting & discuss a common interest.  Not a cooking competition nor a food bartering session.  So... I will bring along enough to feed myself but it won't be curry, it'll be something for the BBQ - probably burgers. 

As a novice, not at all talented aspiring curry chef I certainly don't feel able to cook for others and have no interest in competitive cookery.  I also don't buy into the need to trade gifts for food.  If someone wants to offer me the chance to sample their cooking I'd hope they would do so out of generosity and pride, not expecting to receive some quid pro quo in return.  And if no-one wants to do so it's certainly no skin off my nose - I'm there to meet people!  Having said that, from where I sit I do spy several large bottles of coke I can bring along in case that helps anyone.

George - I think you posted elsewhere that you were nervous of attending because you'd had cross words with some of the attendees (sorry if I'm incorrectly paraphrasing).  For what it's worth, if you attend I'll be happy to chat with you amicably and will give you the apology I feel is due for some of the things I've posted.  I can explain to you the whys and wherefores if you like, or avoid the subject if you prefer.  In any case please don't miss the chance to attend on my account (and I hope I'm not being presumptious by even suggesting that).  Forum is one thing, real life is quite another 

Poppit, just click the following link which should take you to a page

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?action=profile;area=forumprofile

Due to a misconfiguration or deliberate decision on the part of admin, the link to this page is missing from my profile and I suspect yours is the same. It's probably a slip up which occurred a while ago and has affected all members who joined since the mistake was made

I'm pleased to hear you felt the chicken cooked from raw lacked nothing of the pre-cooked chicken to which you are accustomed, however my hope was that you would feel it was actually an improvement, as my experience is that cooking from raw produces a far more succulent and more tender result.

Great vid CT thanks for posting it.

I would always adopt the play it by ear approach of just cooking for as long as the chicken needs and no longer. In other words towards the end of cooking test the chicken (as you would test a steak by seeing how much bounce there is when pressed) and if not cooked then just wait longer. Immediately before serving you can cut into the chicken if you want to be double sure that it's not at all pink inside.

By the way BIRs clearly precook the meat for the sake of speed in the final prep. At home I see no reason not to spend the extra 2 or 3 mins cooking from raw to achieve a better end result.

I marinade 1 kg of chicken at a time and keep it in the fridge, it's enough for several days and won't go off in that time. The marinade mix is below, I think it's either the same or closely related to the Ashoka marinade. Marinade for 24hrs +

4tsp garlic and ginger paste
1tsp salt
1 tsp haldi
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp mix powder
1 tbs tomato puree.

This recipe is via CR0 user chinois chef. In this method you would add the chicken directly after you add spices and tomato puree at the start of the final curry prep. It's probably less convenient than using pre cooked chicken because you have to then cook the dish for long enough to cook the chicken through but the results are far superior to using pre cooked meat IMHO.

I've found marinading but not pre-cooking, just cooking from raw within the final curry gives a much better texture, tender and juicy chicken instead of dry and overcooked as per standard BIR fare.

Ps welcome to the forum! 

Quote from: hampshire hog on July 21, 2011, 10:06 PM
What's all this meaningless waffle about hypothetical scenarios - thought it was about a cook book - is this a curry forum!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is a curry forum but it is also unfortunately a forum in which rudeness and personal attacks are common and the lack of effective moderation means that trollery, spam and topic drift go unchallenged and uncorrected. The fact there's only one admin (who seems disinterested in the site) and no active moderators save for one individual of bizarre personality sets the tone and ensures many people who would be active members visit and post rarely if at all.

And before anyone says it - of course if I don't like it I can stay away can't it? Which is mostly what I do!

The tragedy is the lost opportunity of how good this forum could be if properly run.

Quote from: Axe on March 29, 2011, 12:44 PM
Natterjak, if your after a hot curry powder try this stuff Chilli Powder Cutting a long story short, I bought some from Tesco and ended up binning it. It is quite simply, lethal!

Thanks for putting me onto the rajah brand chilli powder Axe. Definitely hotter than the telco stuff and I guess I really must like hot curries because I'm up to nearly a TBS of rajah chilli in each curry I cook now!!