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Curry Base Recipes => Curry Base Chat => Topic started by: Yousef on March 14, 2005, 10:09 AM

Title: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: Yousef on March 14, 2005, 10:09 AM: Dear All,

Is this Curry Base posted by Pete the closest one to date?
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=108.0

Or is this the best one to date
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3.0

Can anyone who has cooked the lot including others on this site post feedback on the one to use.

I have tried Mutleys and was not that happy in the end, i tried Pete's one using the Balti Paste but again not impressed after comparison with a curry house.
Very frustrating this game >:(

All the best and keep searching
Stew :D
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: pete on March 14, 2005, 01:16 PM: After doing direct comparisons, I am still not totally satisfied.
Bruce Edwards sauce (curry house cookery) is very good
The curry base I was given ,where emphasis is placed on the browning of the ginger garlic, is probably a bit better.
I don't understand why the Brick Lane thin yellow sauce isn't totally right.
I saw it made.
Then of course there is the Muttley base which I took to a couple of takeaways and asked their opinion.
The base sauce I bought as a sample, tasted absolutely delicious.
It had the missing taste.
When ,I have a proper bought curry to compare my cooking to, all my home results fall slightly short of the mark.
I don't know why.
Without comparison they taste very good, and they look exact.
I will keep trying.
We need someone to see the base made from start to finish.
Does anyone feel they have a 100% result?
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: ghanna on March 14, 2005, 01:20 PM: Hello
i try-ed the three sauces, all of them are very very good but i am afraid to say there is some thing missing ?.
A special kind of taste i can not duplicate , a very nice taste .
May be they are using ?spices that we do not know of .
I hope that someone can discover what is it.
Please come back and tell us all if any one know, i will do the same.
thanks
ghanna
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: joe2 on March 14, 2005, 07:02 PM: The curry bases on this site are very good - and the effort made by some of the people is titanic, but I think we all know that its still not quite right for some reason.
I'm quite happy to continually use the bases we have forever, and i'll always be reasonably contented, but - equal to a good restaurant curry TASTE ?......... well no.
The Holy Grail is when we can truly say that our curry is indistinguishable from our favourite curry house. Lets keep at it. However, well done everybody, - of course especially Pete.
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: pete on March 14, 2005, 09:00 PM: I honestly believe that the answer to the perfect curry lies in the base.
Maybe it does come down to the quantity you cook in.
Maybe if you used a sack of onions it would somehow affect the flavour.
I don't believe that there are any unknown ingredients or techniques.
It just doesn't make sense, and I really want to know.
For me this is not a recipe, it's far more.
When I took Muttleys recipe to a couple of takeaways, all they said was that it was missing salt and a little too thick.
That's how stupid this is.
I can't even take the word of a indian chef, who cooks it.
Reubik's cube had nothing on this.
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: Graeme on March 14, 2005, 10:50 PM: Hi all,

I ended my posts a few years ago like this...

graeme (of I can't make a good curry, i give up fame, etc...)

this last bit refered to a post I once made about how i had tryed and in
my opinion failed.

Its still true I guess :-)
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: ghanna on March 15, 2005, 09:09 AM: Hello pete
thank you very much for sharing all this information with all of us.
You are a great person
pete there are a lot of indian chefs that speak very good english , but when i ask them they laugh and tell me TRADE SECRETS.
even if they are prepared to show you who they do it ,they alaways keep the secret ingrediend to themselfs.they will show you the very basic ingredients but not that important ingredient that will make the difference
i will give you an exapmle about French pastry i tryed for years to duplicate the crispness of it but failed , i went to different classes her and abroad as well but without luck at all .
every chef and some of them are first class pastry chefs avoided talking about this subject laughed at me and told me TRADE SECRETS, but at the end i dicovered it .
A very old chef that lift the business long time ago told me, i made the pastry and added this ingredient and it was spot on.
Please pete donot loose hope try and i am sure that you are going to discover it at the end .
these chefs are very good in hiding their secret ingredient.
GOD bless you all
ghanna
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: grimmo on March 15, 2005, 09:32 AM: Hi,

If it makes anyone feel any better I share your frustration. I tried Petes recipe with good results, I have since tried Mutleys, a scaled up version of the Brick Lane demo base (cooked over a longer time period) and also the one from the scanned in pages on one of the threads on here.

Each one has been good but I've managed to get something not quite right each time, and hence I've told myself that this will be why it doesnt have that taste.

The best result I've had overall has been using the Pathia recipe from the Chepstow demo (sorry I forget author names) which was almost there but still not quite! It just lacked something thats hard to put your finger on...

I went on the Brick Lane lesson last week, and when I get a chance over the next couple of days, I will write it up. Whilst it won't really add anything new to what is already known, it's a couple of new recipe variations to go in the pot.

I think the best bet to take the forward is for someone to find a decent curry house and to offer the owner your services to do a days work in the kitchen for free (or maybe even pay them for the privelage!). ?I've already told my other half that that's what I'd like to do for my 30th at the end of the year (sad I know!).
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: ghanna on March 15, 2005, 09:46 AM: Hello again
some of the chefs are very honest and they will tell you straight away no it is a trade secret and they will leave you and go .
some of them will deceive you and teach you the method and ?ONLY ?the basic ingredients and of course you are going to pay them at the end without knowing that they kept that very important ingredient secret.
please be very careful , i was not .
I lost a lot of money and time on courses and restaurants ?her and abroad as well.specally in FRANCE .
this is my experience with chefs and their trade secrets
i believe in sharing and enjoying food . any one interested to know the secret ingredients of the French pastry ?i am willing to tell and it is ?FREE as well
thanks
ghanna
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: Yousef on March 15, 2005, 10:16 AM: I think we will get there, but its going to take people power, we have 156 members and growing, we have had over 10,000 hits already this month so i think its time for everyone on this site to get involved and be a bit medalsome.

Go to you local takeways this week, ask to see your curry being made, ask about the curry sauce, ask how its made, try to purchase a sample, just get in that kitchen and snoop around.

If we all make an effort i know we will crack it.
I do not believe there is an ingredient X, knowledge is power, the Chefs have been learning since the 70s.?

Spend a ?10 and get that recipe this weekend.
Stew ;D
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: Mark J on March 15, 2005, 01:57 PM: My feeling on this whole subject is that we have all of the ingredients required and all that is needed is technique and to introduce other aspects of the BIR cooking process.

I believe as Pete does the base is very important, I have observed a few meals being cooked in BIR kitchens and the ingredients, bar the base, are no suprise. They all use a special spice mixture that they claim is secret and handed down in the family for generations etc, this is rubbish, it is just different variantions of curry powder that they have made up.

To my mind the secret is a combination of the recipes we already have plus the unique way a BIR cooks the meals, they have a huge pot of base sauce that is usually on the go for a few days. Also when you go to a BIR you are not exposed massively to the cooking process as you are when you cook it yourself, i.e. your smell and taste aren't numbed.

I will try this weekend to get my wife to cook one of my dishes and see if that makes any difference, I suspect it will

regards

Mark
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: pete on March 15, 2005, 07:49 PM: I spoke to a chef and he actually wrote down the recipe.
He is a really nice man and I am sure that what he gave me is accurate.
There is no deception.
My only misgiving is that it seems very familiar.
I believe him, when he says, there are no other ingredients in the restaurant gravy pot.
I don't think there is a conspiracy to hide anything.
So, here it is:-

Stage 1:-

1 lb onion
1 tablespoon garlic/ginger puree
5% tomato puree (I assume he meant that as a percentage of the? overall amount)
He said use pureed tinned tomatoes or paste.
Both were ok.
1 small green pepper
2 teaspoon salt
Water (you'll have to guess the amount)

Boil the above for at least an hour and then puree

Stage 2:-

Spices? 2 teaspoon mix spice
This is Curry powder,Paprika,Turmeric,Cummin,Coriander in equal proportions
Salt as required
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon dried fenugreek
1 teaspoon balti paste

Also:-
1 tablespoon garlic/ginger puree
3 teaspoon oil

Add the spices to the pureed onion mix
Heat the oil and fry the garlic ginger until brown
Then pour in the onion mix (watch out for spluttering)
Cook for at least ten minutes and it?s ready

I think it might be an idea to use vegetable ghee instead of oil
(ghee from an asian shop)

He also said that his vegetables are boiled in simply water.
No spices.
I would also add that his curries are some of the best, I have ever tasted
If the gravy doesn't work, then it MUST be down to scale.
Try it again with ten times the ingredients!
Right then....someone else get a recipe to compare.
I bet it will be just like this, or like the thin yellow gravy from Bengali Cuisine
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: Yousef on March 15, 2005, 08:50 PM: Pete,

As always you are the master.
I shall be trying this at the weekend.
Again no suprise at all on this recipe, very similar to the one i cooked the other day.

Ill give my feedback later.
Its so frustrating that the curry house can bang out a wicked madras curry for ?4.00 yet i can not re-create one at home at all thats on the same level.

right i am off to kidnapp a chef...ho ho
Stew
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: Curry King on March 16, 2005, 09:53 AM: Im very happy with my base sauce, a variation of petes.

I now don't freeze it and just leave it in the fridge, I have found the taste improves after a couple of days.
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: grimmo on March 16, 2005, 10:44 AM: that interesting - it has a relatively low oil content. I hope this recipe proves the one, as I'm finding that increasing amounts of oil and ghee having been going into mine each time and all that sat fat can't be good for the insides! (100 odd calories per TBSP of veg oil?!)

Going on past attempts - especially Kris Dillons - I would expect this recipe to perhaps have an onion-y end result (aftertaste). Does anyone else every find that sometimes? It usually repeats big time if it does.

This sounds like a good one to try though - nice one Pete!
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: Curry King on March 16, 2005, 01:40 PM: Ive found that you can add as little or as much oil as you like. I used to put in a lot of oil in order to produce enough that I can scrape it of the top but I don't bother now. I put in approx 500ml probably less and leave it in the gravy.
Title: Re: How Close Is Your Curry Sauce Now!
Post by: curryqueen on March 16, 2005, 07:01 PM: Hi Grimmo,

I am anxiously awaiting for the recipes from the Brick Lane restaurant. How did you find the whole cooking experience? Did you find it an exhilerating experience never to be forgotton, or, did you not think it was worth the drag there? Recipes please, can't wait which I am sure most others can't either.
:D