Curry Recipes Online
Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: MathematicalPhysicist on May 25, 2006, 11:14 AM
-
Hail fellow curry lovers,
After spending a while as a passive observer of this forum, and sharing in the joy of curry and the missery of the "close but no cigar" home curry cooking experience, I had a stroke of luck last night that I felt you should all know about. Cutting a long story short, my girlfriend and I were scavenging around a wee scottish town at close to midnight trying to find somewhere to get a good curry when we stumbled across a tandoori takeaway. At 11:50 we didn't dare pass by, but neither of us had been there before (and you know how that can go!) so we we're a little hessitant. Anyway, the place smelled wonderful and there was a queue at the door (and no pubs around that I could see), so in we went, the last customers. Now, my girldfriend is Pakistani and she frequently manages to get us some kind of better-than-normal treatment in these places and last night was no exception. When all the others had left and we were the only ones remaining she asked if we could come in and see the kitchen. After 2 minutes of quick and noisy tidying ("In case you think I'm a dirty person", he said!) we got to go into his kitchen and have a look. And it was pretty much what you would expect from a 2-man outlet. Then the amazing bit: my gf asked him outright for the recipe of the base sauce that was sitting in a massive tub in his cooler. And he gave it to us along with cooking instructions. Then, further to that, he cooked our order right in front of us and told us exactly what he was doing. Now 2 things: 1) he was making 2 batches of base sauce over low burner units at the back of the kitchen and one was further along than the other and they both seemed to confirm what he told us about the base sauce, and 2) when we got home and tried it, it was astonishingly delicsious and full of that what-the-hell-IS-that-? taste we're all trying to recreate. Now don't go thinking that because it was a wee scottish town and I'm scottish that I don't know the taste of a good curry: I've eaten curry all round brittain and in dozens of other countries for decades. So this was the real thing. But there's a catch. NOTHING he told me was revolutionary, nothing hard to do, nothing that isn't right under our noses. So, unless there was some kind of exceptional slight of hand, "the taste" is available from practically any supermarket shelf.
I'll be trying the recipe out today and will give you all the feedback. Strange, I already feel like I'm going to fail!
Andrew
-
Excellent, any chance of the recipe so we can try as well 8)
-
Hi Andrew,
What a spot of luck for you and your girlfriend! I hope the recipe turns out alright too and then you can visit this take-away every so often to get more recipes. Can't wait to hear how its gone down. CQ
-
Well done MathematicalPhysicist now all that remains is for you to post the recipe!
Stew 8)
-
Please post wether you fail or not it could be very interesting :-\
-
Yes please,im looking forward to this post ;)
-
i ask why go to lengths of 200 word essay and not place your findings?
-
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm? :-X
-
So how did it turn out ? ;)
-
:-\Sorry folks, but some personal crap got in the way of the "dawning of a new home curry epoch" base sauce tryout a few days ago. Today (sunday) is the the new epoch starting date. I'll have it cooked by late afternoon and post my findings. Apologies for the let down.
Andrew
-
em, me again. Correction: today is Saturday!! (what can I say? I'm a scientist, give me a break)
-
Np hope to hear from you soon ;D
-
Hi, All,
I have been looking through this site now for hours especially the stuff on the rearch for the elusive secret base. I am delighted that the MathematicalPhysicist is claiming that he has made the breakthrough. I just logged on this morning to be inspired to make a good Butter Chicken and ended up on the wild goose chase.
I am new to the site and of course have loved eating and cooking curries for over 30 years. I have always felt there was a mystery to the art and even believed there was a secret ingredient that hooked us all to the stuff.
I just dont understand why the recipie wasnt posted with the great late night story. Please dont start another month long debate. I am sure beginners would lijke to have the very latest tried and tested recipies that they can cook with confidence before delving in to the fascinating journey most of you have been on all these years.
You are all inspirational and I am absolutely grateful to all of you for putting in the years of hard graft before I found you. thanks and I cant wait for the outcome.
Does anyone have a good butter chicken recipy especially like the excelent versions finding there way into some of Glasgow's top curry houses.
cheers Panpot
-
Hi Panpot,
I left a Butter Chicken recipe in the 'authentic recipes' section a couple of weeks ago. Take a look at it. Its not made with a particular gravy but it works well. (i'd like to hear if it can be done with a gravy)!
Yes I agree that most curries must be made with the base gravy that everyone is trying to master but there must be more than just this in the BIR cooking!
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,921.0.html
Buzz
-
So Mathematical how did it turn out ?
-
So Mathematically we do?
-
Looks like Mathematically we dont lol ;D
-
It's as we feared, once someone boasts they know the Holy Grail of BIR cooking, the Indian Restaurant Opus Dei send an albino monk and he's never heard of again.
We probably need a 'Curry code'
:)
-
Well, delay's are clearly my strong point. And, after another series of them, here is the final report. I made the base sauce and then used it to make a bhoona sauce with tikka-d chicken, exactly as the guy did in the takeaway. The result? My brothers, parents and friends all loved it, and I was disapointed. They loved it because it tasted nice and they had no other expectations. But I had tasted the curry it was meant to be, and it sure wasn't that. I'm going to go back in and proposition this guy with some cash in return for an actual hands on cooking session with him - maybe ?200 for a whole evening starting with making the base sauce (done by ME, him telling me what to do) and then making the curries with him as the orders come in. I don't know if he'll be up for it, but if I can convince him I won't be compettition, I can't see why he'd refuse the cash. Oh well, apllogies for the delay and I'm off to try a few curries from the recipes on here. Before I go, here's a picture of the finished dish:
(http://)
-
Hope you don't mind me resizing it for you, looks great by the way 8)
-
It looks the part
-
so is there any chance we could see this recipe please! ::)
-
The recipe:
The reason I held back from giving it was that he told me ingredients and procedure, not quantities, so I wanted to give it a trial run to let me guage what to give as the quantities.
BASE SAUCE
10 large onions, roughly chopped.
3 large tablespoons of cumin seeds very lightly toasted
about 1 litre of water.
Bring it all to the boil and then simmer for about 45 mins. Then, puree to a very fine soupy texture. Add 0.5 liters of sunflower oil and return to a low heat for about an hour until the onion particles have lost most of their water content and have browned slightly in the frying process. TURN OFF THE HEAT and immediately add 2 teaspoons of turmeric and 1.5 teaspoons of salt and 0.5 teaspoons of chilli powder. Then leave to cool.
THE CURRY (for 2 - 3 people)
Get some sunflower oil hot in a pan and add 2 tablespoons of homemade (grind in a pestle and mortar) ginger and garlic paste made in a 1:1 ratio by volume. Stir this constantly until it lightly browns - nothing extreme. Now add 2 - 3 tablespoons of tomato puree (the typical double concentrate one) and 2 teaspoons more of ground cumin this time. Stir for about 1 minute. Put in 1/2 a green pepper chopped quite small and half and onion chopped quite small. Then laddle in about 0.3 litres of the base sauce after stirring it to incorporate the oil. Once this reaches a good rolling boil/fry chuck in 3 chichen breasts previously grilled tikka stylie (as per some other reliable recipe from here). Turn the heat to medium and give it a further 5 minutes and you're done. With the heat off chuck in a good helping of chopped fresh coriander and there you go.
-
MathematicalPhysicist,
Thanks for posting this and i suppose until i have tried it i can't comment but surely a curry that consists of only Turmeric and Cumin will have no taste at all? :o
Maybe i am wrong but no restaurant spice mix in the base or final curry does not add upto me.
Stew :o
-
I have to say there's nothing much different there as far as the base is concerned. And I agree there seems to be something missing.
I made the Bruce Edwards base at the weekend and tried another experimental curry yesterday.
4 tbsp sunflower oil heated and then fry off a medium Spanish onion finely chopped until golden (not crispy). Add a few slices of chopped red and green pepper, then add 1 tbsp of garlic/ginger paste (50:50 like yours) and fry off until it begins to catch (a minute or two). Then add one large chicken breast cut into suitable pieces.
Fry with stirring until the chicken is picking up colour, then add 1 tbsp of the Bruce Edwards spice mix (modified with mustard seeds also included), 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp chilli, 2 tsp ground Methi leaves (I like Methi) and fry some more (I added about another 1-2 tbsp oil at this stage as it got a bit too dry (it was an experiment, remember, and I also misread/didn't read my notes and it should have been 1 tsp of the spice mix).
Then add one portion (200g) of the curry base. Cook on low heat until chicken done, then add another tbsp garlic/ginger and plenty of coriander.
I swear that the house smelled just like a curry shop - and I mean JUST like it - and the curry tasted perfect. The gravy gave it a full flavour (miles better than the Khris Dillon one which just has onions in it). I'm sure the fried garlic/ginger is key to the smell, and the quality of the gravy gives the depth I was always missing (plus it definitely improves the smell - I have a thing about that smell :)).
As far as I'm concerned that's it (just about). You get a curry that easily falls within the range of those I've tasted from may various takeaways :)
Need to experiment with pre-cooking the chicken next - I've never been convinced about that as it is juicier when it is cooked from scratch.
-
Hi Snowdog,
Inspirational stuff for a new guy like me. This site is actuallty the best on the whole of the web. It is in severe danger of becoming an obsession in its own right. I am stealing time to check it out and of course every spare thought goes into how to catch up with having a go with the recipies.
Tandoori Chicken with Butter Sauce tonight indeed the chicken is marinading as I type.
I wonder if it is too much for us beginners to ask you guys for a glosary of terms to help us catch up. You see I dont have a clue who Bruce Edwards is and how I would go about trying out his various basics. I even found myself spending half an hour in a big suppermarket in Nice looking for garlic and ginger paste before the penny dropped today that you actuallymake it yourself.
It must make all you regulars wonder but I am sure you will have more and more mebers caught out this wayand given limited time to brouse where do you begin when this site is so wonderful.
There is nothing better than the anticipation of a curry and the smell as you approach your chosen eatery now this site is doing that to me too.
Help
Panpot
-
Doh,
I just found frequently asked questions by Curry King, sorry it ionly proves how mad I am with the excitement of the site. ;)
Panpot
-
Try this Panpot
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,516.0.html
-
Hi again,
I wondered if this little point can help in the 'quest' Last year I watched Rick Stein on his Food Heroes show cook a lamb and spinach curry after visiting an Indian cafe somewhere in England. You probably all seen it too and it is insignificant but the thing that stood out and indeed Stein drew attention to it was that the chef didnt brown the lamb he just added it to cook in the sauce.
I had a go and it was very good but have since lost the recipy maybe this will add something or someone can give a comment on it.
The marinade is calling
Panpot
-
panpot, I'm new here, too. I got the Bruce Edwards stuff from the link you have also found.
If it helps, in simplified form:
Spice Mix
Coriander 8 parts
Turmeric 7 parts
Cumin 5 parts
Curry Powder 4 parts
Paprika 4 parts
I used Rajah Hot Madras curry powder when I did it.
Curry Base
A
sunflower oil 150ml
garlic/ginger puree 2tbsp
Spanish Onions 5 very large (6-8 medium)
carrots 4 large
celery sticks 2 large
radishes 6 large
lemon 1/4 whole
tomato 1 large
green pepper 1/2 medium
red pepper 1/2 medium
green chillies 4
salt 4tsp
Ajowan seeds 1tsp
Vegetable ghee 120g
Coriander leaves 1/4 whole bunch
B
tinned tomato 1
tomato puree 2 tsp
Yoghurt 1 tbsp
Spice Mix from above 3 tbsp
Turmeric 2tsp
C
sunflower oil 550mls
tomato puree 1tbsp
Heat the oil and fry the garlic/ginger until light golden. Add a handful of chopped onions and then 1L of water (this stops it spitting). Add everything listed under A, bring to the boil, and simmer for 1-1 1/2 hours covered.
Add everything under B and simmer for another 20 minutes covered.
Blend to a smooth paste and pass through a sieve (I added any unsieved material back to the blender until I got to the last blender-full).
Clean out the pot and heat the oil from C. Add the tomato puree from C and fry gently until it is all broken up and cooked - about 5 minutes.
Add the sieved material back in along with up to 1L of hot water, stir, and simmer until oil rises to the surface and it darkens a little.
Cool the pan in water and then freeze in portions of 200g.
This is just about what Bruce Edwards says - he's a little vague in places - and I found that the consistency of the gravy was spot on without watering it down (something Bruce Edwards talks about doing).
My plan was to make this in exactly these quantities and this method and then experiment next time to see what happens.
-
Well Snowdog,
You dont sound like a begginer thats for sure thanks for this,its allready printed off for attention tomorrow as the Butter Chicken is about to be cooked.
I have also just printed out the Curry House Cookery article on Bruce Edwards so no TV or DVD tonight. What a site its changed my life
Cheers
panpot
-
Welcome aboard Panpot, enjoy the site
Stew 8)
-
I watched Rick Stein on his Food Heroes show cook a lamb and spinach curry after visiting an Indian cafe somewhere in England. I had a go and it was very good but have since lost the recipy
Here's a link to the recipe if you want to try it again:
http://www.arax15.dsl.pipex.com/
-Mary
-
I've always thought of BIR curries as if they have 3 components:
1. The main taste - the spice mix in the final cooking
2. The background taste - the depth
3. The smell - it brings everything together
It's a bit like a painting where you have the canvas, the background, and the foreground. No one element is enough and it needs the others (does that sound pretentious or what? :o )
Getting the curry taste at the front end isn't that much of a problem, but Bruce Edwards' spice mix is pretty good. The same recipe sheet (and of course this site) has helped enormously with the background flavour - there's so much depth in this one compared to the Khris Dillon 'onions-only' base. And I've also got very close to getting the smell right using the base - I never clicked on before, but the base has an important part to play in that. The Khris Dillon one didn't smell very nice when you were cooking it (and did anyone notice how the ginger and garlic turns the mixture a blue-green colour if they ever tried that one?) It was also pretty bland when you used it and just had a faint savoury smell and taste, but little else.
The Ken Edwards base has a lovely smell whilst cooking on its own, and when you heat it again in the final curry cooking along with nicely browned garlic/ginger it adds a full, sweet smell that is so, so close to the real thing. VERY close :) The base also assists in the up-front flavour, too, so everything is closely woven together for the final curry.
I've got to try some of the other bases on this site - but to be fair (and in a nice way) they're mainly variations on a similar theme, and all of them are a long way away from the Khris Dillon one.
Funnily enough, a friend of mine at work used to work in a fast-food shop which also did curries on the side, and he said they just boil up onions with a mixed muslin bag of spices (but he didn't know which ones).
-
One thing I find that makes the biggest difference to my curries is cooking them a day before I eat them. I always find I dont enjoy a curry nearly as much if I have just cooked it then immediately sit down to eat it.
-
I am probably going mad as I have suggested allready due to the excitement this site is giving me but....... I have been on here for a couple of hours this morning and very carefully typed in a reply that took me an hour easily.
I then posted it to find that it has not been registered and is not showing up even after logging in and out a few times.
I am really pissed off because you see I actually posted what I genuinely believe is the secret and it just disapeared into thin air.
So is there a BIG CHEF watching over us?
I cant be bothered going to all that trouble again and it is now too late since other Saturday things are calling.
Dissapointed but maybe it can be easily explained
Panpot >:(
-
I agree MarkJ they always taste better a few hours later or the following day, I usually make mine in the morning to be eaten that night, there is a huge diference.
-
About the "missing" ingredient. I asked the guy at that time if that really was all there was to making a curry and he laughed at me saying something along the lines of. "The problem with making a curry is that you will never find the real flavour in the spices. It's in the method." And, the curry I had was fantastic and ddin't contain anything except what I listed. The main flavour axis seemed to be cumin/ginger/garlic. Who knows. Something werid as all hell is going on when all of us curry-lovers can't quite get the right taste.
-
Panpot, Ive had posts go missing (but usually cr0 crashes when Im posting so I know its gone)
If I do a big post I always save it in notepad first now
-
I agree MarkJ they always taste better a few hours later or the following day, I usually make mine in the morning to be eaten that night, there is a huge diference.
This one I made seemed to turn a little bitter next day.
I've always found that a genuine takeaway doesn't taste better (as in 'more good') the following day, either, if you microwave it up. I know a lot of people say that it does, but I prefer the fresh taste by a mile. A microwaved one seems to have less overall flavour and is less aromatic, and tastes all 'wrong' (and bitter). And certainly there's an almost complete absence of 'the smell'.
-
I agree snowdog, takeaways are best eaten immediately, I find the same isnt true with home curries (I guess the takeaways have already been sitting around for a while, well the base sauce has anyway)
-
Hi Mark J,
Thanks for putting my mind at rest re the missing posting, it was really frustrating since I had got up real early and had typed away in my madness.
I have really enjoyed what the site has done for me not only the results on the plate but also that you guys are talking me seriously by getting back to me so thanks. Thanks particularly to Buzz for the excellent Butter Sauce with Tandoori Chicken and for Merrymaker for reuniting me with the Rick Stein recipe.
What happened Saturday was that I woke up real early thinking about the site, I must have lost the plot but Buzz's recipe for the Butter Chicken was superb and my wife was delighted with the improvement. I have been eating and cooking curries for over 30 years and good a it too or at least good at using the various recipies from some of the cook books that have come out of famous Glasgow curry houses but Friday nights meal was a leap forward.
I just had to get up and read the Bruce Edwards stuff I had printed off Friday night and got really excited about the opportunity it provided to take my cooking even further. But having read it my mind turned to ''The Quest'' and I began to think I had solved it.
I know before I explain this that it may be overly simple but it might just be what you guys have been trying to solve all this time. Please don't dismiss it out of hand but give it some genuine thought even set up a liitle test with friends or family to check it out.
So here goes, having read Bruce Edwards it seemed that he had written that without a sense of something being missing certainly not a secret ingredient or process or even burning with flame
He had been shown what do do and from this site it seems it is really good stuff so what if.
Have you ever noticed how you can never smell the curry breath on a fellow diner or the scent of garlic from a someone else if you have eaten it too. So what if the fact that we have been informed that we will never be able to recreate the smell and taste at home is not to do with a secret but rather that as we cook our nostrils and tastebuds adjust to the spices and aromas as we cook and so by the time we eat it we are short on the impact as a result.
I was fascinated when I went back to the site later in the day on Saturday that the debate on cooking the day before or in the morning for evening consumption had started, almost proving my theory. What if apart from my idea here the very fact that a curry house kitchen only cooks constantly Indian spices just simply builds up layer and layer of the smell on the walls ceiling etc and that it just cant help smelling the way it does.
If I am right then we will never be able to do it at home unless we cook with gas masks on and then shower and change or even go out for a walk in the fresh air to then return for the maximum effect.
I hope I am wrong because if we can crack it then life will be just perfect.
I wonder
Panpot
-
Try one of the recipes - start with the Bruce Edwards one. Then use it to make a curry, not forgetting to use fried onions and plenty of garlic/ginger puree when making the curry.
Then report back what the house smells like - especially after you go out and then come back in again.
You'll see what I mean ;)
-
Hi Snowdog,
Thanks for that I am off back to Glasgow tomorrow and back here by the end of the week so I intend to pick up all I need for the Bruce Edwards magazine articles and will do what you say on Sunday.
-
Hi panpot, I think you're bang on here and its a topic we've debated hotly over the years!
There does seem to be a desensitisation going on when you cook a spicy meal that you dont get with other forms of cooking IMHO
-
Hi Mark J,
I was hoping I was wrong with my liitle theory and I suspected you guys must have visited it a few times down the years.
If thats all there is to it then so be it so maybe we need to find the ideal method of keeping the scent out of our noses and mouths while cooking. I can see us all with those SARS type masks they wear in the far east when the flu scare is at its height, you never know though it might work.
Whatever is the cause you lot have been and will continue to be an inspiration to all those in the past and future who have found the site and the magic contained within.
Looking forward to Sunday lunch allready and maybe a wee curry in Glasgow before I get back here Saturday night.
Cheers
Panpot
was
-
There seems to be a common theme in many threads here -
"My friends/partner/lover/guests liked/loved it but I wasn't that impressed"
Explanations -
As above - by being involved in the cooking somehow our sense of smell (directly linked to our sense of taste) is somehow different.
There have been a number of experiments that show that taste is dramatically influenced by our expectation - exactly the same pre-prepared meal 'tastes' different depending on where it is served.
Also lots of food tastes different just because you don't cook it yourself. As an extreme example toast I make for myself never is as good as toast made for me!
So could it all be in our mind - has anyone tried serving a home-made BIR-style curry alongside a takeaway and have the 2 compared by guests who don't know which is which?
Another explanation may be that the people posting here are by definition the curry-geeks and our expectations are much higher than our partners who just happen to like a curry but certainly wouldn't spend an entire saturday trying to make one!
-
Good point CH I have never bought a takeaway and compared it along side one of my own, but a very good point indeed.
I get the feeling mine will taste better (I hope) a good experiment to try on mt friends, now there's a thought.
-
Bang on PH, if we cook it it will never live up to our expectations