Stefanie (avid curry eater) wrote :

Now I am not going to ask you for a recipe as you expressly ask us
not to but my favourite type of curry is a chicken pathia (sweet
sour and hot) and is done to a fantastic standard by my  local curry
house.  Do you have any knowledge of which region of India / elsewhere
this might come from to aid me in my search for a recipe as I have had
no luck and have tried most sites / books now... and I am desperate to
find one!

Pathia (or patia) is Parsee dish. The Parsees originally came from 
Persia centuries ago and settled principally in Gujarat and around 
Bombay.

The problem with your quest is that a restaurant patia will be just 
that - a traditional dish adapted to restaurant methods and customer
preferences. So you could discover the most wonderful authentic recipe
from a Parsee family in Gujarat and still be disappointed . Although you
might have an excellent dish in front of you after you cooked it it would
just not be the same as your restaurant-style favourite.

I sympathise. That is why I started writing recipes in the 
restaurant style to satisfy my own quest for my restaurant 
favourites. Unfortunately, I cannot help you myself as I have not
got round to working out a patia yet.

I can only recommend my favourite curry book of all time and that is
"50 Great Curries of India" by Camellia Panjabi and published by
Kyle Cathie. It is a fabulous book with lovely recipes although,
naturally, not in the restaurant syle. She has a recipe for Prawn
Patia which I have not yet tried but the photograph just makes your
mouth water! It might be near to your restaurant favourite or it
might give you some clues about how to develop you own recipe.
Remember though that most restaurant dishes rely on their basic
curry sauce as a foundation. So you could make some of my BSC and
adapt Camellia Panjabi's recipe around it. That might work (no
guarantees though!!!)