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On 10/16/2017 at 10:34 PM, Meenzer said:

In that vein, made this tonight, fairly straightforward (preemptively cut out the vegetable stock though, it'd have been swimming in liquid :naughty: otherwise, a splash of water to loosen up the spices was enough). Brown basmati rice, lime pickle, onion parathas from the freezer aisle at Asda, Bob's your uncle or aunt depending on how they choose to identify.

Beautiful. Love the chickpea innit.

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On 12/10/2017 at 2:05 PM, Alex said:

The recipe's are for four portions anyway but I thought it was a bit tight and doubled the quantities but reckon that equates to about 6 portions rather than the 8 they claim. But anyway, the flavours are fucking spot on. The obvious missing ingredient to a restaurant / take away curry is the ghee but, while you obviously could make it with that, it's a bit too rich for every day stuff I reckon and you dont need it. It's obviously a canny bit healthier without it as well.

 

I struggle to digest takeaway curry, I think precisely because of the ghee. Tastes just as good cooking a good curry recipe at home with olive oil. I actually prefer to make my own now and rarely call one in. I can do without the bloated belly sensation.

 

As a fellow veggie, I highly recommend MJ's veggie curry easy book I was telling Meenz about earlier in this thread. I've cooked pretty much every recipe in it and they're all mint, taste completely authentic too.

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On 12/10/2017 at 0:57 PM, The Fish said:

Will do.

 

Trying to branch out a bit as I tend to get stuck in a loop of making the same shit over and over.

You'd make a great straight man setting up an open goal like that, Dave. :lol:

 

;)

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24 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

 

I struggle to digest takeaway curry, I think precisely because of the ghee. Tastes just as good cooking a good curry recipe at home with olive oil. I actually prefer to make my own now and rarely call one in. I can do without the bloated belly sensation.

 

As a fellow veggie, I highly recommend MJ's veggie curry easy book I was telling Meenz about earlier in this thread. I've cooked pretty much every recipe in it and they're all mint, taste completely authentic too.

Yeah I do love a takeaway curry but I'm pretty convinced it's the ghee which gives me the dodgy guts the next day as I've not had the same problem when making my own. Got a few more recipes to try in that surprisingly good Slimming World one I mentioned previously. Might try the Madjur Jaffrey one in the future but may as well explored a few of these first given the results so far. As I said, I've only tried the two so far but found them both to be pretty authentic tasting and not really much of a faff on. I've got pretty much all the dried spices I need now anyway so it's just a case of buying the odd bit of fresh chilli, ginger etc. now and again. I used to use pastes a lot but I think these taste better anyway.

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I'm torn, because I think ghee does make a difference, but you can recreate some of that takeaway curry smell by chucking some asafoetida, fenugreek powder and brown mustard seeds in right at the start of proceedings (after the oil, before the onions) and that tends to be enough to kid the brain into not realising it's getting a healthier but possibly less authentic version of the end dish. (And fresh coriander is a gimme, yes.) Either way, eliminating ghee is obviously better for you in the long run, and I say that as something of a

 

 

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Olive oil alone doesn't work for me. I use it but mixed with a bit of butter and a bit of groundnut. As Martin says put the seeds, fenu and curry leaves in for a fry first.

 

Ghee is deadly btw.

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1 hour ago, Alex said:

Yeah I do love a takeaway curry but I'm pretty convinced it's the ghee which gives me the dodgy guts the next day as I've not had the same problem when making my own. Got a few more recipes to try in that surprisingly good Slimming World one I mentioned previously. Might try the Madjur Jaffrey one in the future but may as well explored a few of these first given the results so far. As I said, I've only tried the two so far but found them both to be pretty authentic tasting and not really much of a faff on. I've got pretty much all the dried spices I need now anyway so it's just a case of buying the odd bit of fresh chilli, ginger etc. now and again. I used to use pastes a lot but I think these taste better anyway.

 

Always get better results making yuur own pastes from scratch for sure 

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15 minutes ago, Park Life said:

Reading your recipes and curry doings the last few years the scores are in:

 

Leazes 9.2

Alex 8.8

Meenzer 7.9

Gloom 6.5

C.T. 6.2

Mrs P 4.0

:lol:

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58 minutes ago, Alex said:

Aye, I mean you're effectively doing that with the dried spices whizzed up with onions, garlic etc I suppose.

 

definitely. i do mine in the pan: one fried onion with one chilli, three cloves of garlic, a thumb size piece of grated ginger then then two teaspoons coriander powder, one teaspoon cumin powder, and a quarter teaspoon tumeric all fried up until it becomes paste-like is an excellent start for a lot of tomato-based curry sauces. 

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if you dig paneer, alex, i can heartily recommend these three from that MJ book

 

this is as good a saag paneer recipe as i've ever cooked 

 

https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/spinach-with-fresh-indian-cheese-saag-paneer

 

this one is good for dinner parties if you want to show off a bit. too rich for a bog standard mid week night, but dead easy to make

 

https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/fresh-indian-cheese-in-a-butter-tomato-sauce-paneer-makhani

 

also, there is her Stir-fried fresh Indian cheese with green peppers from the same book, the recipe to which i can't find online, which i reckon i cook about once a week. it's our go-to mid week curry.....so good. you basically stir fry your paneer until it's golden, quickly fry a few chopped green peppers. then combine with the curry paste base i mentioned above, but you add a table spoon of soy sauce to it and a little water then chopped coriander right before serving. it's so good. sticky, spicy with a little extra tangy saltiness from the soy, which sounds unusual but works a treat. 

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15 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

if you dig paneer, alex, i can heartily recommend these three from that MJ book

 

this is as good a saag paneer recipe as i've ever cooked 

 

https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/spinach-with-fresh-indian-cheese-saag-paneer

 

this one is good for dinner parties if you want to show off a bit. too rich for a bog standard mid week night, but dead easy to make

 

https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/fresh-indian-cheese-in-a-butter-tomato-sauce-paneer-makhani

 

also, there is her Stir-fried fresh Indian cheese with green peppers from the same book, the recipe to which i can't find online, which i reckon i cook about once a week. it's our go-to mid week curry.....so good. you basically stir fry your paneer until it's golden, quickly fry a few chopped green peppers. then combine with the curry paste base i mentioned above, but you add a table spoon of soy sauce to it and a little water then chopped coriander right before serving. it's so good. sticky, spicy with a little extra tangy saltiness from the soy, which sounds unusual but works a treat. 

Yeah, I do like Paneer and have used it before. Will have a look at those two, cheers. The stir fry one sounds good too. I'm going to try and experiment with some Oriental sauces from scratch too. Although I suspect it can't beat deep-fried tofu when it's done right from the take away.

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47 minutes ago, strawb said:

I have that thing where coriander tastes like soap and I think it’s ruining some dishes for. I love Thai food and the occasional curry but it’s in the majority of them

Couldn't agree more about coriander. Also Thai food has too much coconut. Think I more prefer the heat from piri piri nowadays.

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And ghee always makes me I'll the next day, to the extent I can rarely eat a restaurant curry nowadays unless it's a dry one (byriani or something skewered).

 

It's also probably very bad for you. It's possibly the reason coronary heart disease is rife in sub continent populations. 

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