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The Curry Thread

AlanJ

AlanJ

Site Supporter
5Years
Joined
Dec 27, 2017
Messages
8,566
Location
Leeds, West Yorkshire
“Curry was my first love
And it will be my last
Curry of the future
And curry of the past
To live without my curry
Would be impossible to do
In this world of troubles
My curry pulls me through”
😂😂

Thanks to John Miles for the original lyrics!

I got up at 6.30 today with a bit of a red wine hangover, and decided to crack on and make a full three course indian meal for tonight as i’ve got friends round for the evening.

Started to think, whilst prepping, and quaffing the leftovers from last night - hair of the dog, we need a curry thread!!!! Curry stories, fave recipes etc.

My curry story #1
I was brought up in Bradford in the 1960’s and 1970’s. In 1977 I discovered curry! Wow, never looked back. Bradford was packed with curry houses. my favourite was “La Hore” on Lumb Lane, aptly named as it was the street full of prossers. A keema curry was 30p without chapaties. They were 3 for 10p. I used to order a keema vindaloo that had me crying into the dish.

My other fave place was the “Silver Jubilee”.😉 up Oak Lane; opened in 77 and named after the Queens silver jubilee that year. Chicken Madras and, if you asked, blue movies on the tv screens! Ha ha. i used to take my new girlfriends there, just to see their reaction 😂😂😂

From age 15 i worked a fri night and saturday in morrisons. me and another “casual” worker, andy veech, became good pals. we head into town on a fri night. pints of proper hand pulled tetleys and finish off with a dirty curry. we went to a different curry house each week for 37 weeks before we started repeat visits. Some of them are still there today in same location. Sweet centre, Lumb Lane - been there since 1965!!! ; Karachi - what a dump but the food is incredible. Rick stein once visited. Taj Mahal near the alhambra. another 60’s stalwart.

Anyhow. Let’s talk food
My favourite recipie - ever
Chicken Vindaloo......... but

but it is better mild!

it’s the method that’s important, rather than the heat, so use less chills and chili powder

the key is to mince up the onions.
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So far today i’ve made:

cucumber raita

tomato and chili chutney

red onion salad

potato and onion raita

mint yoghurt sauce

they all for the pickle tray with (bought in) popadoms

now on with the chicken tikka starters. been marinating for 72 hours. grill on full blast to get a nice blackening.

main course:
butter chicken. ill cook that fresh - takes 15 mins

cardamom and saffron rice

naan bread (bought in)

cobra beers

A selection of 2012 kwality Barolo wines, a nice chateauneuf du pap, and a margaux to round off.
Red wine and curry DO mix 😂😂😂

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So. post me your fave curry stories. and best recipes.

And, just to ignite a discussion. Balti is ****e, not proper curry. 😂😂😂
 
Nonsense balti is as much Indian as the rest of “Indian curry” and Mandy’s balti can’t be beaten - many many pinball revellers have experienced it :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Shame you are so far away😋
Coming from West London and lived in Southall for a while I know my curries including Caribbean curry’s😁
Don’t really have a favourite recipe as I love most of them, I make my own spice mixes with a commercial spice grinder. Have a cupboard full of spices, but also buy commercial tubs of curry paste of various types for lazy curries that are still decent.
Also have a clay oven for doing tandoor chicken, chicken tikka and Nan breads.
My mum cooks curries so that where I started really, still love her curries.

I did a pork shoulder joint last Sunday with madras powder, tomatoes, spring onions, fresh coriander, mace, onions, garlic and our secret salt and pepper mix we make😂
Cooked in a Dutch pot for about 6 hours in the oven, the pork just break up into shreds and was😋 First time I tried pork.

Did jerk chicken on the bbq Thursday, one of my favourite things.

Pork shoulder Madras
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M4carp said:
Did jerk chicken on the bbq Thursday, one of my favourite things.

Pork shoulder Madras
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Now that;s something I'd like - a proper Jerk Chicken Recipe please? Tried the bottled and dry powder jerk mixes, but would really like to make one from scratch.
 
On this one I changed the golden bonnet sauce for Encona. Cook the legs around the edge of the bbq with lid on at about 200c ish, baste about half way though. At the end I take lid off and cook in middle for a few more mins to get a bit charred. I use commercial charcoal which make a big difference I think.
 

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Having done evening classes many years ago to learn Indian cookery I can say that anything you eat in a restaurant or from a takeaway is made by cheating. The spices need to be cooked in the right order and meat marinated for the right time. Restaurant and takeaway food can taste nice but not as good as the proper stuff.

David
 
Chicken Tikka Naga is my current goto curry at the local curry takeaways. Every now and then I try another random of course. Not a big fan of vindaloo - and not cost its hot. (Im quite big on spicy stuff - I can recommend the hot heads naga jerky if anyone else is that way inclined :) )
 
Had some unusual curries over the years from the girls at school. Curried Herring was something I’m not too keen to go back to.

There’s been some great Indian weddings/meals but I still always forget that it’s going to be a dry event.
 
I guess curried herring is better than pickled herring

Speaking of fish. Ever tried “bombay duck”. again the Bfd curry houses of the 1970’s all used to have it on the menu. it’s not pleasant
 
AlanJ said:
Seaking of fish. Ever tried “bombay duck”. again the Bfd curry houses of the 1970’s all used to have it on the menu. it’s not pleasant
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One of the guys I worked with years ago brought some into work and cooked it in our messroom, cleared the place in minutes. Absolutely rank smell.
 
Does anyone remember a tinned curry called Veraswarmy? Spelling might be out, they used to sell it in our butchers, was amazing and closest to a real Indian curry I've ever had out of a tin/jar. Sad its not around anymore, much better than anything else off the shelf.
 
These used to be good when I went fishing, going to try one soon😁
Not been fishing for a while😊
 

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When I used to work at HMRC in Birmingham

I was extremely fortunate to be in a team of asian women good mix of Indian and Pakistani (different regions equals different cooking styles) and they loved I loved their food so I used to be mothered

And if you got them going that someone else's Saag was better sure enough multiple containers would appear 😂 Mustard greens saag is the best btw

But best curry I ever had was a mutton curry by one of these marvellous women used to cook, she only used to cook it once a month but there was always some for me!

Never had better before or since

@Neil McRae local is great and definitely in the higher tier of takeaway Indians
 
Plus if anyone is need of chillies this year drop me a line... Current projections are around 100 plants between my polytunnel and two green houses lol

Jalapeños
Chocolate Habanero
Tabaquite Yellow Habanero
Fatalli Yellow
Big Mama Mustard
Big Mama Caramel
White Bhut Jolokia (ghost)
Naga Bhut Jolokia (ghost)
Jay's Ghost Scorpion Peach
Burgundy Carolina Reapers
 
I’ve done mutton curry a few times😋 and curried goat🤪 Only got spag bol leftovers from yesterday tonight.

Thats a decent line up of chillis there, nice work👏
 
Love a good curry, and fortunately in London we're spoilt for choice. Over the past few years we've become big fans of Dishoom - their house black daal is incredible - but also love a good Indian takeaway and homemade curries too.

I was also fortunate enough to work for a company where I had a large number of Indian colleagues who would routinely bring in homemade curries and other Indian delicacies which were absolutely fantastic. The majority of them were vegetarian too, which really opened my eyes to how good vegetarian Indian dishes could be despite being a committed carnivore.

johnwhitfield said:
There’s been some great Indian weddings/meals but I still always forget that it’s going to be a dry event.
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One of the best Indian meals I've ever had was at an Indian wedding - a colleague invited the whole company to her 900+ person wedding and I was blown away by the food, especially considering the number of people they were feeding at once. Unfortunately no one explained that the first dishes to arrive were just the starters, and with the quantity that was dropped on our table we assumed that was the meal and demolished the plates. Wave after wave kept coming and somehow we managed to consume more and more, but I'm not sure I've ever been so full in my life. Fortunately though the wedding wasn't dry in the slightest, so copious amounts of booze helped us get it down. I vaguely remember the brides brother and father coming to our table and leaving us with several bottles of top shelf spirits, and pints just kept arriving. The next day was beyond a struggle, but totally worth it.
 
Neil McRae said:
Nonsense balti is as much Indian as the rest of “Indian curry” and Mandy’s balti can’t be beaten - many many pinball revellers have experienced it :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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Isn’t balti an english invention ? By a Pakistani bloke in Birmingham or something ?

not that really makes a difference, not sure I’ve ever had one to be honest (probably have) my favourite Indian curry is a tikka chilli masala.

I know tikka masala is a Scottish invention but not sure where tikka chilli masala came from 🤷 but I like it ... and that’s all that matters I guess
 
Being french, I didn't get to experience currys until I came to live in this country in 1995.

I'll remember my first curry forever: i went to an Indian restaurant with a friend who asked me if I liked my spices. I said yes. That was my first mmistake. He ordered a chicken vindaloo for me and something else for him.
My two dishes arrived, one with rice and one with the chicken vindaloo. I made my second mistake by tipping all the sauce from the vindaloo onto my rice. I then proceeded to start eating the chicken. Wow. I had never experienced anything so spicy before. I remember bringing the chicken to my mouth and I could feel the spices in my throat and nose, even with the chicken still on my fork and out of my mouth. I cursed my friend and that was that. Didn't eat my first curry.

I then spent ages trying different types of currys to see which one I like the most. But rather boringly ended up as chicken tikka balti as a favourite.
I do like my curry.
 
My favourite restaurant/takeaway food. Tried just about every curry there is to be had (Bradford is curry heaven). My favourite (Dopiaza) is available everywhere but seldom made right.
 
BigIan said:
Isn’t balti an english invention ? By a Pakistani bloke in Birmingham or something ?

not that really makes a difference, not sure I’ve ever had one to be honest (probably have) my favourite Indian curry is a tikka chilli masala.

I know tikka masala is a Scottish invention but not sure where tikka chilli masala came from 🤷 but I like it ... and that’s all that matters I guess
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All currys are an English invention. I‘ve never seen anything that you get from a British curry shop ever anywhere in India and I was based out there for a few months- more than a third are vegetarian.
 
I thought the story of Chicken Tika Masala was some guy ordered Chicken Tika and sent it back for being too dry, the chef was eating some tomato soup and just poured it into the chicken tika and mixed it up.
The guy loved it and asked for it every time he came back in so they put it on the menu.
I also thought that Vindaloo was an invention for the British market, way too hot for me.
I love Indian food, but not the really hot dishes, when I lived in North London we had two fantastic restaurants, Paradise on South end road, and Fleet tandoori on Fleet Road, both were amazing, and Lamb Korai (not sure I spelt that correctly) was my go to.
To be honest Indian food is the one style of food that I really like, but don't cook very often as the ingredients list is generally pretty long and has lots of things you want to be fresh, but only get used for that one thing, and things like Naan you can't properly replicate at home, unless you have a clay oven.
 
If you do like BIR cooking - That’s British Indian Restaurant style then Misty Ricardo’s first book is thoroughly recommended. It’s the best set of recipes i’ve found for restaurant style dishes https://www.amazon.co.uk/INDIAN-RESTAURANT-CURRY-AT-HOME/dp/1999660803/ref=asc_df_1999660803_nodl

It takes a bit of prep because you’re pre making a lot of the ingredients, like a mix powder, base gravy and pre cooked meat, but once you have a stock of those in the cupboard and freezer you can quickly make most of the dishes.
 
Thanks for the recipe Al, I followed it this afternoon and the results were pretty good. I had to add more water, there's nowhere near enough in the recipe, even then I ended up with a curry with not a lot of sauce ( I like plenty of sauce). I enjoyed the potatoes in it, I've never done that before. Not sure what I did wrong regarding amount of sauce? The other thing is it wasn't very hot, I used 6 green chillies as per the recipe but they vary so much, these obviously could have been hotter, even though I bought from the local indian supermarket. I guess Kirk could advise regarding which chillies to buy ( and where? the big supermarkets just seem to have ' mixed chillies ' around here) . I could have spiced it up with more chilli powder or hot sauce or something but I wanted to stick to the recipe.

Keep the the recipes coming Al, I need to learn to make a decent curry. I'm always on the lookout for a good Pathia recipe, my goto curry.

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