Originally Posted by Mike at Taree

Hi Al
Off topic. There was a curry thread going here last year but it's been closed. Might start a new one

Depends if you want home made style or restaurant style.
Restaurant (British or Aus) isn't what Indians and Pakistanis eat at home.

It's evolved from the cuisine brought mostly by Bangladeshis to the UK after the Second World War and set up restaurants, often taking over Chinese restaurants who left to become takeaways. Since then many of them and Indians of course have arrived in Australia on the strength of their UK citizenship and opened similar but actually subtly different restaurants and takeaways here.

BIR 101
When you order a beef dopiaza or a chicken vindaloo they don't go out looking for onions etc or you'd be waiting for four hours for the order. What they do, you can replicate brilliantly at home.

1. Base gravy or "gharabi", big pot, based on onions, spices, oil and a few other veggies cooked for several hours then blended with a stick blender to form a thin yellow "soup"

2. Pre cooked meats, slowly simmered in spices and water and other ingredients until just done, then drained and held to one side.

A collection of special spices, leaves, pods, oils, pastes etc so you can use 1 and 2 to produce any dish on the menu in about ten minutes.

So if you watch this video you'll now understand exactly what he's doing. He has a whole series of vids that I followed to learn most of what I know so far.

Guy has an excellent ebook for about four quid that guides you through all the stages. At home you can freeze portions of base gharabi and precooked meats so if you feel like a curry, it's on the table in 10 minutes.

Aussie curry houses do a different "gravy" which is based on fried caramelised onions, not boiled ones and this gives a difference, so most expats are disappointed that the curries don't taste like Birmingham or Cardiff. However some restaurants like Spice Grove in Bris and British India in Perth are doing proper BIR apparently.

Another good source is "That Curry Secret" by ms Kris Dhillon available from the Book Depository.

Happy munching

Originally Posted by Mike at Taree

Yes, an Aussie base "gravy" is more of a paste and you can zoom one up in about 20 mins. The British gravy takes a few hours on very low heat and actually has a lot of oil put into it at the beginning, if you do it too quickly it doesn't develop the sweetness.

A good Brit style base (that most restaurants guard jealously) ends up as a silky "emulsion". One of the reasons UK curries taste so rich is the sheer amount of oil in them, guy in the video who started "Curry2Go" in Chorley, Lancs, put on a couple of stones while he was researching all the recipes.

Originally Posted by keel

The worst thing to do is go onto Ebay when your drunk.

I've woken up a few times with a vague recollection of bidding on some thing. Last time was $500 on a camera which is sitting next to my other perfectly good camera.

Mark

Originally Posted by EllBee

Completely agree with that. My drunken shopping list consists of lots of DVDs, oddly both kitchen and bathroom scales, and best of all 2 different holidays neither of which I could technically afford at the time, but I was very grateful of them when the time came to go!

Oh and COUNTLESS taxis. The Addison Lee App is a killer when you're drunk.

Bizarre how I often forget my bus route, or phone number but never my credit card details...

Originally Posted by Pollyana

I have the same problem! Paypal needs an alcohol-proof lock too!

Originally Posted by EllBee

Yes it does! Those annoying 'type the word in the box to prove your not a spambot' things would do - I can barely work them out sober!

Originally Posted by asher

Do you post when you are drunk?
Is it a mistake? Or do you write your best posts then?

I try to avoid drunken posting after making a fool of myself once the embarrassment the next day was cringingly awful

Originally Posted by kiwigeordie

Only just joined so no opportunity for drunken posts yet but I have done it on another (woodwork) forum. It can be cringe making when you read your post next day.
Pete
c/o The Betty Ford Clinic

Originally Posted by Pollyana

Mods often get requests the morning after the night before, asking us to remove drunken posts...we have a good snigger before we do so, naturally

Originally Posted by EllBee

And no doubt there are some which you have to go through and delete regardless of whether the poster asks you to or not!

Originally Posted by Pollyana

Yep, on a good day we delete the poster as well

Originally Posted by EllBee

Oh dear. I promise to be on my best behaviour!

Originally Posted by EllBee

Surely not