Mark, I've taken the liberty of pasting the relevant bit of that pdf, I hope this is o.k.
The Curry Club Magazine was a periodical publication produced for
members of a dining club I attended in the late 1980s. The club met above
a boutique in the old Covent Garden vegetable market building. The area
was reinventing itself at that time, and it was possible to see the names of
greengrocery wholesale companies above shop-fronts in James Street, as
builders ravaged within. This extract from an article by Bruce Edwards
for the Winter 1990 issue blows the gaffe on a curry house secret many
aficionados will already have suspected.
The efficient restaurant kitchen has areas dedicated to specific
operations. In the curry making area you will find a catering style
cooker with a huge pot of golden coloured, slightly oily, thick,
soupy liquid simmering gently on it. As the average restaurant
worker will not even admit to its existence, I have no idea what they
call it, probably just the sauce, but curry base seems to describe it
adequately. It is the secret to the restaurant curry sauce from Korma
to Tindaloo, and may be added to some vegetable side dishes also.
The main ingredient is onion, with some garlic, and some spices
can be added too, but I use only turmeric. The flavour is rather like
a savoury oniony soup. When an order reaches the curry chef, he
will ladle some base into a frying pan containing hot oil, add other
ingredients as required, stir it all around, and almost instantly a
curry is made. The recipe that follows will make enough for
approximately eight curries.
Finely chopped onion – about 2? lbs (approx. 20 medium onions)
Garlic, crushed and chopped – 6 large or 12 medium cloves
Turneric – 1? teaspoons
Oil – 6 fluid ozs. (approx.)
Cover with water. Simmer briskly for 1? - 2 hours. Blend to a
smooth paste. Add water, a little at a time, until the mixture has the
consistency of THICK tomato soup.
My initial reaction is that this must have been in the early days of his investigations because it is not too good, is it? There's minimal and there's wrong and I think this is just plain wrong.
Did anyone actually manage to track Bruce down? I know someone has tried to contact him.
Topic: Bruce Edwards ( 9,599 )
