Quote from: pap rika on April 09, 2021, 12:07 PM

looks like another bog standard base gravy. Had hoped for something more. 

Well it uses a home made chicken stock and that's far from normal in the vast majority of bases. I actually like his methods, like the bhuna and dopiaza onion prep. Not exactly new but along with the chicken-stock base I'm willing to give this one a go as potentially offering something different and hopefully more "old school".

Still don't find it reveals that elusive link (if their is one ) to the old school base,
  I'm sure many members add additional  vegetable, beef or chicken, stocks to enhance their bases, yet still claim to be missing that old school taste.
   Certainly won't please any vegans. But definitely one to watch.

Regards pap prika

Phil, I've used chicken frames in an "old school" base gravy before ...

Chicken frames. Say what now? Is that a typo or a real antipodean alternative to carcase (carcass)?

Sorry that no-one (including myself) has replied to this, PK.  I've searched this forum, and there does not seem to be a recipe for BIR-style methi gosht (which is something of a surprise), so all I can suggest is that you search the web. perhaps focussing on recipes offered by chefs from the sub-continent.  To answer your specific questions :

• what type of lamb is best
• should you use halal
• would dried leaves be better than fresh?

In the Glasgow curry houses of old I would have expected that the "lamb" would be mutton or goat.  I would not myself choose to use halal lamb, and I don't believe that halal meat has a significantly different flavour (tho' it may).  I would not have expected those same curry houses to have had access to fresh methi leaves in the old days.

** Phil.

Hi!

I've been lurking for a bit so thought I'd sign up and say hi!

A bit about me. I love curry but can't handle spice so I tend to stay medium. Dhansak and Dopiaza are my go to curries for your typical BIR but in London I find the best restaurants are Punjabi so it's usually a Karahi.

I'm not much of a cook but have always enjoyed making a curry. I have made traditional curries following various recipe books with varied results but never anything like a BIR. I discovered KD's curry secret a few years back and have followed it a few times now. What I make normally resembles a BIR but tends to be a bit lacking in flavour. I stumbled upon this site whilst looking for some inspiration on how to do things better and wow, plenty of resource here to get in to.

Some of what I have done recently and my findings;

KD base with KD dopiaza - I overcooked/reduced the curry so decided to say it was a bhuna as it was dry. It was unintentionally sweet in a good way so wonder if the overcook of the base combined with sliced onion did this.
KD base with KD curry - Tried hard not to over reduce so had a good sauce quantity but it was bland
KD base with KD curry but using BE method of frying spices out first - Had a bit more flavour to it so guess frying the spices helps

BE base with BE curry - My best curry yet in terms of flavour (the base had a much more pleasant aroma than KD) but I still feel there could be more

I'm going through the site now to figure out my next steps and have some thoughts

Could it be worthwhile to use extra base gravy so you can reduce it nicely then add in more near the end to get it saucy again? Trying to re-create my accidental sweetness though this could be due to the actual sliced onion cooking rather than the over reduction of base so not sure.
Frying the spices seems good but I have no idea on how to tell when they are done. I watched them foam and fizzle but felt like I waited too long for them to die down (they didn't really seem to die down at all so I gave up and moved on)
What makes more difference, the frying of spices or the quality of spices? My spices are all supermarket bought but I did go through all the various curry powders and try to find one that looked like a decent one, still from a supermarket though.
Is my lack of flavour just down to using a basic curry recipe? I'm looking for a good curry recipe to go with my BE base for my next curry, any of dopiaza/bhuna/rogon so appear spoilt for choice here but also unsure how to choose what works best with the BE base.

How about this one, Bluetulip ?  Oh, and "welcome aboard" by the way !

** Phil.