Lovely clear write up of the method with some classic humour thrown in ;D.  A damn good singe read I would say :.  The pics look the real deal and i suspect you had the smell and the taste and the house now smells like the local Raj of India?  How do you rate this compared to your local BIR's and TA's

I've been cooking since 11.00am this morning, curryhell, but while my nostrils have given up on me a mate who dropped in earlier did remark: "Bloody hell. Smells like an effing curry house in here", which always pleases me no end, so I'm a happy bunny.

The taste is excellent, though if I'm being completely honest, not quite as good as the egg phal I made at lunchtime. Maybe this killed my senses for the vindaloo, but it's more likely to be a lack of nerve in the singeing stakes. Tomorrow will tell though!

I find it really hard to compare to my local BIR's and TA's. I'd like to say that my curries are on a par with the better ones, but the truth is that they're not consistently so.

Like many home enthusiasts I can sometimes get it absolutely spot on, and other times just produce a very good home style curry. This vindaloo was somewhere in the middle, I think.

One of the telling factors with this singeing lark (I've found) is that you know you've cracked it when you achieve seemingly incredible levels of heat from fairly low levels of chilli powder. This vindaloo failed in that department.

Like I say, still very nice, but nothing to shout about and call my brother up to get his arse round pronto, before it all goes...

Anyone that would like some powder please let me have your postal addresses and Rich (love it spicey) i'll send you garlic powder, it will look good at Customs!

Michael T (i'll need to think of a curry name).

Thanks Michael. I've sent you a pm with my address.

Cheers

Gary

Today, I have mainly been making up a batch of base a la Zaal:

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=7859.0

And following a very rushed lunchtime stab at an egg phal, plumped for a more relaxed approach to an evening vindaloo.

Ingredients

350-400ml Zaal base (although this will of course work with any decent, balanced base)
Pre-cooked meat of choice (I used turkey thigh, which is excellent value, succulent with great texture, and, when used with hot curries, works well as faux lamb. I'm always amazed at how many people ask me what meat it is)
A few pieces of potato, cooked in turmeric water and a bit of salt
1.5 chef spoons of oil or ghee (or 2.5tbsp)
1 generous dsp of garlic/ginger paste (mine is 50-50 mix)
1 chef spoon or 2tbsp of dilute tomato paste (I use 1:4 ratio paste to water)
1.5tsp of mix powder (any you have already to hand - on this occasion I used my own mix, which is so similar to many others it's not worth banging on about, to be honest)
1tbsp chilli powder (I used deggi mirch, but if you're using extra hot powder you may want to tone it down a little. Or not, as the case may be.)
Generous pinch of methi leaf
Salt - getting salt levels right is, in my view, critical in BIR cookery, and there's only one way to do it and that's by trial and error, so start off with a quarter or half a teaspoon and keep tasting, tasting, tasting...
Fresh coriander

Optional extras:

(These are a few things I do from time to time, as the mood takes me...)

A squirt of tomato ketchup (quell horreur!), added with the tomato paste, for a touch of extra sweetness if desired, and a squirt of lemon dressing added at the end, for a touch of balancing sourness
Fresh chillies, added about half-way through the cooking process, for that wonderful extra dimension of texture and unecessary additional heat
Garam masala, added at the end (though personally I don't bother with curries hotter than Madras...)
Extra garlic/ginger paste added towards the end, as in Julian from Curry2Go's vindaloo recipe. (Not recommended if romance is in the air...)

Method

1. Pan on, oil in and get up to a reasonably high heat. (On my poxy self-regulating ceramic hob this means full power and a relaxing 30sec wait. On a powerful gas burner such as this one, recommended by Solarsplace, it's a matter of nanoseconds to achieve napalm heat levels. http://www.gasproducts.co.uk/acatalog/Large_Square_Gas_Boiling_Ring.html)

2. Garlic/ginger paste in, and get that spoon working fast to keep things moving. You're looking for a nice golden brown colour to the garlic/ginger, and how long this takes depends on your cooker, pan, how much water is in the paste, etc. As ever, the eye plays the crucial role here.

3. I'm a big fan of initially singeing my spices in hot oil  when using my ceramic hob, as the addition of tomato paste at this point merely robs the pan of precious heat, so in goes the mix powder, chilli powder and salt, followed by a short period of frantic spoon action as it all comes up to heat, followed by the tomato paste and a big dollop of anxiety, sweat, and finally abject panic as you play dare and singe as far as your frazzled nerves will allow. For me, that point is reached when they're smoking and I start choking, and the spices reach the point where you think "Bollocks. They're f**ked". Obviously there's a fine line, but for me, a 'caramelised' dark brown is okay, but black is a disaster. If black happens just bin everything and start again.

4. Once choking, in goes a ladle of gravy. If you've been good, your gravy is already up to temp and bubbling away, and if your curry pan is hot enough the first ladle will almost disappear in a small pyrotechnic display bordering on the theatrical  (yes, even on a poxy ceramic hob). You'll also notice that oil separation happens almost instantaneously.

5. In with another ladle or so of gravy. I like to reduce this right down, Taz style, until it's a thick paste before adding more gravy. I also add the methi leaves at this point, as they're delicate and I find they can carbonise if added in the early supernova stages.

6. Once reduced, add your main ingredient and some more gravy (plus a little water if needed), and leave to bubble away until the sauce has reached the consistency you like.

Job done!

A double portion of vindaloo reducing nicely...




The finished dish (minus coriander, as I'd run out...)

Gary

I have to say that looks utterly fantastic. The sauce really does looks perfect.

How do you feel your your first Zaal dish measures up to your favourite restaurant?

Thanks

You're too kind, Solarsplace. It's far from perfect as it was all thrown together in a hurry, and I didn't reduce the sauce down enough (and had to use frozen instead of fresh coriander), but the flavour was (if I say so myself), superb.

As to how it measures up to my favourite restaurant, well that's up in Scotland (more than one, favourite, too) and I've yet to find (or make) anything that compares, but it's at least as good as the BIRs I use down south. And I'm hoping tonights more carefully constructed super-singed meat vindaloo will be better!

Looking great there Gary. What's the secret - that you are a vegetarian or that you only eat hard boiled egg curries?  The colour looks great compared to my brown curries but I guess that's due to the phal levels of chilli powder.

I've had some delicious curries (about 30 years ago) served with half a boiled egg and it goes quite well with a curry sauce.

Cheers,

Paul

I was a vegetarian between the age of 14 and 20, Paul, but haven't been for the last 34 years. That said I LOVE southern Indian vegetarian cuisine. Some of it can be incendiary hot though (I remember one dish that used 30 whole green chillies... )

Although there's a chef's spoon (2 tbsp in the case of my spoon) of deggi mirch in that sauce, a good portion of the colour is down to the levels of tomato paste (a generous chef's spoon, or 2.5 - 3tbsp, diluted approx. 1:4)...

Nice lookin curry. Looks like my madras i made the other day  ;D

Cant beat an egg curry 

Thanks, DalPuri. Great to find another afficiando of the egg curry!

Hi Gary,

640x480 resolution looks ok on the forum. No there is no automatic resizing.
If you have photo editing software just save a resized version of your photo.

You only have a limited time to edit your posts so maybe delete the link to the large photo now?

Cheers,

Paul

Thanks Paul - done!