Awesome Alex!

I wish I had thought about it myself and I'd even offer to work a few nights for free at my favourite restaurant

Quote from: curryhell on January 10, 2013, 09:02 PM
CBM's method is far superior and will deliver the results of giving the potato plenty of flavour before you finish the dish .  If you want me to out line the method i employ using Mick's ingredient list, i'm more than happy to do so.  Just ask.  Or use Ifindforu's method which returns equally good BIR results.

I'd very much appreciate if you could share your method

Thanks,

Is pressure cooker the correct name for that pot that whistles when the pressure hits a certain threshold?

A search on dadhibais shows a few double burner stoves rather than pots, as I was expecting.

So your thoughts is that Julian's utensils are a little overpriced and no better than the alternatives. For people like me who moved out of UK to Ireland and has not so many shops around where to look this stuff up, would dadibhais ship them abroad and can a mere mortal buy directly from them?

Rob, I have a normal hob cooker and I think I know what you mean as I saw that in my moms kitchen ware. I think there is already a workaround for it though.

Thanks all

Would anyone have a review on the quality of the pans/chef spoon/tawa that julian/curry2go store is selling?

to those w/o a tandoor: Where do you put your skewers on to cook the meat?

For example, using the skewers that naga bought, if you were to place it in the oven, wouldn't the wooden handles burn too?

JerryM, emin-j: Thank you!

I think your posts complement each other and paint the exact picture I needed, thank you very much indeed

I will even try this recipe for madras with a bit of taz base tomorrow, as today I didn't nail it proper (though I followed stephen lindsay's recipe, which suggests that you start with a laddle of base gravy, instead of preheating oil in the pan. Taz base has plenty of oil, so it's a close enough.) -- as I added too much chili, I had to fix it with a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of pataks mango chutney. The end result was chicken mango, so not totally lost 

OMG! That looks so absolutely tasty. I was dying to find out what was the curry that I was having a lot lately before I moved back to Dublin. This is it... and it looks exactly like my BIR.

Thanks and I hope it tasted as nice as it looks

After some more reading, I realize what I didn't get the first time. CBM's is just a precooking method, but because it suggests a watered down tomato and then "add water until cover", it sounds more like a list of ingredients for both parboiling and cooking the bombay aloo.

today I tried  to make bombay aloo starting from a minimalistic recipe from bbc's website:

Quote4 tbsp oil
    ? tsp mustard seeds
    2 pinches of chilli powder
    ? tsp turmeric powder
    350g/12oz potatoes, boiled and quartered
    salt to taste

As I read someone in here that there is no noticeable difference between mustard seeds flavour, I chose to use yellow. I parboiled the potatoes using 1tsp of turmeric, 1 half onion, 2 garlic cloves 2 tbsp of seasoned oil. After frying it for a few mins to seal the potatoes, to add a crispiness around the edges, I was starting to feel a bit happier with the looks but when I tried the the potatoes I thought it was quite bland. So I added a little extra seasoned oil and 4 tomato halves. The looks were improving greatly, but the taste wasn't penetrating the spuds still . After 2 mins, I added  half-laddle of base sauce (I was trying to avoid the "potato curry" here) so then I let the potatoes finish to boil in the sauce and mix it often, to try and make that thicker and oily sauce. I also added a few more thinly cut onion and 3 watered down tbsp of tomato puree (w/o masala). Then I covered it and let it simmer. I can't say the potatoes were the best I had, but they tasted decently. At least, it sort of sets the mark to my next attempt.

Some purists may not call this a CTM and they may be right. I think it tasted pretty much like any of the CTMs I ever got in UK (which weren't a lot. After sweetening my buds with a korma or CTM, I'd go for up to a month on a spice-spree only to have another sweet one and repeat the cycle.)

In fairness, this is the curry that made the most proud. The whole family had ome, and I only pity that I didn't make enough quantity for everyone to repeat again. I shall thank everyone making this possible and axel's last minute tip to use onions as an alternative to skewers, which I may continue to use (though it does take a lot of work...

Onion wraps


Tikka Marinated and wrap in onions before going into the oven


10 min into the oven


Just after 25mins


Done


Close-up: After drying in the oven


Cooking in the almond and coconut sauce


Delicious!


Thanks everyone answering all my newbie questions, allowing me to learn the craft better and to enjoy great BIR-like meals. I only hope my technique improves and my spicy foods become as good as the sweet ones