Topic: Holy Grail ? any one seen this website before?

[gazman1976]

http://www.natco-online.com/acatalog/Holy_Grail.html

[Curry Barking Mad]

point taken George

[Ramirez]

I think this website has been seen before by quite a few. I don't think it is very well regarded. I've not tried anything off there, mind.

[haldi]

These are the recipes that Andy (from the RCR site) copied and pretended they were his own
There was a very funny thread, with him denying it

[commis]

Hi
Often wondered who gave the recipe to natco?
Regards

[Razor]

point taken George

Hahahaha quality reply Achmal.  Sorry George, seems like you were right afterall ;D

Ray ;D

[Peripatetic Phil]

Leaving the question of authorship [1] to one side, there is something I don't understand in the recipe as found at Natco.  It includes (among others) the following stages --

> Add oil and heat.
> Add basic sauce (along with fresh chicken/other meats if using them)
> Add all of the spices and salt

> Although the curry is now cooked, further frying is now required
> and this must be done in individual portions.

> 1. Add some oil to your 'individual curry' pan.
> 3. Then add the required amount of sauce and meat/cooked vegetables
> for one portion

So you've added the chicken (say) early on, immediately after "Add oil and heat.  Add basic sauce", yet you are then told that "further frying is now required" and at the frying stage "add ... sauce ... and meat" (i.e., chicken).

So in fact you have added the chicken twice : once when making the basic sauce, and once at the frying stage.

Am I completely mad, or is there a real inconsistency ?

[1] Or has it, in fact,  been stolen and cocked up in the process ?  As Chriswg observed at http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4813.msg45748#msg45748, the Natco recipe is remarkably similar to the "Not Delia" one : http://www.notdelia.co.uk/british-indian-restaurant-curry-introduction/

[haldi]

I've been buying quite a few curries lately
One, I had the other night, had a spoon of paste dolloped on top
I thought at first it was a fried garlic puree (as I've seen done before) but no
So what was it?
My mind went back to the "M" recipes from Natco with the special (biggest secret) recipe
The fried onion/garlic/cinammon/cummin paste
So I made it again
This time I cooked it in a non stick frying pan
I remembered that it stuck badly to the bottom of my pan before
Anyhow, using a non stick pan really did the trick
I added the finished paste to a rather dull curry I made and it made a remarkable difference.
I had a little of a bought curry and compared it
Something very like my paste was in the bought curry
I am sure that a paste like this is used at this takeaway
It's amazing just how many different flavours you can get from an onion
Basically, I have just added onion to onion, and changed it's taste completely
Definitely something that I will do again

[George]

Leaving the question of authorship [1] to one side, there is something I don't understand in the recipe as found at Natco. 

It always seemed clear to me, unlike some of the recipes here!

First he pre-cooks raw chicken and the base sauce, plus 'bread dough paste'.

Then he prepares curries in individual proportions. Simple!

[Panpot]

I've definitely read this before somewhere, however "secret onion pastes" or Bunjarra has definitely been the key missing ingredient for my thirty years plus of searching for the Holy Grail, After my visit to The Ashoka the Bunjarra and pre cooked G/G paste took me to where I was striving for. This bread dough type paste might be a suitable alternative when I don't have time to make Bunjarra proper. Thanks for testing it Haldi. PP