Chicken Madras is my touchstone

We have supplied French neighbours Phil who were probably just very polite with their reviews. They all found the food too spicy as here in rural France they live off bread, cheese, duck, green beans and meat derived pates/terrines if they can find time to put down their wine glass. Rural French are very unadventetous when it comes to "foreign" food. They like our chicken seek kebabs though !

Let's agree to call it BIR in France then, rather than French BIR.  I also cook BIR in Australia rather than Australian BIR, but I've been taken to task over it before today.  I love a Chicken Madras so no surprises there.  BIR style curry, made in France, Toronto, USA or Antarctica, is BIR style curry.  Unless someone would disagree!!!

An afternoon of examining online resources.  I've examined about 2 dozen variations of Onion Tomato Masala, aka; OTM or Bhuna Masala, and made notes and comparisons.  There are many varied recipes but not too surprisingly, they are not all that different. They range from 9 ingredients to 20 and average around 15 including spices.  There is a very stable core group of ingredients and then there are a few variables and then there is a small number of not so common tweaks.  From this examination I could make a few different batches and decide where to go from there.

Obviously, Onion and Tomato is found in all, but the ratio varies from 2:1 through equal to 1:2.
Garlic and Ginger found in all, as a paste which varies from chunky to watery.  1 example had a considerable amount of extra chopped garlic added to the frying onions.
Green Chilli is found in many, but not all, and always chopped small.  There is usually no blending or blitzing of the finished Masala but there was in one or two.  Most simply rely on fine rough chopping and cooking down to melting point.

Oil varied from just enough to fry the onions to swimming.  One video showed the cook pouring a cup of water into the frying onions.

Whole spices common to nearly all:  Tej Patta, Green Cardamom, Black Cardamom, Cloves and Black Peppercorn.  Amounts varied.
Whole Spice found in some: Cinnamon / Cassia Bark, Cumin seed (found in several).
Whole Spice found in a couple: Blade Mace.

Note: One or two recipes used Garam Masala powder instead of any whole spices.

Powdered Spices common to nearly all: Turmeric, Chilli Powder (either Red CP, Kashmiri CP or Deggi Mirch) and Salt.
Powdered spices found in some: Cumin (if seeds not used) and Coriander in only a few.
Powdered Spices found in single recipes:  Kitchen King, Maggi Masala ae Magic (Indian spice mix by Maggi).

Other ingredients found occasionally: Cashew / melon seed (magaz) paste was added to one or two and in only one I saw there was chopped coriander.

I'll be giving this a try.  Now all I have to do is find a soup mix recipe that matches the requirements.

edit: Done and cooking as I sit here.

velout

I like to try a curry wherever I go on holiday (remember those?). I went to an Indian restaurant in Paris many years ago and it was OK but nothing special. Good experience though. Glace cherries pushed into the top of the naan in Bulgaria was a first, and last, though.

Quote from: Stephen Lindsay on February 16, 2021, 04:40 PM
I went to an Indian restaurant in Paris many years ago ...

So did I (with my wife).  The tandoori chicken was very obviously tainted, and we both ended up with food poisoning.  Never again.
** Phil.

Well mine isn't instant because it took about an hour to make the vegetable soup last night and then about 2 hours to do the Onion Tomato Masala this afternoon but once combined and blended, I now have 5 litres of very concentrated Base Gravy, which when diluted could be enough for up to 40 individual curry servings.  The time-frame from scratch is not much different to any other base gravy but I see why you would do it from the packets. I can't wait to try a dish as it shows a lot of potential already.  This method is a space saver for the freezer as well, as the end product before dilution is very thick.  I probably wont dilute too much as I like thicker gravies anyhow.

The good thing is that it is a very tasty base gravy and will no doubt make some very nice curries.  The other benefit is that if you choose you can just have some really good veggie soup or some OTM to use in other ways.  This time I've just combined it all. 

Thank you Hugoboss.  Yet another method and I recommend it to anybody who has access to the packets or can spare the time to do it from scratch.

I have some photos which I'll post shortly.

Good work livo, I await the first results.  I too spent some time looking at OTM after realizing the pouches weren?t available here.  One of the first recipes I found uses the Instant Pot so may give that a go first, next month.


Robbo

I didn't photograph the soup but I just boiled all of the ingredients listed above and let it cool then blended it through the OTM once it was done and also cooled. My stick blender reached the end of it's life a few weeks back.

OTM Ingredients
1 kg chopped onion
500 g tomato blended to a puree
Garlic and Ginger paste
3 chopped green chilli
Whole Garam Masala
Cumin seed
Kashmiri CP
Turmeric
Salt
Kitchen King Masala
Oil.

Quote from: jmansion on February 13, 2021, 07:23 PM
Has anyone in the UK found a good substitute for that carrot-heavy soup?

Negative recommendations also handy.

Thanks.

Any hints at all?  Am I really the only lazy guy here in UK.

(I had to re-register, weird!)