Hello all, long time no see ! happy new year
To my mind what makes a bir curry is
1) the taste should be curry, BUT with a modern taste/twist (offering something very new compared to traditional indian).
how is this achieved?
using elaborate techniques (e.g custom onion pastes, specialist custom gravies, making spiced oil, using the whole range of ingredients, eg lime juice, lemon juice, lentils, tamerind, ghee, butter, garlic powder,
making a curry in stages e.g pre cooked marinated chicken, spiced tomato puree paste, gravies, spiced oils. Ever noticed how pre cooked chicken can influence the final taste of a good curry?
traditional indian curry is rarley made in so many stages, this is what separates the taste from bir curry , in my humble opinion !
good restaurants charge more because they have developed more effective ways at making each stage of the curry (base, spice mixes, pre cooked meat , meat stocks etc) . This skill only comes from experience and a gift for cooking.
For part time, home cooks this is hard to match. Hence we often get disapointed
These secrets of top bir kitchens are rarly exposed. Although the basics are freely shared.
curry tastes evolve in the best restaurants. the best bir cooks were from india when royalty paid them to produce cutting edge curry. i bet the taste is still evolving
my 2 penneth worth