Topic: Real BIR secrets

[bobbybouchet08]

Dear fellow curry flavour seekers. I want to get all of you on board who want to find the secret flavour of a bir. Why can we not achieve that elusive darn taste that we have been longing for, for so long ? The answer cant be that hard when its right under our noses can it? Having tried so, so many things people have said have given them 100% clones of a bir curry, and getting NO nearer every time, I started to think.
Firstly how are we different to the real dogs in a bir? So the chefs get to work in the morning and start preparing the days foods. First lets think about meats. I once saw a bir pre-cooking a huge pot of meat. I may be wrong but it looked like mixed meat, lamb and chicken etc, in some oil and water. Imagine the flavour that juice would take on after a number of uses. I have a theory that they cook all the meats with whatever spices and then use that juicy oil to flavour the gravy. I mean come on, it is called Base Gravy! I wonder who actually started calling it gravy. Gravy to us is meat cooking juices, is it not? I am a reformed veggie, and maybe the Indian restaurant i go to, are so conscious of making more money, they are reluctant to tell me thier curries have meat in them. I dont know. Maybe not all balti houses but i know the last time I had a veg balti from my fav balti house in Birmingham, the sauce tasted like kebab meat. Which led me to believe they used precooked lamb juice to flavour the gravy.
Who knows. The secret is still a mystery to all us forum users. Bastard curry cooking bir chefs. Grrrrrrrr.
Right, i actually had an ex bir chef cook for my mother in law and he would cook the meats and use the meat juices to flavour another veggie dish. Maybe they dont see it as a problem. But there certainly is still a mystery out there to be cracked.
My wish is that all us curryforumers searching for that taste, should try something out of our zones. We should all try my theory, cooking lamb or other meats in different spices, then using that as a base to form our GRAVY. We should all use eachothers findings as to see what works and what does not. This way we should understand as a whole, what is creating that major secret flavour we are still in search of.
Think of the difference between us curryheads, and those bir chefs doing thier job. We only cook a bit of meat here and there. They are completely out of proportion, cooking masses of lamb, chicken and beef. How must thier oil taste? Hmmmmmm.
I also would like to say, the oil used in birs by me is mostly sunflower oil in the gravy, rather than veg or any other. Why? I just think it takes on the flavour better.
They are all about money so they are really reluctant to tell secrets. Come on. How can there be so many curry houses that produce great curries. How did they learn how to cook such nice curries?
Lets all work on a new method or something, as the standard, gng paste fried and spices and tom paste seems to turn out the same raw spice taste every time for me anyway.
Maybe there is a secet ingredient. I have always thought maybe its cucumber like stevejet has found. What great minds think alike.
Lets crack this morse curry code together you wonderfull curry addicts. Haha
Who wants to pay 7 squiders for a good curry when they can cook it at home yerrrrrrrrrr boyyyyyyy.
Come on you forumerz
So lets all work together and post our results to  help eachother on the quest to the holy grail of bir flavourism.
(moderated) money guzzlers.
Sorry admin.
Love you cr0
Or whatever it is now hahahahhahahhhahhahaha
Post your tingz
Bobby

[George]

So lets all work together and post our results to  help eachother on the quest to the holy grail of bir flavourism.

Welcome to the forum. You make some good points, many of which we've been dwelling on since 2004 when this forum started. What's required, perhaps is a bit more work, and even more luck in order to get all the answers.

[ELW]

Yes bobbybouchet88, George is right, & you probably speak for the majority(more than half) of cr0 members.In home cooking there is a gap in general. I've cooked a good few curries that replicate the bir taste, but can't manage it consistently...reading veteran home cook posts on here who have cooked more curry than i've had hot dinners, from the archives will confirm that. New posters nearly always post glowing results, photos & videos which tell us nothing. I had a similar honeymoon period when i followed the K Dhillon recipe's. Those recipe's & plenty on cr0, ultimately & inadvertantly slow the progress of cr0.  Following recipe's on here, in books & elsewhere will unlikely produce what people are after. there is an "unknown", I don't believe for a second it's secret ingredient, if a

[haldi]

I've been buying a lot of curries lately
They all have different underlying signature tastes
By this token, one person's 100% recipe will not necessarily be someone else's
The curry base really varies from one chef to another
The only constant is "a shedload of onions" for the base
I spend at least, one evening a month, in an Indian Takeaway's kitchen
I think I have pretty much seen it all
The staggering thing, is that I have never seen a "secret" ingredient
They cook curries on a high heat, it's true
But I have also seen them cooked on low
So I don't think "big" gas is essential
I've seen spices singed in a curry before adding the gravy
But I've also seen them simply boiled in the gravy
Both ways can give a good result
The only un reproducable ingredient is the fryer oil
I have seen this used in the curry gravy and used for frying the curry
But there are other experienced members say this is not done where they have been
I reckon your best bet, if you can't get into a BIR kitchen, is to follow a set of recipes by one author
Chewy's are well documented and have videos
All of Cory Ander's recipes are excellent
Curry Barking Mad's stuff is fantastic
and of course there is all the Curry2Go recipes
But keep the gravy and curry recipe from one source, otherwise you are not doing the author justice

[stevejet66]

Well ive found cucumber has changed the smell and flavour massivly. after all it is only a vegetable, ive tried, carrots, potatoes, all manor of veg but none of them have worked apart from the cucumber. there are countless asian cucmbers in asian supermarkets much bigger and may offer a different taste, which i will try soon but at the moment im not altering my recipe in any way because its almost spot on.
bobbybouchet08, your right what you say but there are many good chefs on here who have tried it all and cook to a very high standard, for one you say meats are all cooked together, well i know for one reason or another beef and chicken should not be cooked together, also oil used from the onion bhajis has been used for flavouring, well theres so much you will come across on here and mostly what youve mentioned have no doubt been covered. thoses who have got it almost to a T you will find are just fine tuning theres recipes.

[Graeme]

Canny Read 

[haldi]

Well ive found cucumber has changed the smell and flavour massivly. after all it is only a vegetable, ive tried, carrots, potatoes, all manor of veg but none of them have worked apart from the cucumber. there are countless asian cucmbers in asian supermarkets much bigger and may offer a different taste, which i will try soon but at the moment im not altering my recipe in any way because its almost spot on.

I must try cucumber in my next base
I am curious
I have tried adding, a little, of many other things
But that is a new one and it is always around, every takeaway

[DalPuri]

http://food.sulekha.com/tasty-cucumber-gravy-id3178-33855-recipe.htm

 

http://vegeyum.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/cool-as-a-cucumber-a-curry-to-die-for/

[stevejet66]

Good of you haldi, if you do enough base for say 6 curries add at least 3/4 of a cucumber. peeled and deseeded of coarse, the links to the other cucumber gravies i must say ive never seen before, mine was just a thought to try it. it certainly adds a softer smoother feel to the texture too.
cheers.
steve.

[haldi]

Hi Steve
I tried the cucumber
I made a curry gravy with six onions and put half a cucumber in
I made two different curries
Chicken vindaloo and Paneer Rhogan Josh
The Vindaloo was very average but the Rhogan Josh was the best I ever made
I don't know what to think
The cucumber certainly did no harm
What curries have you cooked with a cucumber base?