Tomato puree - or ketchup???

[George]

I bileve the mixture you seen them put in to the tikka masala is the marinade from making chicken tikka

Or could it be a blend of various ingredients which it's convenient to add at one stage, rather than taking a bit of this and a bit of that, which would take longer for a kitchen in a hurry on a Friday night? If so, it goes into the 'secret mix' category, a bit like some people say for the spices added to base sauce by the master chef but perhaps not known to others in the kitchen.

Regards
George

[steve e]

Hi George,
I personally think you are spot on George,it makes sense to do it that way for sheer speed,
I am in the process of trying to find out what goes into this mix,because if you look at the quantity used, if it was only tomato puree or paste it would dominate the entire flavour with
an overpowering taste of tomato.and no way is it tandoori marinade its consistency is all wrong.So on it goes  ;D
steve e

[blade1212]

I tend to agree . The BIRs I've witnessed don't use any dry spices, so maybe the dry spices are mixed in the red sauce.

[steve e]

Hi All,
When you consider the vast majority of the meal is precooked, meat, curry base.onions etc
it follows on that if this mixture was also precooked which i am sure it is,then the spice mix would
be added to a watered down tomato based sauce ( in the case of tikka masala)prior to precooking which then requires only heating, which is nothing more than pataks ready mixed pastes, but I feel is a much more diluted and subtle mix in the bir. My reasoning comes from only the smallest addition of say pataks tandoori paste in the final dish will overwhelm the taste.
steve e