So I made Green Chilli Chicken tonight, utilizing the hotel restaurant base recipe from Romain?s Glebe Kitchen and it was very good. So good that I forgot to take a pic, but have this shot of tomorrow?s elevenses which I can guarantee will be done before 10am.


Looks a little oilier than normal but I added 1/2 TBSP ghee to the recipe as I thought it was a little dry when frying the spices. I was probably wrong but no harm.

Definitely not BIR but definitely tasty dinner.  Five more portions to go and determined to get through them in the next 10 days.  Don?t judge my chipped bowl.

Robbo

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There Is a small problem with "Hotel style" gravies. Searching about the Web turns up multiple sources of the gravies with different experts claiming anything between 4 and 10 different flavours. Trying to find any recipes that then use these gravies is a different matter. The same experts who show how to make gravies inevitably go on to show all of their dishes made from scratch, not using the gravies.

This is a common occurances and anything directly related to using the gravies is simply missing.

Yesterday, I did make an absolutely wonderful Shahi Chicken Korma from a hotel white base gravy. I also used it with some Makhani gravy to make Malai Kofta sauce which was delicious as well.  I made the koftas the day before. Both were my own creations after close examination and extrapolation from selected standard recipes.  The Korma I made was easily my best ever by leaps and bounds and nothing like BIR.  A lot of work but we'll worth it.  My recipe is available if anyone is interested.  I remembered to take notes while I still recalled my ingredients and steps.

I have found 1 place that advises on the combinations of gravies to obtain different "dishes" but it's a bit "Indian" in nature and I'm a little sceptical, but the site does give the same dishes from scratch as well which it says are not as good but quicker.  There may be something worth investigation here.

Edit,  it has just dawned on me that the Aussie IR lessons of Masala Mark from 2010 are in fact very much 'hotel style'.  It's a shame his recipe set was never finished.  I've made his 3 gravies a few times and they are now well worth another visit.

I'm not so sure that this is a new thing or a furphy Phil. My chef aquaintance, K, has referred to different gravies in the past but I've never pressed him about it.  He just adopted a funny smug grin when I mentioned BIR base gravy. I'll see if I can get a bit more from him.

Training in Indian hotels may well involve an understanding of how these gravies are actually used. The mere fact that it isn't well known to us yet doesn't necessarily mean it isn't there and it isn't beyond belief that hotel chefs use bulk preparations instead of traditional home scale cooking.

Some of the information I've found isn't recent going back to 2012 and Masala Mark's posts of the very similar methods were back in 2010.  Certainly the Shahi Chicken Korma dish I made yesterday was superior to any I've made previously.

https://indianzaiqa.wordpress.com/

2012, Indian cuisine chef based in London, trained in Taj group of hotels. 6 main basic gravies used separately and combined to produce different dishes.

This is the most comprehensive explanation I've been able to find so far.  There are no recent updates on the site.

By this man,  https://www.thestaffcanteen.com/Editorials-and-Advertorials/10-minutes-with-gulrez-iqbal-head-chef-at-chakra-kensingston#/