Thoroughly enjoyed this series, one of the best Indian cooking programmes for me. One thing that struck a chord was, yet again hearing one of the chefs emphasising the correct cooking of the spices. Yesterday I made myself a jalfrezi with extra sliced garlic and after softening the onions and peppers I removed then from the pan prior to cooking the powders. Having got the oil back up to temperature, in went the dry ingredients, methi leaves, mixed powder, chilli powder and salt and the whole mix was allowed to cook thoroughly saturated with the oil. The dry powder smell came through, then disappeared as it bubbled away, the bubbling died down and in came that nose burning chilli hit, then drenched with a ladle of Tom paste then base.

Important lesson! well worth remembering!

The resultant curry was sensationally smooth, almost creamy (without cream) and lovely and rich.

The lesson learnt for me was I sometimes fry the spices in an already overcrowded pan. Not anymore.

It's easy to forget the basics in our attempts to replicate somebody else's recipes / videos.
Nothing in this post is new (to older members at least) just don't forget the basics is the message!

Wayne

If anybody on here's struggling with growing chilli's, ie loads of flower drops, poor fruiting etc, last year I googled best type of chilli to grow fairly easily in the British climate. I settled on a medium hot chilli known as an F1 apache. I only planted 4 seeds of which 3 have grown, and really well at that. These are permanently situated on the kitchen window sill, watered most days, and once a week with diluted tomato feed. Definitely the best results I've had in about 8 yrs of trying!!

Pic below

Wayne

You sure it's not from the rice sp?. I've had this before and it's the rice that's been the culprit.

W

I too, am looking forward to the book, I can't help wondering though Chris how much curry are you actually getting through for this ebook? That pot seems huge for the home cook! Have you road tested a scaled down version? My missus would go mad freezing that amount of base gravy as we'd have no room left for anything else lol! ;D

Wayne

Well done mate, looks very good!!