Curry Recipes Online
Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: Mark J on January 20, 2007, 01:46 PM
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Just had a really interesting night at my local BIR, as a one off for the regulars and to raise money they did a race night which was good fun with a buffet of various dishes, at the end of the night one of the owners invited me into the kitchen for a natter and a look around.
I quized him on pastes added at the end of the final dish cooking and he said generally they dont but do in some dishes like rogan josh, I have already asked him about preparing tomato paste and they do fry it with garlic much as CP described.
He knows about cr0 and is thinking of doing a cooking course for us, this place has the taste so it maybe worthwhile if we can get enough of us to commit.
I saw a pasanda being cooked whilst I was in the kitchen and something amazed me, they had 3 x ~3 inch long casia sticks cooking in a single portion!, I saw the chef fish them out and asked him if that was a dish for staff but he said no it was for a customer.
I stuck my hand in their tandoor as well and lost all the hair on my hand, bloody hot those restaurant tandoors!
Amongst the ingredients at the side of the cooker i saw 2 tubs of goo, one was masala red sauce and the other was a pale gold. I asked him if this was the creamy nut base for pasanda, korma etc and he said yes.
He had 1 tub of ginger/garlic paste and 1 tub of just garlic paste, he also said they used the garlic flakes you can buy in the asian grocers but only for certain dishes like lamb garlic, tarka dhall etc
The pre fried onions had red bits in, I guess that was tomato.
He made a big thing about the 'stock' being the secret to any indian restaurant, I told him we had loads of different recipes for it and asked him for a sample which he gave me. It looks quite brown but on tasting it is very bland, there is the hint of spice and maybe a hint of carrot in it. Compared to our bases I would say it is more bland, more salty and a little sweet.
I cooked with this base and did a vindaloo with basaar mix, unfortunately I got the proportion of base and spice wrong and made a pigs ear of it, ah well (unfamiliar recipe)
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Great post Mark.
Did they have dry spices (turmeric, corriander etc) near the cooking area and did you see them adding these dry spices to the final dish ?
Could I suggest you try Jaspers base - use fresh turmeric & paprika. I've tried most bases on here and it is by far the best IMHO. I'd love to know if it is close to the base that the chef gave you.
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They certainly did, they had containers with spice mix, chilli powder, pre cooked onions, methi leaf, sugar, salt, pre cooked peppers and probably quite a few more I cant remember
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Excellent post Mark and lets hope they come up with the goods.
Quote...... cooked with this base and did a vindaloo with basaar mix, unfortunately I got the proportion of base and spice wrong and made a pigs ear of it, ah well (unfamiliar recipe)........... Would that be a pigs ear vindaloo then.... new to me also ;D ;D ;D
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Very interesting post, Mark. I know this sounds off the wall, but maybe they put onion skins in the broth to give it that brown color.
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Mark, was there any hint of the taste and smell in the base alone?
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YF: I dont think so, maybe a hint but nothing compared to the taste and smell you get from a main dish from this place
You can smell this restaurant around the town in a 300 yard radius
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He made a big thing about the 'stock' being the secret to any indian restaurant
Thanks for this MarkJ,
When he refers to it as "stock", do you think he's referring to what we call "curry base", or do you think he is inferring that there actually is some sort of stock (in it?) too?
Regards,
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You can smell this restaurant around the town in a 300 yard radius
I wonder if they would let you visit the kitchen from the tme they open one day. Presumably, at that time, there is virtually no smell. Then they start undertaking various tasks and at some point the smell starts to build up. You may then be able to ascertain where the smell is coming from.
I've noticed 'that smell' coming from BIRs at least one or two hours before they open in the evening.
Regards
George
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They seem to have 2 smells - the savoury one before opening, then it all goes Smokey when the punters turn up!
A8
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I guess that the smokey smell in the restaurant is from the tandoor cooking.
As for the savoury onion type smell, that is sometimes produced in the mornings when they are preparing for the lunchtime and/or evening trade.
I have noticed this smell coming from houses where Bangladeshis and Pakistanis live, so it can't be that difficult to do at home.
Maybe one day I will knock on a door and see if I can see what they are doing ;D
KP(V)
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He made a big thing about the 'stock' being the secret to any indian restaurant
Thanks for this MarkJ,
When he refers to it as "stock", do you think he's referring to what we call "curry base", or do you think he is inferring that there actually is some sort of stock (in it?) too?
Regards,
I think it was just the base
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I wonder whether we are being too coy about this?
Usually the questions people ask are designed to bring forth some secret
to BIR cooking we dont know but suspect lurks within the kitchens.
Maybe it would be better to just directly approach a BIR and tell them
what we are looking for, a certain taste/smell we cant recreate at home.
I bet you there are a lot of BIRs that will act surprised? - Personally I
dont think there is any secret ingredient. More likey there is a technique
plus a combination of spices which the BIR probably doesnt consider a secret
beyond anything else it creates in the kitchen.
Or there will be plenty of hushed tones, winks and flirtive movements
as if there is a big bag of secret spice locked insided a padlocked cupboard
with "Secret Ingredient" written on the outside - "Reveal on pain of Death"
But i doubt it. The only way forward is to keep asking those who
have direct contact with the world of the BIR. Describe what we are looking for
and ask how its achieved. swhat i think :P
Regards Ashes
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Ashes
I agree with you.
Most good chefs are only too pleased to show you how good they are (just watch them on all the TV cooking programs).
IMHO the only chefs that have something to hide are the 'dirty' chefs who use unclean procedures. I have seen these is many restaurants including Indian ones.
I always think that if you are not allowed near the kitchen, especially on a quiet night like Mon, Tue, Wed then there might be more to worry about other than the smell or flavour! ;)
I say this with some knowledge as my last role was as a project manager for a large American based catering company...... And I have been in a few BIR kitchens over the years!
KP(V)
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I was hoping for a recipe from the take away Ive been delivering from, unfortunately all they told me was a basic curry sauce which we all do anyway. When I probed further as to attain how they produce that specific taste to their curries, they didn't want to know and thought I could easily inform other take-aways in the local area. There is some competition so I suppose being a business they cant take any chances, not that I would tell anyway apart from posting on here of course, which they wouldn't know about. Which brings me to the conclusion that each restaurant/takeaway has what they call their own little secret ingredient which makes their dishes what they think is the best and they won't reveal everything to us.
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There is no secret ingriedient. Its the method.
Regards
Andy
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I was going to the takeaway one evening, last year, and there was this wonderful aroma.
So I asked what they were doing
They were frying garlic (in curry gravy oil) and preparing another curry too
They regularly cook several dishes at the same time
I have seen them fry the garlic before and the pan is always flambeeing (from time to time)
Funny thing is, you aren't so aware of it, if you are in the kitchen.
Whenever I am cooking, and my wife is coming home from work, she says you can smell it from at the top of the road!
That really surprises me because it doesn't seem that strong
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There is no secret ingriedient. Its the method.
Regards
Andy
Hear hear, you are sooo right Andy, but I have got to know these guys & gals now and this is all part of the chase; the hunt for the holy grail, etc. Cooking is not something you can learn by post, it requires someone to show you. As YF says you can't demonstrate taste and smell with a piccy.
It is a pity we can't invent/come up with a standard simple process + ingredients that everyone can experiment with to get the idea and result; you know, like a chemistry experiment in school. I guess that would spoil the fun of learning though, and the banter on the Forum.