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Curry - How Hot Can You Handle?


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Madras for me, anything hotter is an ordeal. I've eaten a few vindaloos but didn't really enjoy them.

I've recently taken up cooking my own as a hobby, dipping into these books -

The Curry Guy EasyThe Curry Guy: Recreate Over 100 of the Best British Indian Restaurant Recipes at Home

Something called "phal" is mentioned. It uses Scotch bonnet chillis so must be fkin mental! Anyone ever tried it? I've never even seen this on any restaurant menu and I've been in dozens of Indian eateries. Ceylon is the hottest curry I've ever seen listed anywhere.

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31 minutes ago, shunkyboy and the fluffer said:

Always been able to handle a hot curry. Love a lamb naga. But as I get older my arse is becoming less capable of dealing with the fallout. 

 

20 minutes ago, WCTA said:

As hot as Hades. Blow my napper off wae it. I love it. 

Smokers wi' nae taste buds?  If not - bunnet doffed.  :lol: 

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1 hour ago, daviebee said:

Madras for me, anything hotter is an ordeal. I've eaten a few vindaloos but didn't really enjoy them.

I've recently taken up cooking my own as a hobby, dipping into these books -

The Curry Guy EasyThe Curry Guy: Recreate Over 100 of the Best British Indian Restaurant Recipes at Home

Something called "phal" is mentioned. It uses Scotch bonnet chillis so must be fkin mental! Anyone ever tried it? I've never even seen this on any restaurant menu and I've been in dozens of Indian eateries. Ceylon is the hottest curry I've ever seen listed anywhere.

Never had a Phal myself but I know someone for who it's his curry of choice.  He must have an asbestos gut.  Was in a curry house with him once and the waiter queried his order to make sure he knew what he was ordering. Makes a vindaloo look tame. 

Edited by aaid
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Normally Madras is OK for me but I've had a Madras that was off the scale

it must really depend on where you go.

Don't some places tone things down if they think the local punters may not enjoy the real thing?

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15 minutes ago, exile said:

Normally Madras is OK for me but I've had a Madras that was off the scale

it must really depend on where you go.

Don't some places tone things down if they think the local punters may not enjoy the real thing?

I generally have a Dhansak, which I guess could be described as a medium but there does seem to be huge variations in how spicy it is. 

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15 minutes ago, exile said:

Normally Madras is OK for me but I've had a Madras that was off the scale

it must really depend on where you go.

Don't some places tone things down if they think the local punters may not enjoy the real thing?

I think the curries should all have their own unique flavours. It's not just a case of adding more chilli powder as you go up the scale. Beyond Madras though I can't taste any flavour. Had Madras curries as well, the worst from from the Prince Balti House on Seafield Rd, Edinburgh that nearly took my fkin face off.

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I cook a lot. It’s the one thing I’m good at other than talking drunken bollocks online. I grow a lot of my own veg in my garden too. I grow different chillies which I use for various dishes including a cracking curry I make. This year though, for some reason the chillies decided to be way off of the scoville scale compared to previous years. It was difficult to gauge the heat levels of what I was cooking so that She could enjoy things I’d make also. For instance, my run of the mill jalapenos which, as you know are generally a mild heat became more like a Habanero(Scotch bunnet). This made my curries crazy hot. The weather this year was different. It was quite a wet Spring but also hot at the same time. This, obviously kicked on my tatties, onions, etc but must have done something to the heat levels of my chillies.

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WCTA... you need to start a Beechgrove Garden thread 🌱 ...you never know.

I've always struggled with hot stuff.   Possibly because the only curry I'd eaten up to age 27 was a Vesta.

I still find that I can't actually taste anything for the burning sensation after a couple of fork-fulls of medium hot stuff.   And it's like chewing a swarm of wasps.   And then at my age there's the lower esophageal sphincter muscle problem 👴

I've only just started to enjoy jalapenos (in small doses) probably since half my tongue has been killed off, but still need a Gaviscon pudding of course.

Curry-wise, I'm still more interested in getting interesting flavours out of different kormas than burning my inner worm out.

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Grim Jim said:

WCTA... you need to start a Beechgrove Garden thread 🌱 ...you never know.

I've always struggled with hot stuff.   Possibly because the only curry I'd eaten up to age 27 was a Vesta.

I still find that I can't actually taste anything for the burning sensation after a couple of fork-fulls of medium hot stuff.   And it's like chewing a swarm of wasps.   And then at my age there's the lower esophageal sphincter muscle problem 👴

I've only just started to enjoy jalapenos (in small doses) probably since half my tongue has been killed off, but still need a Gaviscon pudding of course.

Curry-wise, I'm still more interested in getting interesting flavours out of different kormas than burning my inner worm out.

 

 

Slice open them half-way and deseed them. The membrane too so they are hollow. Then toss them in olive oil before gently part-baking them in the oven. Only a bawhair though. You don’t want to cook them..... yet.

Then take a block of Philadelphia cream and in a bowl warm it up in the defrost section of the micro so it softens or pishes it up a wee bit to make it workable. Then in that bowl add some onion powder to taste and stir through it. 
Take that mixture and stick it in a sandwich/freezer bag, seal and cut a teeny wee hole in the corner so you have a piping bag like a baker. 
Then pipe the mixture into each halved deseeded jalapeno before baking in the oven again. Any spice that may worry you will work with the fat of the cheese mixture. 
 

If you like that, you can then cook streaky bacon, let it go cold and then crumble the fuck out of it in your hands so you can sprinkle that through the aforementioned cheese mix. Or add finely chopped chives. 

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18 minutes ago, WCTA said:

Slice open them half-way and deseed them. The membrane too so they are hollow. Then toss them in olive oil before gently part-baking them in the oven. Only a bawhair though. You don’t want to cook them..... yet.

Then take a block of Philadelphia cream and in a bowl warm it up in the defrost section of the micro so it softens or pishes it up a wee bit to make it workable. Then in that bowl add some onion powder to taste and stir through it. 
Take that mixture and stick it in a sandwich/freezer bag, seal and cut a teeny wee hole in the corner so you have a piping bag like a baker. 
Then pipe the mixture into each halved deseeded jalapeno before baking in the oven again. Any spice that may worry you will work with the fat of the cheese mixture. 
 

If you like that, you can then cook streaky bacon, let it go cold and then crumble the fuck out of it in your hands so you can sprinkle that through the aforementioned cheese mix. Or add finely chopped chives. 

a. that sounds feckin' tasty.

b. start a cooking thread.

c. am hoping cheese'n'onion, chillies, fatty bacon is cure not kill 😄

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2 minutes ago, Grim Jim said:

a. that sounds feckin' tasty.

b. start a cooking thread.

c. am hoping cheese'n'onion, chillies, fatty bacon is cure not kill 😄

It’s the most basic of basic thing. But the point I’m making is that it’s a way to try and get into mild pepper eating if you don’t have great tolerance. 
 

I just noticed I meant to type Philadelphia cream cheese and not just cream. 😄

Edited by WCTA
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12 hours ago, Grim Jim said:

WCTA... you need to start a Beechgrove Garden thread 🌱 ...you never know.

I've always struggled with hot stuff.   Possibly because the only curry I'd eaten up to age 27 was a Vesta.

I still find that I can't actually taste anything for the burning sensation after a couple of fork-fulls of medium hot stuff.   And it's like chewing a swarm of wasps.   And then at my age there's the lower esophageal sphincter muscle problem 👴

I've only just started to enjoy jalapenos (in small doses) probably since half my tongue has been killed off, but still need a Gaviscon pudding of course.

Curry-wise, I'm still more interested in getting interesting flavours out of different kormas than burning my inner worm out.

 

 

I dont like anything too hot either and I  am not keen on the taste of food being obliterated by hot chilli and spices. 

For anyone looking for some help on tasty basic cooking you could do worse than follow Just Jess on instagram. She is from Glasgow and is part Indian part South African. She lays out the recipes in the most simple fashion, showing pictures of all the ingredients and step by step instructions. My oldest daughter cannot cook at all and lives with her boyfriend. She comes over to our house one night a week and we make a recipe from Just Jess. She will soon be able to make these at home without me. The other night we made a cajun chicken pasta. It was so simple but very tasty. It used the Philadelphia cream cheese that WCTA mentioned in his post. 
The hardest thing for me was actually working out how to get onto instagram 😁

As an aside. Do not be tempted to try the new chilli skittles sweeties . Urgh, they are absolutely mingin. 

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16 hours ago, WCTA said:

As hot as Hades. Blow my napper off wae it. I love it. 

Likewise. Made a mince and tattie (lamb and beef) curry last night with peas, peppers and chillies in it. Used some mixed pickle with garlic, ginger, coriander stalks and dried fenugreek blitzed into a paste for frying off with the onions and curry powder at the start. Need to keep it toned down a bit for the kids but got a choice of hot sauces to increase the heat for me. Tend to add tabasco or other hot sauce to most of my food.

Edited by killiefaetheferry
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13 hours ago, Grim Jim said:

WCTA... you need to start a Beechgrove Garden thread 🌱 ...you never know.

I've always struggled with hot stuff.   Possibly because the only curry I'd eaten up to age 27 was a Vesta.

I still find that I can't actually taste anything for the burning sensation after a couple of fork-fulls of medium hot stuff.   And it's like chewing a swarm of wasps.   And then at my age there's the lower esophageal sphincter muscle problem 👴

I've only just started to enjoy jalapenos (in small doses) probably since half my tongue has been killed off, but still need a Gaviscon pudding of course.

Curry-wise, I'm still more interested in getting interesting flavours out of different kormas than burning my inner worm out.

 

 

I'd love a Vesta! 

(Not as the only curry, but somewhere on the menu. Even if it's next to omelettes and fish n chips.) 

What is the closest to it? 

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18 hours ago, daviebee said:

Madras for me, anything hotter is an ordeal. I've eaten a few vindaloos but didn't really enjoy them.

I've recently taken up cooking my own as a hobby, dipping into these books -

The Curry Guy EasyThe Curry Guy: Recreate Over 100 of the Best British Indian Restaurant Recipes at Home

Something called "phal" is mentioned. It uses Scotch bonnet chillis so must be fkin mental! Anyone ever tried it? I've never even seen this on any restaurant menu and I've been in dozens of Indian eateries. Ceylon is the hottest curry I've ever seen listed anywhere.

I bought the Curry Guy Cook book(the red one) and the food looks amazing, but the off putting bit is that a recipe may contain around 15 ingredients. However, each of those ingredients references another recipe within the book so it looks a bit of a faff. I know alot can just be bought (such as chill powder, Graham masala etc.), but it looks like you need to have a rath ere r large freezer as alot of the things are to be made in advance and used as required.

Will get round to doing one as they do look great though!

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My biggest learning has been to fry the onions really well until they are almost at the point of burning - then add spices. Gives you the sauce as they then break down during the cooking. Also some recipes which suggest coating the meat in a spice rub or marinade in advance. Fry the meat to brown it then take it out the pan and fry the onions in the remaining oil and juices. 

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3 hours ago, Coldo said:

I bought the Curry Guy Cook book(the red one) and the food looks amazing, but the off putting bit is that a recipe may contain around 15 ingredients. However, each of those ingredients references another recipe within the book so it looks a bit of a faff. I know alot can just be bought (such as chill powder, Graham masala etc.), but it looks like you need to have a rath ere r large freezer as alot of the things are to be made in advance and used as required.

Will get round to doing one as they do look great though!

Aye, having to make up containers of base sauce can be a bit of a pain in the arse. Like he says though, you can freeze the excess and just use it when you need it. The blue book has a recipe for Mulligatawny soup which doesn't need a base sauce. Best Mulligatawny I've ever had. I usually load it up with chicken and rice as well to make a complete meal out of it. Worth getting the book just for that if that's your thing.

You'd maybe find the stuff from this place easier - https://mrsbalbirsingh.com/. They do various spice blends and if I'd found them first I never would've got The Curry Guy books. They send out recipe cards with the blends and they could hardly be simpler to make. The lamb Rogan Josh is sensational, one of the best curries I've ever eaten. It's like Indian fine dining in yer ain hoose!

What they don't do is a blend for everything you'd typically find on a restaurant menu and that's cos they're trying to stay true to the lady who the site is named after, an expert chef from years gone by who wouldn't know WTF you were talking about if you asked for a chicken Madras. One of her curries was apparently the inspiration for the standard chicken Tikka Masala that you'll find everywhere. I'm not really one for creamy curries but her version is absolutely amazing. Can't recommend that place highly enough. Incredible food and simple to make - what more could you want apart from the fact it saves a hell of a lot of money as well!

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