Chicken Balti.. help!

l5lr

Hi everybody,

I tried my hand at making a chicken balti today, tried 3 different recipes, and they all got spat back out.

I've tried one with the basics; coriander, tumeric, tomatoes, garlic, chili peppers, onions, chicken..

Does anybody have any recipes that taste good? on infact any Indian recipes that taste good? I'm stuck for ideas here.

Thanks,

Adam

The Hill Billy

What was the problem? What recipes did you try & why were you not happy with the results?

l5lr

It tastes disgusting. I've tried recipes from two indian cook books I have, and they can't be eaten. I've had three people try them incase it's just me, however they all agreed it's lacking an indian flavour.

Darkginger

I'm not affiliated with the following site in any way - I just love it because it's finally allowed me to make curries at home that taste as good, if not better, than the ones I can get in restaurants. There's quite a lot of free recipes on it - they also have a subscription section, but you really don't need that in order to start making curries.

http://www.secretcurryrecipes.com/

The place to start is the forum - just keep clicking the links marked 'forum' until you get to the page where there's a topic called 'An easy start to your first...etc.'

At first glance it looks like a very long and complicated process - but bear in mind that the base curry sauce will make more than one meal, and it freezes well, so you only have to make the base sauce every 4 meals or so - and when you've done it once, it's pretty simple to do it again.

For what it's worth, Rajah brand spices seem to work well in the recipes, and aren't that difficult to get hold of. Sharwoods, Schwarz, etc. 'curry powder' won't really give you the results you're after. On the other hand, their Garam Masala is OK, and Schwarz Pilau Rice spice mix saves a lot of fiddling!

Fenugreek leaves (Methi) always help to add an authentic taste (I think) and I get mine in my local health food store.

Hope some of that helps!

dixiefly

For what its worth, and it may not be your intention to use a sauce, these people make great sauces. The sauces are mostly available at markets but they can be got by calling them.

I havent tried the Balti but if the Rendang and the Jalfrezi are anything to go by then it should be good.

http://www.currysauce.ie/medium/

The Sweeper

l5lr wrote: »

I've tried one with the basics; coriander, tumeric, tomatoes, garlic, chili peppers, onions, chicken..

Hmmm - the basics to me, in a balti, would be coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black pepper, cinnamon or cassia sticks, then maybe fenugreek, mustard seeds, onion seeds and cardamom, all dry pan roasted and then blitzed to a powder.

Turmeric wouldn't feature at all. The sauce would then be onions, garlic and ginger cooked in some oil, then paste, then chicken, then tomatoes and stock, cooked out and with handfuls of chopped fresh coriander at the end.

An easy way to do it would be to buy a Sharwoods paste - not the pre-made sauces, the paste to which you add meat and tomatoes and stock etc. Those pastes are usually just spices and salt in oil, not a bad quick way to achieve a curry at all.