totally disagree
vegetable ghee is a must don't bother with butter ghee.
all the restaurants in Gloucestershire use vegetable ghee not oil it has a lot more flavour.
they use khyber veg. ghee melted down .

paul

go to the indian grocers and you will find jars of rajah and Nishaan minced garlic,minced garlic and ginger , minced ginger and minced coriander . These are ?1 a jar and are almost as good as the real thing. The restaurants definitely make theirs fresh though.
I make a batch of each and freeze it in ice cube holders. THis is as good as fresh

Paul

ghanna
i think you will find that any decent restaurant/takeaway will have an enormous walk in fridge at the back somewhere and store everything in this including left over base sauce and unused cooked chicken, bread dough etc.
I have been in these walk in fridges in two restaurants.
i witnessed the boiling of the bones in one restauarnt and there was not a scrap left out of the fridge at the end of the day.
The whole place was meticulously clean and would have passed any health inspection with flying colours.

paul

pete

when i was being taught to use the tandoor in the evening in the restaurant . the chefs were doing exactly this boiling down the bones and creating a stock. they eat the chicken that came off the bones in a curry.
They said they were making the stock for the next day.
I didn't think too much about it at the time but this makes sense otherwise why else would they do it.
I have some base curry in my freezer and it does smell of chicken but i have not been able to work out the flavour.

I always freeze chillies. they are fine. make sure they are relatively fresh when you freeze them though and thaw them naturally

paul

ghanna,
i have heard some vegetable ghees smell awful but the sort i have bought made by kyber is totally odourless
and is what they use in my local restaurant.  I always use this stuff and have never had any problems. I have also heard asda do a veg. ghee in some parts of the country and this is definitely one to avoid. incidentally the kyber veg. ghee is cholesterol free.

paul

i ought to add the vegetable ghee is melted before use and kept warm at the back of the stove in a metal tin.
it does not solidify when the cooked curry is cooled down however it does go back to being solid if not used.

it is the flambe picture by the way it is a yellow pot with ared logo.

The restaurant i was taught to cook naans in totally avoided butter ghee and infact used normal butter to brush on the naans.
They used vegetable ghee in the cooking of the curries at all times and no spicey oil - i was given a sample.
They also used vegetable oils but not i the curries.

incidentally instead of tomato paste at this restaurant they used a blend of tandoori paste and tomato paste
not sure if it had any yoghurt in it as it was the colour of tomato paste.
I do recall asking them about the flambe process and they said it was because they cooked so hot on large flames it was a natural occurence but not a deliberate one and tried to put it out as quickly as possible - however i do think it makes a remarkable difference to the flavour as i cooked a jalfrezi using all their ingredients, methods and guidance and it tasted rather flat - but i had the heat turned down.
I will ask again about the vegetable ghee next time i go in as i do not beliive they tell any untruths. my breads and kebabs were spot on..


paul

I have no doubt they use vegetable ghee as i have been shown it in two restaurant kitchens. Vegetable ghee is not expensive and makes it more difficult to burn the ingredients.
This must not be confused with butter ghee which is normal ghee  - this is clarified butter - they hardly ever use this except in pilau and to brush on naans. It stinks and most people do not like the taste of it.
they use kyber vegetable ghee which is odourless and comes in yellow pots and in fact in the previous mailing with the 5 curry kitchen pictures you can see a pot of it below the shelf in one of the pictures.
Vegetable ghee a definite must..

The tomato paste in my local Asian place is called Safa tomato paste but fortunately comes in normal size cans and also miniature cans at 15p per can . approximately 3 Tablespoons.
This paste is very salty and i am getting more convined that the better restaurants use fresh pureed italian plum tomatos. All the East end varietys are italian.
Tomato paste is cooked for several hours and always has a concentrate between 18 and 30%. tomato puree is cooked for a much shorter time.
The restaurants i have seen add the tomato 'puree' at the start but why do this if you are using a precooked paste?

On the subject of the tomato purees used at the restaurant
do they use tomato paste, puree or passata?
they sell copious amounts of tomato paste in the indian grocers all with a concentrate of 20% this means that theoretically
if you mix with 4 paste to 1 water you get the real thing whilst with double concentrate puree you need a ratio of 1 to 1 to get the real thing.
However the pastes are extremely salty unlike passata and puree and you have to be careful when adding salt.
Is it likely the restaurants make their own puree made from sivved canned tomatos as i have never seen passata for sale in an indian
grocer and think it highly unlikely they will use anything from a Britsh supermarket.
I also think it unlikely that they use concentrated purees and pastes as these have been through a heat treatment process and are already cooked to some degree.

does anyone know for sure?

paul