When we were doing the in2curry chat there was a girl , working in an Indian Takeaway , who started posting some information
Some people doubted her authenticity, but I believed her.
She sent me, and a few other people, some email recipes from the takeaway.
At that point, none of us, had yet got into the kitchens
Looking at the emails and postings , there is no doubt that she was completely genuine.
She no longer uses the email address on in2curry so I am saddened at losing such a knowledgabel and likeable character
Below is the correspondance and, although slightly incomplete, we know enough now to fill in nearly all the blanks
The information on different curries being served to Asians is correct
I recently found that out
Apparently a lot more cummin is used in the recipes
The Curry Gravy is also very simple (like a lot of us now feel is right)
Not using garam masala sounds pretty true as well!
It's an interesting read whatever you believe

HEIDI?S RESTAURANT RECIPES


BOIL YOUR ONIONS ( CUT IN HALF ) WITH TURMERIC AND
GARLIC AND? HAVE YOUR WATER ABOUT 2 INCHES BELOW THE TOP OF THE ONIONS, UNTIL? SOFTENED.
BLEND UNTIL SMOOTH IN BLENDER AND THATS YOUR BASIC MASALA.

IN YOUR PAN YOU WANT YOUR OIL, GARLIC, TOMATO PUREE ( IF DESIRED ) FRESH ONION ( IF DESIRED ) AND CURRY POWDER TO TASTE. COAT IN THE OIL AND FRY ON A HIGH HEAT FOR AROUND 25 SECONDS
THEN ADD YOUR MASALA.
THEN ADD YOUR PRE COOKED MEAT AND REDUCE TO THE THICKNESS YOU DESIRE. A DASH OF CORRIANDER, SERVE AND ENJOY !!

GHEE IS NOT ONLY WHAT IS USED. IN MOST RESTAURANTS THE GHEE IS RESERVED FOR MAKING THE PILAU RICE AND TO COAT NAN AND DIFFERENT MEATS WHEN IT COMES OUT OF THE TANDOOR. WHEN I REFER TO OIL ABOVE, I MEAN NORMAL VEGETABLE OIL. CURRY POWDER IS IN FACT A CURRY CHEFS GODSEND !! OH AND FINALLY, A CURRY THAT YOU REFER TO AS A REAL TAKE AWAY CURRY IS NOT IN FACT A GENUINE CURRY TO SOME EXTENT AS, IF WE SERVE ASIAN CUSTOMERS YOU WILL FIND THAT THEIR CURRY, THOUGH POSSIBLY OF THE SAME NAME AS YOURS, IS IN FACT A TOTALLY DIFFERENT PRODUCT. ASK AN ASIAN FRIEND TO EXPLAIN THIS TO YOU BETTER.



IM A WHITE GIRL? WHO IS MARRIED TO AN
ASIAN AND ALL I DO IS WORK IN A FRIENDS TANDOORI TAKE
AWAY. I WISH I WAS HEAD CHEF OF ANYWHERE AS CHEFS ARE
WELL PAID PEOPLE !!!!




PRE COOK INGREDIENTS

JUST BOIL YOUR VEG IN DICED PIECES AND ADD TURMERIC? TO THE WATER
THEN DRAIN VEG AND DO THE FOLLOWING:-

CURRIES

ADD VEG OIL TO FRYING PAN WITH FRESH GARLIC, TOMATO
PUREE AND AROUND A SEMI HEAPED TEASPOON OF HOT CURRY
POWDER. FRY FOR 30 SECONDS OR SO AND THEN ADD YOUR
GRAVY AND REDUCE IT TO YOUR PREFERRED THICKNESS.
THEN ENJOY !!

P.S WHEN YOU MENTIONED GARAM MASAL IN YOUR LAST E
MAIL, I HAVE TO TELL YOU, IN AN INDIAN KITCHEN, WE
DONT ACTUALLY USE GARAM MASALA !! WE TEND TO USE THESE
SPICES ON THEIR OWN AND NOT MIXED TOGETHER LIKE THAT.
THIS DOESNT MEAN THAT GARAM MASALA IS A NO NO, IT JUST
MEANS THAT WE DONT CUT CORNERS BY USING CONVENIENCE
SPICES SO TO SPEAK !!
lamb curry.
into a heavy pan add about 3 tbl spoon veg oil
very fine chop 2 onions ,
if you have a blender peel 10 bulbs garlic and chop up 3 big hands of ginger put into blender with enough oil to cover blend until you have a fine paste,
this paste will keep for a long time in the fridge in a bottle jar with a tight lid.
ok here goes for my recipe for lamb curry.
add the chopped onion to the pan with a good table spoon of garlic ginger paste,
add 5 cardamon pods,
a big stick of cinnamon,
3 bay leafs,
4 cloves,
gently fry this mixture until the onion " melt "
take some cubed lamb about 1lb
add this to the pan and cook until the meat is a little brown,
add fresh chillie to taste about 3 cut in half
add enough water to cover the meat and onions then gently simmer for about 30 min until the meat is soft,
keep toping up the water level so its above the meat,
when you think the meat is soft add
a desert spoon of good curry power,
1 teaspoon of coriander,
1 teaspoon of cummin ,
1 teaspoon of chillie powder, and
1 teaspoon of turmeric ,
2 teaspoon of salt, stir this around until its all mixed in then cook until the sauce becomes thick.
well hope you understand this recipe this is made in all takeaways for the staff to eat after there shift is over. eat with boiled rice.

This is a very interesting read Pete thankyou for sharing it with us, i think i remember reading her posts on the in2curry site as a guest mind you.
A few months to go & i`ll be putting a lot of effort into getting my cooking lessons from my local & hope to be able to bring some valuable finds to our forum.

                       Remember Lama`s are not fruit with smelly eye`s !!!

    Crazily yours DARTH...........

Quote from: pete on July 03, 2005, 09:54 AM
GHEE IS NOT ONLY WHAT IS USED. IN MOST RESTAURANTS THE GHEE IS RESERVED FOR MAKING THE PILAU RICE AND TO COAT NAN AND DIFFERENT MEATS WHEN IT COMES OUT OF THE TANDOOR.

Yes I remember this girl, this part is very interesting so she is saying that as well as using ghee to coat the nan's they also coat the tandooried meats in it? before or after do you reckon?

After
I have heard that copious amounts go onto the naan breads!

Quote from: Mark J on July 03, 2005, 12:27 PM
they also coat the tandooried meats in it? before or after do you reckon?

Half way through apparently! Someone posted a link here recently to a tandoori site and they apply the ghee when the chicken is half cooked, which makes sense really, you can't put it on at the start because it is sloppy with marinade and putting it on at the end would give it a too buttery flavour, so half way through it is. I would think that for home cooking about five minutes before the chicken is ready would be about right.

Quote from: pete on July 03, 2005, 09:54 AM
BOIL YOUR ONIONS ( CUT IN HALF ) WITH TURMERIC AND
GARLIC AND? HAVE YOUR WATER ABOUT 2 INCHES BELOW THE TOP OF THE ONIONS, UNTIL? SOFTENED.
BLEND UNTIL SMOOTH IN BLENDER AND THATS YOUR BASIC MASALA.

Wow, talk about minimalist! Do you really think restaurants make their curry base this basic? I thought I was heading in the right direction by adding small amounts of green pepper carrot etc, but this is going entirely the opposite way.

The Kris D.. recipe is basic & i`ve had some very good results in the past with it but.
Have you noticed that if your base is more complex it is easy to produce a good curry on a regular basis, the simple bases rely heavily on the second stage to be right, logical i know but not always obvious.

Quote from: DARTHPHALL on July 03, 2005, 10:54 PM
The Kris D.. recipe is basic & i`ve had some very good results in the past with it but.
Have you noticed that if your base is more complex it is easy to produce a good curry on a regular basis, the simple bases rely heavily on the second stage to be right, logical i know but not always obvious.

You are right
There seems to be two methods of producing the result
With the simple base, the magic must happen at the second stage of cooking
It's far easier to control the oil, though.

Yes ive noticed with the simple base the oil floats to the top & makes it more visible & easier to control amounts etc..
But when it comes down to taste the complex version has the edge for me.
Time will tell as the season draws closer & then coax my way in to the kitchen hehehehe. ;D

this leads nicely on to a couple of questions I was about to post to ask...

After a bit of a break awy from the actual curry making at home over past weeks, I had a bash at the 10 onion version of the large scale recipe found on here (sorry I print them and have forgotten who posted these). The end result of the base looked very promising apart from being slightly thicker than what Ive seen in a BIR (my  pot is not quite big enough) and a lack of oil. I actually used slightly more than the specified 1/2 inch but found that after puree-ing and continuing cooking the oil becomes lost in the mix. Ive found this happens with every base gravy Ive made.

I then proceeded to knock up a CTP, and a korma for the missus with recipies from this forum.  Imo both were probably the best Ive done so far. I thought that they had the taste in part, but not quite all the way (if that makes sense) and I concluded that the main discrepancy would be the thickness of the gravy and the amount of oil I used. The final dish in a BIR tends to be much oilier than mine.
Unfortunately the missus wasn?t that impressed. While it was nice she didn?t think it was particularly close to a BIR korma.  That said I 'mopped up' up some of hers - as I usually do - and thought it was pretty close both in look, texture and taste.

All in all, I think this edged me closer but I'm still not there. Has anyone else had the same oil issues? I still think prolonged experience in a BIR kitchen is going to be the only way to really crack this.

Going on what most BIR's Ive had serve up I would estimate I need to double the amount of oil I'm using somewhere along the line...