Topic: Chewytikka's madras revisited

[curryhell]

Tonight I thought i'd take advantage of having some free time which tends to be in short supply from May till August and get into the kitchen again.  Last week for the  first time i cooked chicken madras using CT's recipe (report in CT's original thread).  The curry turned out absolutely superb.  I was well impressed with not only the texture but the lovely taste and amazing depth of flavour.  So tonight  I thought i'd repeat it but ramp the chilli content up to my normal heat levels.  I used one tbs of kashmiri mirch as per the recipe but mixed that with one tbs of degghi mirch.  I also used chicken tikka rather than ordinary pre cooked chicken, served with my plain pilau rice.

Finished dish



Close up



My supper



Whilst i was happy with the results I had managed to turn a terrific madras into a run of the mill vindaloo .  The dish had nowhere near the flavours it had last week in spite of the only differences being the addition of 1tbs of degghi mirch and chicken tikka and half a fresh tomato.  I had managed to completely upset a well balanced recipe .  So next time i'll be cooking it exactly as i did the first time which was a definite winner IMHO 

[Stephen Lindsay]

CH - I've noticed the CT's Madras is getting a pretty good rep on this site. We all know CT is a bit of a legend here not least for his superb vids but can you pinpoint what it is about the Madras that makes it so special? I love cooking and eating a Madras and I'd be interested in your comments on CT's recipe, whether it be the spices, base or whatever?

regards

Steve

[colin grigson]

Hi curryhell .. we've all done that I think at some stage or another so it raised a smile   

I think you're quite right about Chewy's madras .. we had it again yesterday evening and it's so good and yet simple I too wonder where the great taste comes from. Mrs. Grigson reckons it's the frying of the pepper and onion at the start but I think the Worcs. sauce adds something too .. whatever it is it's so good as a complete dish it should be left to spec. as far as I'm concerned.

It's a shame it didn't taste as good as it looked because the photos look great ... better luck next time !!   

[George]

It's a shame it didn't taste as good as it looked because the photos look great ... better luck next time !!   

I agree. It looks more like a BIR curry than many genuine BIR curries.

[solarsplace]

Hi CH

Visually the food looks absolutely blooming marvellous!

I often make CT's Madras with chicken tikka too and do find that the chicken tikka does dramatically alter the character of the dish. Its still delicious but quite different from using just plain chicken - perhaps that was what you were not keen on?

Cheers

[h4ppy-chris]

what a shame mate at least you tried. i ramp the heat by using more fresh green chilli.

[Unclebuck]

That looks bob on

[curryhell]

Mmmmm..........delicious.

Sorry for the late reply all.  Thanks for all the positive comments on my revisited Madras.  Don't get me wrong it tasted as good as an average vindaloo but it had lost the flavours of my first attempt at CT's Madras, or they had been masked by the tikka meat and the extra chilli.  Just to clarify i used CT's original method which excludes onion and green pepper (tarka as Abdul refers to it).
So tonight it was time to make it again without the tikka meat and extra chilli powder.  Made it to spec, using the same ingredients as the first time: Abdul's enhanced base (ran out of CT's quite a while ago)and  Zaal mixed powder.  This time i didn't add any fresh tomato just a few chopped chillis right at the end of cooking for the chilli heat and so as not to affect the flavour of the sauce.  Unfortunately, i didn't have any fresh coriander tonight so if it's only a notch off my first attempt i'll put it down to that .
These are the results:
Dished up



A little closer



Texture clearly visible now



Tonights supper -  the plate was again mopped clean.  I really needed a chappati to do it properly : and the same lighting as for the other pictures to do it justice





Again i was very pleased with the results.  Hardly any difference from my first attempt.  I had this with plain boiled basmati rice so as not influence the flavour.  It had more heat this time than my first attempt but that was down to the chillis.  I did miss the subtle background hint of fresh coriander though .  All in all, i'm well happy with how this has turned out.  It deserves the reputation that it has developed as a very fine BIR madras.  Given the rich combined flavour of garlic, tomato, spice and chilli (the lemon just about discernable)that all come together to produce the complex taste and depth of flavour, I now understand why people enjoy Madras so much and are so keen to replicate it.  Given the very few and  simple ingredients of the dish, achieving the BIR smell and flavour has proved very elusive indeed.
I am very confident that if i cooked this and served it to a regular Madras aficionado, I wouldn't receive any complaints.  However, i still feel the need to produce CA's and Abdul's madras and do a comparison alongside CT's to see how they all compare.  But to do this and arrive at a fair conclusion i would need the appropriate bases and spice mixes as obviously the end result would be slightly different using others.  No time to do this at the moment but I may just try all three using the same base and spice mix to see if there are any obvious front runners IMO.  But therein lies the problem.  We all have different expectations and are used to what we eat regularly in our own areas up and down the country.  But it will be intersting nevertheless and i'll get to eat loads of curry into the bargain, so a worthwhile exercise  ;D ;D

[Aussie Mick]

Great pictures again CH.

It's definitely one of my favourites, and I never used to enjoy a "hot" curry. I find it addictive, and even though it's burning my mouth, I can't stop eating it.........I must be toughening up a bit.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Tonight I thought i'd take advantage of having some free time which tends to be in short supply from May till August and get into the kitchen again.  Last week for the  first time i cooked chicken madras using CT's recipe (report in CT's original thread).  The curry turned out absolutely superb.  I was well impressed with not only the texture but the lovely taste and amazing depth of flavour.  So tonight  I thought i'd repeat it but ramp the chilli content up to my normal heat levels.  I used one tbs of kashmiri mirch as per the recipe but mixed that with one tbs of degghi mirch.  I also used chicken tikka rather than ordinary pre cooked chicken, served with my plain pilau rice.

Finished dish

Wondering exactly what George had deleted when I wasn't watching, I search for aconst8251 and was puzzled by "his" Chicken Madras :



(taken from https://twitter.com/aconst8251)

The two images are clearly of the same curry, but are not identical; what gives ?!

** Phil.