Hi... I'm Pat Chapman!
Welcome to the Curry Club – Britain's first and foremost authority on Asian food.
If you've arrived by entering www.patchapman.com or by a link or by search engine or whatever, I guess like me you're a confirmed curryholic.
Stay a while and have some curryfunalia and welcome to my new web site, new logo, new look and new technology. It has just gone live so please let us know if you spot minor errors. And don’t worry ... it’s the same Pat Chapman, (that's Dominique on the right, by the way), the same Curry Club which Pat founded in 1981, the same elephants (given a makeover) and most importantly, the same information as before where you can delve in to get in-depth answers about us, our activities and services ... but there’s loads more too: it’s all here! Or so we think! If we've missed something, please tell us.
The site will be added to regularly, aiming to bring you everything you need to indulge your currinary needs. The site has lots of new features such as our
Online Shop. You've bought all your currinary Christmas pressies, and now it’s time to indulge yourself.
If you want a quick answer to something try entering a relevant word in the amazing
Search box (top of the page) and see what you get. Try
Korma, or
Moghul or Gordon Ramsay for example.
Before long the search box will tell you where to go for the best curry restaurant in Britain's major cities and towns. If your search doesn’t yield a result, let me know what you want to know.
Equally notable, we have made the site more interactive.
To receive our
e-letters which will be published from time to time, subscribe in the left hand adjacent box.
If you have views on food-related topics, or anything which you want to get off your chest, go to our new
Blog page. Keep it interesting and printable please, and who knows, you may well appear on this site!
We have a new page:
Other Cuisines which takes a look at non-curry/spicy happenings and recipes of the gourmet world.
Another feature is our
Currinewsflashes below, which can take you to detailed information on our
News and Events pages.
And why not go to
Feedback (in the left column or below) and tell us what you think of this site?
Meanwhile if you’d like to contact me, please click here.
Enjoy browsing - enjoy blogging - enjoy searching - enjoy shopping - enjoy currying!!!
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Price rises in the Recession, but not from The Curry Club
It's not the first time time nor will it be the last. But it IS happening now.
We all need to tighten our belts. But what to trim? Luxuries? Necessities?
Not surely necessities like the curry restaurant? But who can afford £20 per head per week or more on that one?
So why not cook it yourself? Remember ...
DINING IN IS THE NEW DINING OUT
And who better to help in this respect than The Curry Club.
Cookbooks, Cookery Courses, Party Food
The good news is that we are holding all our prices to last year's (2008) rates.
Even better news: our Saturday Morning Cookery Course prices remain at their original 2003 rate.
Best of all ... we've reduced the price of our Saturday Morning Thai Group Course. It is now the same as our Curry Course.
click here for our Cookery Courses
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Come Dine with us!
Curry Night at the Georgian House Hotel, Haslemere, Surrey.
Sunday 17th May 2009
The Haslemere Festival runs from 14 to 31 May 2009. The Curry Club’s Dominique and Pat Chapman return for one night only on Wednesday 20th May with their entertaining and very popular Festival Curry Night. Watch an all-new curry cooking demo and slide show then enjoy a tasty curry dinner. Menu includes pops & chuts, curry starter and eat-as-much-as-you like main course. Booze available from the Georgian’s cash bar. Tables of 12. Singles, couples, groups or book a full table. All welcome including your older kids.
The evening starts with a cooking demonstration interspersed with a fun-packed, fast-moving slideshow during which you can you sup your drink (from the cash bar) and nibble on mini Popadums and home-made Chutneys. The fast-moving slideshow light heartedly looks at the personalities and animals, not to mention spices and other artefacts, traded over the centuries on the Spice Route. For the demo Pat roasts and grinds spices and shows some of the unusual items used in Indian Cuisine. During this Dominique demonstrates your starter, Vegetable Samosa and Moong Chana Salat (various types of sprouting bean salad). Pat cooks rice and one of the main course dishes, Butter Chicken, revealing some money-saving tips. Your main course follows: Butter Chicken (the forerunner to Tikka Masala), Classic Lamb Korma (the traditional recipe from the Moghul emperors), Kashmiri Gobi Aloo (Cauliflower and potato curry), Tarka Chana Dhal (chickpeas and red lentils) and Mumbai Tomato Pullao Rice. Heat level is mild to medium and for those who like it hot there is Madras Hot Sauce and for those cool cats, there’s Cool Cucumber Raita!
Vegetarian versions of the Chicken dishes (pre-booked only)
There will be plenty of food and no one will go away hungry.
Doors open 7.00pm; Demo starts at 7.30pm. Dinner c 8.30 Georgian Hotel Cash Bar from 6pm.
ADMISSION BY PREBOOKED TICKETS ONLY.
NO DOOR SALES AVAILABLE.
BOOKING UNDERWAY. DON'T DELAY.
WE SOLD OUT LAST TIME. DON'T DELAY
Tickets available at just £16 per head.
Click here to buy tickets
TICKETS WILL BE FIRST-CLASS MAILED TO YOU
To see the whole Haslemere Festival programme, go to: www.HaslemereFestival.org.uk
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Curry News Flashes
A GOOD LAUGH AT VIRGIN!
Virgin's flashy ad celebrating the airline's 25th birthday (with the pretty lasses in their red uniforms, the 1984 icons and the smug pilot) hit the ratings with a thumbs up from most viewers. Days after its launch comes what has been lauded as the world's best passenger complaint:
Advertising exec Oliver Beale, returning to London from Mumbai on Virgin in December 07, was so disgusted by the state of his in-flight food and entertainment, he sent a six-page rant to Sir Richard himself, to convey his disappointment. The letter, which also included five photographs of the “offending” dishes, has since been circulated around the world and has been almost universally praised for its pointedness and humour. This is Mr Beale's comment about one dish:
"Answer me this Richard, what sort of animal would serve a desert with peas in." [see image]. "I know it looks like a baaji but it’s in custard Richard, custard. It must be the pudding. Well you’ll be fascinated to hear that it wasn’t custard. It was a sour gel with a clear oil on top. It’s only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palette that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter."
Want to read the whole piece yourself? Go to:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/blog/editors_corner/article/11975/
Our comments: Mr Beale is probably Sir RB himself, or one of his staffers, to whom all publicty is good publicity. As for the dish. It’s Carrot Halva with green pistachios!!!
PS: The Daily Telegraph asked readers which airline provides the best meals:
Virgin Atlantic currently lies third (15 per cent) behind Singapore Airlines (40 per cent) and British Airways (20 per cent).
We rate Air India. Their curries travel well and taste good.
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2009 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN CHEF OF THE YEAR ~ WINNER!
Against tough competition from other finalists, Tipu Rahman, owner of Tamarind Restaurant Northampton, scored a double triumph on Friday 30th January 2009 to win the International Indian Chef of the Year 2009, founded by Edinburgh restaurateur Tommy Miah.
Tipu also won the £250 prize for the best vegetarian dish.
The finalists had two-and-a-half hours to cook their ideal four-dish meal in the kitchens of Edinburgh’s Telford College.
Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, chairman of judges, said "I am delighted that this year there had been more emphasis of the actual taste of the dishes, rather than on presentation".
Second place went to Vivek Kashiwale, of the Bird by Vineet restaurant in Leeds.
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A Super email
On 1 Feb 2009, at 17:13, Dan Fox wrote:
Dear Pat,
I love curry. I'm sure you've heard that before. I've spent some time in India and grew up in the midlands, UK where I enjoyed regular take-outs! I own two of your books. (Indian Restaurant Cookbook and your full colour Curry Bible) but it was always easier just to phone the local delivery people.
Four months ago my wife and I moved to Vancouver Island, Canada. No Indian takeaways. One local restaurant serving bland "Canadian curry". Oh dear oh dear. There was only one thing for it. I dug out your books and decided to give them a go.
I went to the mainland. Spent $160 on whole spices. $50 on an electric spice grinder. And $100 on air-tight plastic containers. Quite an investment!
Then I set about making Tikka Madras Curry (page 89 of the Curry Bible).
I don't mind telling you that I called you many unpleasant names during the next three or four hours as I delved deeper and deeper into the recipe and realised just how complex it was ... I'm sure you can imagine what it's like when you start from the beginning and you have to make everything from grinding your own garam massala, to gravies - the works ... marinated my chicken in your yoghurty tandoori loveliness,
But I did it .... and it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FINALLY I had managed to recreate that "special taste" that I missed so dearly.
Next, I decided to cook some more for my new Canadian friends to show them what a curry should really taste like.
OH MY, was I popular that night! Imagine how good it felt to be in a room full of eight people and hearing them all go 'MMMMMMMM!!!!! This is like nothing I've ever tasted! The flavours are amazing !!! Wow !!!!!!!!!!'
Your recipes are not for the faint hearted. And it took necessity for me to give them a go. But I am so glad I did.
So thank you Pat for taking the time to publish your books !!! It's so satisfying to finally be able to recreate that 'special curry taste' that I'd previously only known in restaurants and take-outs for my wife and I (and my ever growing bunch of Canadian friends / curry-converts!)
Best wishes and spiciest regards,
Dan and Vicky Fox
Me and my spice drawer!
My first attempt at chicken tikka about to go under the grill ... (I cut the chicken much bigger these days)
Caramelising Onions
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Revisit us soon for updated snippets. To go to our News page please click here
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