Sorry. previous post in the wrong thread. It's the weather. To quote the great Robin Williams, "It's as hot as a snake's ass".

Rob

Focusing on the Adil's balti. Full on effort. It's been too hot to do anything though recently. Can't remember much about Moike's mix powder. It certainly contained paprika, but he didn't tell me any of the spice ratios. I don't recall it being paprika heavy. Interesting that Dave's mix is loaded with it.

Found he's somewhat of a legend hereabouts. Does regular shows on Black Country Radio, talking about all sorts of things. Some info on him here.

https://share.google/zZReCq32D1qnE88lK

Rob

Oops.

Rob

Do let us know how it goes. Haven't tried it yet. Next Balti lamb dish though.

Rob

Thanks Rob.  Are you going to  give this a go and compare it to your norm?  Spice mix is interesting in that I've not come across any which has such a high ratio of paprika.  I may just have to mix some of this up and try it out.  If I remember rightly, didn't Moike's mix powder also have a high paprika content?

... I am totally giving that a go, that sounds so interesting.

If the smoke flavour isn't quite there you can always add some smoked paprika.

#1

Balti chicken.

https://youtu.be/bWX0-fsmK5I?is=qgEmi1fam-ILS3OR

Rob

Got to say you're on one hell of a mission to crack this Rob.  Nice to see that very good progress is being made.  Keep at it mate.  I'm certainly enjoying the read. You're almost encouraging me to rattle my pans again 

When I got the Lychees had no base gravy to try it out. Got lucky again though. Remembered I had some pre-cooked chicken thighs in the freezer. Pre-cooked in the same gravy planned for this balti. Figured it would do to start with. The cans are 41 % lychee; the rest is just water, sugar and citric acid. Wasn't sure what to expect on opening one. A bit worried that the lychees would be in a sugar heavy gloopy syrup, i.e a problem. Nope. Very thin and tasted nowhere near as sweet as I had imagined. Drained the liquid into a graduated pyrex jug. Blended the fruit in another jug. Got just under 300 ml in each jug, will check this. Should add this is the first time I have tasted lychee, knowingly anyway. First thought, game over. Made a small look-see balti. Pre-cooked chicken, about 100 ml pulp, a splash of the liquid, salt, 1 well rounded TSP of Rajah Tandoori masala powder. Eureka moment. The elusive Adil's balti, with the weird and wonderful florals, at last. Felt it needed more TM. Getting the balance right may take some time, unless I get lucky again. Then there's incorporating it in the base. I also look forward to adding one of Jerry's cumin heavy Adil's GMs.

To finish the look-see I added a little pulp and a tiny pinch of TM to some Thai sweet chilli sauce. Mixed in nicely. Adil's chilli dip, sorted.

I have since started incorporating the pulp and liquid into a new batch sample of the base. Not there yet. One thing though. When Jerry came to my place, way back, to get the sample of base gravy I got from Adil's he spotted one thing, immediately. That the onions weren't melted. They had; it was the fruit content that threw us. I will post some photos of the base later.

The Ade Edmondson Adil's video isn't on YouTube anymore. I bought the whole episode on Prime Video. Better resolution than I remember. Lot's of ingredients going in at the pan (bowl) stage. After my look-see effort I thought adding that lot is going to trash my balti. I tried it though. Yup, trashed. It wasn't that bad TBH, but the Adil's flavour signatures were lost. Also way too much chilli heat. So for the time being I'll use oil, g/g, TM, fresh green chilli (paste) and salt. So in effect we are going right back to Mick's incredible Al Frash base and balti. With no (or very few additions) at the pan stage. I think I did say then that you can add things to MDB MKI base if you want, but not to muck about with it too much. I am thinking this will also apply to the Adil's balti.   

Dave's post on this has disappeared from TCS. Not sure why. Very excited to see the videos. All those years ago chef Moike gave me a guided kitchen tour of several places in Lye. Not any of Mr Dave's though. Will have to check, but I think he had more than a dozen restaurants there. Sadly all gone now. Will post video links as soon as they are released.

Rob