Topic: CA's Vindaloo Paste

[gavindaloo]

hello, have you tried this vindaloo paste yet ?

[Peripatetic Phil]

Still, the question for me is, "how do BIRs get the heat (without the underlying harshness of chilli powder or flavour of fresh chillies) into their really hot curries (e.g. phals)?

At the time when I was still eating Bangalore Phal as my dish of choice, virtually on a daily basis, I came to the conclusion that "the underlying harshness of chilli powder" is evident when the dish is under-salted; assuming that the other spices were in the correct proportion, simply adding additional salt to the finished dish would be sufficient to convert an phal with excess chilli harshness into a good balanced phal.  This bears directly on Skronk's observation in another thread :

I don't use any.  Someone here will tell you that you need salt in curry and that it bring out the flavour. It doesn't it just makes it taste salty

Have to disagree there.  Salt is really necessary.  A bit like comparing fresh lager to flat lager to me......though I respect your opinion.

** Phil.