Help!! Multiple choice curry required!!

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jonnyboy

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So chaps. I have a bit of a problem!
Kids bought me a curry making kit a while back. Lots and lots of flavour pack of all different types. Except last time i tried it i had an issue which, i have just realised after looking again - its all lies. Basically the same spices sachet with differences in the prep ie add chillies/or peppers/or chunky onions etc.
This meant that the jalfrezi i made was the same as the kahari, as was the rogan josh (in terms of heat anyway).
Here is my issue. I am a naive but willing inexperienced cook. Rare but i try hard and aim to please. After a few beers tonight i have promised the whole family i will cook.....

Last time i tried to cook 4 in one go.
Tastes are:
Son - jalfrezi
Me - madras/tikka morisa/kahari/kulkarni
Two girls - not hot rogan josh or garlic lamb
Mrs jb - nightmare. No heat, likes dry tikka kebabs or something like a shaslik.

So you see my problem. What i need is to knock up a base for son/me/girls then separate and add heat accordingly. Then sort Mrs jb separately. Sounds better than doing 4 totally separate dishes.

Except i am clueless on spicing/making from scratch........




Can anyone constructively help to keep me from cheating and going to the best indians ever (local!!) ? Thanks
 
Right I notice your in Camberley.

Don't know if Mehdi is still open but if so give them a bell make loads of mess in the kitchen then sneakily get them to pass the relevant dishes through the window discreetly then dish up pretending you did them.
 
Most restaurants work to this method. They make a base sauce and add the extra onions/tomatoes/chillies etc to make these commercial dishes. You need to determine which style you like. The majority are Bengali restaurants which make it their style, however I find the Pakistani and Indian/Punjabi ones the tastiest. All curries start with onions and a cooking fat, either ghee(butter) or oil. Turmeric, chillies, salt and garam masala are used in most curries. This base can be used for virtually any curry. From here some use yoghurt, some use tomatoes. The rest of the dish depends on your taste and which dish you want to create. Coriander at the end is a must for me.
 
Google is your friend

Look for BIR curry
 
A semi-cheat is 'spice tailor' curry kits, you still cook it but the dry ingredients and sauces are provided.
They are most authentic I have tried.
 
To be fair it looks ok now that the meat's in Del lol
 
Most restaurants work to this method. They make a base sauce and add the extra onions/tomatoes/chillies etc to make these commercial dishes. You need to determine which style you like. The majority are Bengali restaurants which make it their style, however I find the Pakistani and Indian/Punjabi ones the tastiest. All curries start with onions and a cooking fat, either ghee(butter) or oil. Turmeric, chillies, salt and garam masala are used in most curries. This base can be used for virtually any curry. From here some use yoghurt, some use tomatoes. The rest of the dish depends on your taste and which dish you want to create. Coriander at the end is a must for me.

Did one like this the other day using left over turkey
Roughly followed a Hairy Bikers Balti recipe
Got to the stage of adding the curry paste (didn't have any so had to use curry powder). Had several spice pots out beside the hob at the time - picked up what I thought was the curry powder and added 3 table spoons of turmeric before I realised:doh:
Tasted ok in the end though:thumb:
 
Dodged a bullet there Piff.
Spoke too soon - had a beautifully blended reasonably tasty no heat base sauce going.
Added meat, hadn't allowed for quite as much juice as has come out of the lamb shoulder.

Currently runnier than Seb Coe at an Adidas convention!!!!
 
Oh dear - just let it simmer to reduce and skim off the fat that's released.

I take it nobody told you to cook the lamb through in water and spices first ?
 
Sounds good but I'll let Ian F let you know if a 'gorra' knows how to cook a decent curry or not .....

x5b7rb.jpg
 
Sounds good but I'll let Ian F let you know if a 'gorra' knows how to cook a decent curry or not .....

We'll have a look at the final result but there's a lot of tubes and jars involved so that may dent the final score :)

We can cook up a good ruby when we try but I cheated and I just had a mixed tikka karhai (lamb & chicken) from our local, not quite as good as Yadgar but still very tasty.

LTD is really the curry master of the forum his food equals or betters that of any Indian I've ever been in. I'm decidedly second division in comparison. My specialty chicken karhai or Thai red chicken curry

Biryani has never been curry that's like saying a VW Phaeton is a Bentley
 
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pics tonight. Wasn't hot enough but tasty.
Nothing prebought there - that's only spices and tomato puree !!!
 
Order from Just-Eat the night before, keep it in the fridge over night, whip out the next day and reheat

Tell everyone to stay out of the kitchen while you slave over all the dishes. Have some peace and quiet for a couple of hours while you have a beer in the kitchen. Every now and then shout out an obscenity so family can hear how hard you're working.

Serve up, take all the glory!
 
So, as requested, some pics.
How hard is it to make a curry look attractive in a picture...????

A shedload of onions, garlic and fresh ginger as a base.
I made (from scratch) a dry Tikka style rub/marinade for the Lamb, you can see the meat in the background
IMG_20160103_164556_zpsqc9x7gkm1_zpslsow33rm.jpg


some more ingredients
IMG_20160103_164615_zpsmvnsafah.jpg


one of Mrs JB's dry Tikka kebabs
DSC_0337_zpsyackiech.jpg


The finished article
DSC_0338_zpsjlk8zjtu.jpg

DSC_0340_zpsck64vflv.jpg




The amazing thing is that Mrs JB ate the bare curry, so that's progress, said it was nice. Just need to know get a handle on getting the differing heat levels right. But it's a start.....
 
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