Yesterday I made the effort to remove some "older" leftovers that had become resident in the back of the fridge after having all sorts of Christmas fare poked in front of them.  The vegetable and chicken curries had decided to perform metamorphosis into unrecognisable new species, but surprisingly the small portion of leftover Lamb Rogan Josh provided the wonderful aroma of a perfect curry as soon as the lid was off.

Although there was no need for me to taste it, I did, and I'd even go so far as to say it was good.  For safety reasons I tossed it in the bin anyway, but I can say that having not eaten a curry of any type for well over a week, the aroma and flavour of a good dish was certainly there.  Even cold and old it smelled great and tasted fine.

I think that anyone who has cooked with passion and commitment to a style, has oft times found there own dishes wanting, while others who eat them truly appreciate just how good they are.  I almost always enjoy my curry dishes much more after a day or two of maturation, and for some it is essential.  Lamb and beef dishes just don't fully develop immediately in my opinion.

Nothing disappoints me more than a BIR menu here in UK that reads as if they know what they are doing - only to find the same base sauce tweaked for every dish presented.  I only go once.

This is an interesting thing to say.  A lot of what I've found in my research tells me that BIR is exactly that.

KC, I see where you are coming from with Patak's, so what about using a different brand of tandoori paste or better still, make up your own "paste".  I recently made a Balti Paste and it is a real winner for mine.  Personally I would be prepared to give it a go as written and would most likely "over analyse" by doing a side by side.  But then again I doubt I'd buy a jar just to do it when I have tamarind and a cupboard full of spices.

The Patak's "yeh or nay" question is an ongoing and never-ending one. As I've posted earlier I found their Mild Curry Paste to be a good addition to some dishes in controlled dosage, but there are other "supermarket varieties" from their range that I just don't like at all.

Get a little gas flame burner torch and hit the pieces briefly once done in the oven.

Being the middle of summer here (often up to 40'C plus), we like many others, have opted for a mainly cold lunch.  Seafood Christmas lunch has become very normal in Oz, although a lot still do trad turkey etc.

Our lunch now usually / always includes:
Smoked Leg Ham sliced from the bone, (many households buy a 10 kg whole leg at this time of year)
several kg of class A prawns.  Schoolies, Crystal Bays, Tigers or Kings (or all 4)
cold roast or rotisserie bbq chicken and pork.
fresh Sydney Rock Oysters w/ sea salt, pepper and LJ.  (sometimes some cooked ones as well Kilpat' &/or Opera)
Blue Swimmer Crab (usually caught by me so I'd better get out there in the next 48 hrs)
Several different salads
and the only hot cooked fare is beer-battered fish cocktails and potato chippies but these are a given.
A variety of Seafood Sauces and condiments.
Nuts, candies and cheeses

Deserts are more traditional with Xmas pudding, custard, trifle, ice cream. etc.

This follows from breakfast, which is usually fried leg ham and eggs, but needless to say that since lunch usually sits for 3 - 4 hours we don't eat much dinner.

We used to have more traditional roast foods on occasions depending on whose family we ended up with for the day, but the kitchen is not a place to be on hot Christmas days.

So No to curries for Christmas.

My search began with me trying to find a recipe for "Mango Chicken".

It was the first site I came across in my search a few years back so I joined up only to find that the "good" information was behind a "pay to open door".  I took what I could from the non pay area and was left a little disappointed so didn't bother any more.  Then after a few years I went back and tried to re-enter but all attempts to recover my lost password went unattended over several requests so I eventually created a new account and actually paid the minimum for a subscription. 

Again I brought it to the attention of the admins that I had 2 accounts and wanted it corrected to no avail. If they weren't bothered then why should I be?  There was an email a while back announcing the addition of a "New Recipes Set", complete with new bases and recipes to come.  Nope. Nothing. Never happened and requests to find out about it went unanswered.

In the mean time I found this site which actually provided good quality info and friendly interaction (mostly).  I had a recipe for "Mango Chicken" within a very short time, so the invitation to part with more money for nothing was easily declined.  As well as this, members are constantly told that their password has expired and needs to be changed.  It's a recipe site for goodness sake. My bank doesn't insist on forced password changes.

I already have my xmas presents sorted - poly tunnel, heated propagator, T8 6500k lights, superhot varieties of seeds, and a selection of superhot chilli powders.

I wouldn't mind a high powered blender to blitz those bases, a spice grinder and Im with Jerry on a job in a BIR kitchen !

Substitute other flora and you could be in a spot of bovver, unless you are venturing into the recent push for medicinal growing.  You really had me going till you wrote "chilli powders".

For me it will be a good set of comfortable headphones, so I don't annoy the crapola out of my loving family, by listening to real music from last century.