I watched this Indian....well Bangali in actual fact, chef frying some onions for this dish.  The oil was pretty damned hot.  In fact, he semed to heat up the pan for ages before adding the oil.  Then in went the thinly sliced onions.  He said that the needed to melt and later on added some water a couple of times.  I've been trying to do this with varying degrees of success and I'm beginning to think that my saucepen isn't the right type.  Maybe not heavy enough or made from the right material.  Do you gusy have any advice on which type of saucepan to use for frying.  Doesn't need to be too big as it's not for a large amount of bse gravy.  Thanks.

Hi,

I'm trying to make the Mix Powder as made in 'That takeaway curry secret'.  It requireds Basaar Curry Masala.  The ebook mentions 'Supreme' brand.  Has anybody tried this Mix powder blend?  What do you think of it?  Did you manage to find the 'Supreme' brand of Basaar Curry Masala?

I've mentioned before that I've been helping out a little in a local Indian restaurant.  They eat what is known as the 'Staff Curry' at the end of the night but also, in the afternoon they eat another 'Staff Curry' which is fish based while the one at the end of the night is either chicken or lamb.  They use this fish which doesn't have an over-powering taste but it's riddled with small bones.  I've never come across such a fish with so many bones.  They claim it's comes from Bangladesh.  I've been told the name but I've forgotten.  Anyway, I asked the owner's wife if the same curry could be made using a fish from the UK's shores or at least more locak than Asia.  She said that mackrel works.  I bought a couple of mackrel and took them in and the chef cooked them.  Personally, I don't think the mackrel worked as well and were a little overpowering.  The chef also said that unlike their fish, he didn't fry the mackrel because they were too brittle to be fried and then added to the curry.  He did say though that they would work fine in a kind of spicy fish chutney which I've seen him make before.

My question here is, since I'm not very well up on my fish, what kind of fish do you people think might work?  Hopefully somthing which maybe cut into stakes and fried before adding to a curry and which wouldn't be brittle and break up and also not too over-powering in taste.  It would be an added bonus if the fish wasn't too expensive.  Thank you.

I'd like to get my hands on one of these plants if it's possible to grow it in the UK.  Anybody know of a supplier or had any experience of growing this essential plant for Indian cuisine?  Thanks.

I had an evening a few nights ago in an Indian restaurant.  On one of their shelves were these little 'blocks' of something or other.  They were about the size of pebbles and in all shapes.  Maybe they were about 2 cms across and in length but varied because they weren't square but irregular.  I asked what they were and the owner couldn't give me their name.  I was given one to eat and fistly, they washed off a covering they had.  Then you just stuck it in your mouth and chewed.  One of them said it was a kind of 'sweet'.  They said it would be 'hot'.  But I didn't think so although there was a tingling sensation.  It was pleasant and I helped myself to another later.  There was what I would imagine to be a stone as in a seed in the middle which you had to discard from your mouth after suching and chewing.  Anyway, there was a powdery substance next to their cooking station and I asked what it was and they said that it was what I had been eating but ground up.  They were putting this into at least some of their curries.

I've been asking the owner for a long time to give me some lessons and this week he's allowed me to come in.  I get the impression that he's not being that helpfull and he's mentioned that on Friday's and Saturday's he would like me to do some car delieveries between 6 and 9 pm and I'm thinking that this is the reason he's allowed be to join them.  I asked him if I could be there when they make their master sauce / vegetable prep etc and he said that I could but he didn't know when that would be.

I asked him about another powdered stuff which they put into most of their curries and he said that it took him 3 years to come up with it.  It's a mixture.  He mentioned ginger powder, mango powder and cumin powder.  But there's already a pot of cumin next to it so I'm taking it with a pinch of salt (or should that be cumin?).  He said that I can't know everything from day 1.  I'm really not sure how productive this is going to be.