Curry Recipes Online
British Indian Restaurant Recipes - Main Dishes => BIR Main Dishes Chat => Topic started by: Secret Santa on October 24, 2009, 08:00 PM
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A couple of posts I've read recently have made me wonder if anyone remembers the taste of the old style Bhuna. You couldn't mistake it for anything else, it was very savoury, and delicious, and unlike any other curry.
I recently made CK's bhuna which has had rave reviews from many on here, but to me it was a very ordinary curry which was a long long way off the real deal.
So is there anyone, apart from me, who is totally dissatisfied with the bhuna recipes on this forum, or anywhere else for that matter, and longs for a taste of the old fashioned ones?
BTW CK I'm not having a go at you specifically, it was just that yours was the most recent one I'd tried. I've had Bhunas in BIRs that were worse!
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Hi SS,
I have a persistant memory of a place when I was a student in Leeds around 1982.
The bhuna there was to die for - thick tasty sauce and loads of it.
I know what you mean about the typical bhuna recipes on this forum but would also suggest that a lot of other recipes are too similar compared to my memories of long ago BIR food.
Sometimes I wonder if my taste buds have changed in all these years. When I was eating curries 27 years ago it was quite a new taste for me and now it isn't.
On a positive note I can now cook a curry better than a ready meal or a bad BIR so there is some progress to be had - I may investigate the spiced/reclaimed oil ideas next.
Nobody said this would be easy.
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The first Indian restaurant I ate in, was in Glasgow in the early 70s called the Lahore. A tacky looking place, now when I think of it with chipped plates, but the food was out of this world. The Bhuna they cooked was a dryish dish with aromatic savoury spices and just the right amount of garlic coming thru'. mmmm brings back memories. Think I know where your coming from SS.
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hi guys maybe PP or anyone else could go to the shish mahal in glasgow if it is the same chef that has beeen there for 30 years maybe he could shed some light? i know it is in the bad reviews section but that only 1 person has given it bad press, pp and another have questioned that!
regards
gary ;)
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i'd put this in the madras category in terms of ease of cracking - no chance.
it's what appears a very simple dish that we're after and this is when it get's very difficult to replicate.
i use the ashoka bhuna korahi a lot but it's not what Secret Santa is talking of. i have tried quite a few off the site including CK's but again they don't quite do it for me either. having looked at the ashoka plain bhuna recipe i've written out the following recipe for me to try next time i have base:
oil 4 tbs, chopped onion 4 tbsp, g/g paste 1 tsp, tom puree 1 tbsp, bassar 1 tsp, base, onion paste.
i've left out chilli and chopped coriander as i'm sure they are defo not in the dish. i've also gone for bassar as the spice mix as i feel it get's u closer to that 70's taste than the other spice mixes i use. i guess some would have to add methi as an ingredient.
ps i'd add that i like the dopiaza version a tad better down to the combination of smooth and crisp onion in the sauce.
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I have a persistant memory of a place when I was a student in Leeds around 1982.
The bhuna there was to die for - thick tasty sauce and loads of it.
I too was a student in Leeds, 1982-85; I have never found anywhere since , the flavour of the grub in the 'Islamabad', opposite the leeds University Parkinson Building. I've been chasing it ever since, as has Secret Santa I think. There were a couple of other good 'cheepies' just up the road: Chakwells and Nafees, as I recall!
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Intersting Post, I too long for the old taste but it does seem to have been lost in the mist of time. Next time I am up in Glasgow I will go to The Shish Mahal and have a go with the Bhuna. It was a thick dryish sauce back then and a real favourite. The Kohinoor and the Shish competed in the infamous Gibson Street beside Glasgow University, happy memories and great food. My other favourite was Chicken Biriani with the quarter boiled egg through the rice and chicken with a typical curry sauce of the time.
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I too long for the old taste but it does seem to have been lost in the mist of time
I really don't see this to be the case PP. BIR fare may have changed somewhat (dishes, recipes, ingredients, etc), throughout the years, but many BIRs still produce curries from "yesteryear" (i.e. the 1980s), in my opinion.
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I too long for the old taste but it does seem to have been lost in the mist of time
I really don't see this to be the case PP. BIR fare may have changed somewhat (dishes, recipes, ingredients, etc), throughout the years, but many BIRs still produce curries from "yesteryear" (i.e. the 1980s), in my opinion.
I thought you lived in Australia CA ? Have you moved back to UK ? Do they have BIR's in Australia (AIR's) producing curries like they used to here in UK in the 80's ? :-\
How can you possibly know whether BIR's here are still producing curries from the 80's ... I don't know of any .. if there are, they must be as rare as rocking horse sh*t. ::)
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but many BIRs still produce curries from "yesteryear" (i.e. the 1980s), in my opinion.
Really? Excellent news, care to name a few of those 'many' BIRs that do? I for one would be very grateful.
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How can you possibly know whether BIR's here are still producing curries from the 80's ... I don't know of any .. if there are, they must be as rare as rocking horse sh*t. ::)
Let's put it this way SnS; up until the time I was last there (i.e. a couple of years ago, now, admittedly) I could, in my opinion, get curries that were no different to those I recall from the 1980s.
So, unless something drastic has happened to these BIRs in the past couple of years (and friends, who frequent these BIRs, assure me that nothing has), then I presume that this is still the case.....
....but good luck hunting for your rocking horse sh*t! ;)
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Excellent news, care to name a few of those 'many' BIRs that do? I for one would be very grateful.
We have discussed this before and I have given you several recommendations SS (see previous posts on the same topic and refer to the "Highly Recommended BIRs" Section of the forum).
Have you tried any of them yet?
As they say, you can take a (rocking) horse to water but you can't make it drink... ;)
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Let's put it this way SnS; up until the time I was last there (i.e. a couple of years ago, now, admittedly) I could, in my opinion, get curries that were no different to those I recall from the 1980s.
UK has changed dramatically...(thanks to Blair, Brown and Co) - and that includes BIRs
... so unless you've regularly visited UK during the last 10 years or so (which I'm sure you haven't), you cannot possibly make comments (opinion or otherwise) such as "many BIRs still produce curries from "yesteryear".
I believe PanPot, who you contradicted, actually lives in UK.
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I think the whole BIR business has changed beyond recognition over the last 20 odd years. In the 60's and 70's most BIR's were independent small family enterprises, the owners were in many cases also the chefs and took great pride in what they did, their reputation and therefore livelihood depended on providing good food and looking after their customers.
During the 80's and since we have seen the growth of the BIIR (British Industry of Indian Restaurants) with its own trade magazine(s), bodies, restaurant chains (national and local) and the proliferation of pre-prepared ingredients, take a look at the Booker trade catalogue sometime.
The days of the individual chef/proprietor are long gone and sadly I fear the knowledge base that was so cleverly and carefully built by them is fast disappearing also. These days it seems we have restaurants run by bean counters who through market research dictate that what the customer wants is fast service, good food and they want it cheap. As anyone who has worked in any service industry can tell you, only two of those conditions can be met at once, so invariably the quality of the food suffers.
More people are eating out than ever (recession, what recession?) but what are they eating? The Korma and the CTM now dominate and make no bones about this, any chef will tell you the easiest way to disguise poor/cheap ingredients is to smother them in fat and/or sugar so this suits the restaurant owners and the non-discriminating customer down to the ground. What suffers of course is the trickier, more difficult to 'fake' dishes, like bhuna, madras, etc. as the whole industry moves ever further 'downmarket' in attempting to pander to the lowest-common-denominator with ever blander more stanardised fare in the pursuit of greater profit.
If you still have an old style artisan chef/owner run BIR or T/A local then count your blessings and give them your custom, they are a dying breed unfortunately.
Rant over, regards
CoR
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Guys I do live again in the UK and travel extensively with my business and as I have pointed out I make it my duty to enjoy Indian food wherever I go. I have to say there are regional variations from the spelling of dishes to how they even look and taste. I suspect our own tastebuds were massively shocked into a new dimension of reality when we first indulged way back when the typical British food served up to families would have been fairly bland and the only spice salt and pepper. The impact I believe would have been an intense explosion of experience and as such will have been recorded in our brains with a depth that later acclimatisation and regular consumption may well cause to distort our taste bud feedback to our brains. I am probably talking crap here (enhanced greatly from the effects of eating too much curry) but maybe too as we age our sensory experience of taste diminishes. I suppose I still love curry and my love of cooking it will never leave me but I do believe there was something different back then.
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COR I absolutely agree with you here. At The Ashoka I was truly inspired and all I learned has taking my cooking to a new level yet I was surprised that they used Pataks Tandoori Paste. I also know that in the chains the cooking is absolutely standardised and srticlty adheared too, while it ensures high quality in The Ashoka Brand it may well not be the case elsewhere. PP
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This is probably the or one of the very best posts I have ever read on Indian cooking and the problems we all have with it from time to time. Excellent post PP. ;D
Guys I do live again in the UK and travel extensively with my business and as I have pointed out I make it my duty to enjoy Indian food wherever I go. I have to say there are regional variations from the spelling of dishes to how they even look and taste. I suspect our own tastebuds were massively shocked into a new dimension of reality when we first indulged way back when the typical British food served up to families would have been fairly bland and the only spice salt and pepper. The impact I believe would have been an intense explosion of experience and as such will have been recorded in our brains with a depth that later acclimatisation and regular consumption may well cause to distort our taste bud feedback to our brains. I am probably talking crap here (enhanced greatly from the effects of eating too much curry) but maybe too as we age our sensory experience of taste diminishes. I suppose I still love curry and my love of cooking it will never leave me but I do believe there was something different back then.
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My favourite dish has always been a Lamb Bhuna. 90% of restaurants in my area get it totally wrong, but there are a couple that get it right. A lovely very tasty thick sauce. I've noticed that most Bhuna recipes on this website call for the block standard 1 level teaspoon of Garlic paste and 1 level teaspoon of ginger paste, that seems to go for most recipes on here.
Bhuna has a lot more garlic in it than that. I use around 4-6 cloves of garlic which I squeeze through a garlic press, then add to the onions when they are nearly done. It is very important not to burn the garlic as it will impair a bitter taste to the dish which would totally spoil the Bhuna.
Fresh Chopped Coriander should be added at the final stage just before serving.
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'Ere Secret Satan, there's a curryhouse in Huddersfield that does old style curries but it's an absolute shithole...we found it purely by accident...lovely curry but it'll have you shitting through the eye of a needle after a few hours, their side dishes were terrible.....If you're ever round Hudds I'll give you the address....as long as you don't mind waking up the next morning with an arsehole like a blood orange, that is!
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Can you be a little bit more specific and stop beating aroung the bush please Domi? ;D
We named one of my favourites "smellies" and I fondly recollect my wife running from it gagging from the "smell" :-\ Still, I got to eat her curry too! I guess they had an off night! Also a shtihole! :-X
I remember the guy behind the counter (all of 16 years old) proudly telling me of the dog shti down the banister when they first moved in...then proudly proclaimed that it was, in fact, still there! :o
Great tasting food though! :-\
PS: they got closed down eventually...crying shame, in my opinon! So CHEAP too! :P
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LOL! CA...that sent a cold shiver down my spine - which is preferable to the hot stuff dripping down me legs pmsl :D
This place was cheap too, sadly, I do have standards (most of them low, but not THAT low) :( Saves on colonic irrigation though - every cloud has a silver lining, eh? :D