Jerry

I use extra pureed tinned plum tomarto in my madras, someone else here does this also(CK perhaps?).  It adds a extra very slightly sour 'tomarto-y' taste with the cloying sweetness of puree.  About 3 tbs per 450ml of base.  You need some puree too.

Another avenue that might be worth exploring is tomarto ketchup.  Suprising I know but lots of British Chinese Restaurants (BCRs ??) do that.  It add a differnt tomarto note again, obviously sweeter (than puree even), but it might be worth exploring.  Madras from 'The Vogan' in Merstam (near me) tastes of ketchup.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if BIRs used it, it's cheap and easily availble.  After all some of them use cream of tomarto soup and Worchestshire sauce!

Adrian,

thanks for the thoughts - appreciated. i will try the "extra pureed tinned plum tomato" - i've not seen it before but feel it's something along those lines that i'm after. it's certainly not tomato sauce. it's not fresh tomato as i know how this works in a rogan josh for example.

CA,

not as amazed as me. i feel we all have different pieces of the jigsaw left to find. it just seems to be that this paste is the last piece for me (other than getting the tomato taste right).

i really am surprised that it works so well together and i feel this what makes it so good (the combination). the cinnamon on it's own would not even be on my short list and the rajah tandoori as been put firmly on the BBQ shelf. the rest of the ingredients are what we are used to.

it gets difficult to put in words the taste difference but i guess in a nutshell i've always felt there is a sort taste in the back of the throat from a real BIR which i did not get before with my efforts (not chilli but a moorish taste). the paste fixes this for me and also seems to make the curry more rounded.

if people have previously tried it without success then i feel this may be down to the "fast" cooking method in the instructions. i adopted a slowboat simmer and feel this made it easier to cook with and a much higher likelihood of producing the intended finished paste "The paste is ready when no virtually no steam is being evaporated off".

i think it most probably also depends on what type of BIR curry u like. i've been brought up on "red" curry ie plenty of garlic/onion/tomato. i don't for example like the "brown" curry (found in some restaurants in rusholme or Bradford for example).

Quote from: JerryM on November 13, 2008, 07:07 PM
thanks for the thoughts - appreciated. i will try the "extra pureed tinned plum tomato" - i've not seen it before but feel it's something along those lines that i'm after. it's certainly not tomato sauce. it's not fresh tomato as i know how this works in a rogan josh for example.

I also use this method Jerry as I like my curry's with that extra tomato taste you can't get from puree.

Quote from: JerryM on November 13, 2008, 07:07 PM
not as amazed as me. i feel we all have different pieces of the jigsaw left to find. it just seems to be that this paste is the last piece for me (other than getting the tomato taste right). I think it most probably also depends on what type of BIR curry u like. i've been brought up on "red" curry ie plenty of garlic/onion/tomato. i don't for example like the "brown" curry (found in some restaurants in rusholme or Bradford for example).

This is the point, it is something you are trying to find rather it actually being the key to the "taste".  Great that you have found what you are looking for Jerry but my opinion of the paste hasn't changed, I certainly don't feel the need to make it for a third time  ;D

As SS has suggested, there was someone a while ago that proclaimed pre-fried onions were added to every dish towards the end, finely chopped and fried they should disappear into the sauce.  Again they made a slight change but not enough for me to use this method on a regular basis. 

Funny enough I have just finished a dopiaza where I use pre-fried onions, I will post some pic's later.

Hi Panpot,

It might not be regional differences more different chefs than anything else, I guess they take the recipes when they move rather than adapt to the restaurants norm.

Quote from: Panpot on November 14, 2008, 11:35 AM
I am fully expecting to get into a Glasgow BIR kitchen soon so should be able to give decent report of all that goes on.

That would be good, out of all the reports and insider information we have on the site this paste has never come up, now that might be because it really is a secret ingredient or the majority of BIR's just don't use it.

It could be that the onion paste emulates something that naturally occurs during the curry making process in a BIR, I'm sure if it was a standard practice it would have come up somewhere else by now.  This is why a get together would be invaluable, we could all see where we are and what we are looking at achieving, I'm sure ten of us would have ten differnent ideas of the perfect madras.  The bottom line is if respected curry nuts like you and Jerry say it works then I am not going to argue with that. 

Curry on