No curry better than Singapore’s Fish Head Curry
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Wrong. COG’s beef madras (see earlier in the thread) is.
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Wrong. Cos I say so.
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Slow cooker comes out every week here. Chili, beef bourginone, spag bol, beef/chicken/pork stew etc. Make a load for tea then freeze portions. Set it running in the morning and then all you need is to cook the pasta / rice in the evening. Brilliant and easy. Good to teach the kids too.
@gasband and @cynicaloldgit You are both wrong.
It is @aussielad’s patented Janpanese Beef Curry
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Mate of mine took us on a cooking evening at a local Indian restaurant. 8 of us in their kitchen with the head chef. Toasting the spices was absolutely his thing. Interestingly, nothing we (and he) cooked tasted anything like their normal food, it was much better. But never let somebody with very good eyes and is naturally very inquisitive into your kitchen. Lots and lots of industrial catering cartons of sauces and freezers full of pre-prepared meats. Bloke could obviously cook but seemed that he was a heat and eat merchant for general service. I cooked my own dinner in work’s local Chinese take away a few years ago, similar deal. Lots of fresh veg but the the sauce came from a 5ltr container.
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A couple of questions , if you don’t mind.
Is 1,2,and 3 for any dish or just this ?
Are frozen curry leaves any good , and when do you add them ?
How do you keep the chicken tender ?
Aside from peas, no fresh ingredient should be frozen IMHO.
You ever tried getting fresh curry leaves ? (If you buy the dried ones , you may just as well put the dried leaves off your garden path in.)
About 20 years ago I did some work for Pataks designing a stock location system. Their proud boast was that they supplied most of the indian restaurants with sauces and even exported to India. They seem to have a lot more competition these days mind you.
I generally make my own sauces but Pataks are still the best ready made ones for me and I especially love their pickles. They gave me a load of different jars 
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Frozen curry leaves are okay to use. You add them for south indian dishes for the tempering at the start of making the dish after the oil is heated along with generally cumin seeds and fried red chilly
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Their lime pickle is breathtaking … literally !
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Indian sauces (especially for the restaurant type dishes … Saag paneer / butter chicken etc etc are damn easy to make and they store well too…
And yeah , nothing beats freshly roasted spices being ground.
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You can use dried ones as well mind. A lot of times I get a heap load of leaves and they obviously get dried in the refrigerator. They are mostly used for tempering the initial oil.
There are a couple of dishes esp in South India which use curry leaves bit more but for regular south indian cooking , that’s about all there is.
Curry leaves for north indian cooking don’t find too many takers though
Again. Different regions of India and different tastes. I’ve tried patak after some brit indian friends recoed it. Didn’t find them any great.
Steps 1, 2 ,3 go for any onion-tomato based dishes.
As far as the marinate of the chicken goes and making it tender , that depends a lot on adding yoghurt , if you can get indian curd , all the better…
Look at brining the chicken first with salt , coriander powder , cumin powder , chilly powder , ginger garlic paste , garam masala.
And then add curd and lime as tenderizers and marinate it for atleast an hour. The more the better.
Also with these dishes , you are essentially cooking the chicken twice… So a good sear of 4-5 min each side is fine. Don’t need to fully cook chicken through. The balance chicken gets done in the sauce.
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Quite a lot of Indian restaurants here prep the sauces in advance. Well , they atleast make their own sauces atleast cause probably it’s cheaper than getting them store brought.
That’s understood atleast even if I don’t agree with the rationale behind it. One of the most important aspects of Indian cooking is the time involved in cooking it and that comes at a premium when it’s a restaurant.
I generally avoid eating in at North indian / mughlai restaurants for that reason as they do cut the costs. The only reason I feel tempted to go to those places is for their naan’s which I can’t be bothered to learn and replicate at home.
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Also when it comes to a restaurant , the main concept that I like is a thali. A fixed group of dishes which you know have been taking their own time to prepare and you get close to the actual thing.
Rather than the quick service heat and serve which passes for Indian restaurants worldwide.
There’s no such thing as a curry atleast in the land of curries.
I’ve given the noob version of the dish btw , there will be variations and adaptations obviously. It’ll remain on you lot on what flavour to accentuate etc etc.