Topic: Smokey taste in curries ?

[petespot]

 I have had a few takeaways in my time and one of my all time favourites was a madras with bright red oil and it had a barbeque taste. Was it liquid smoke or paprika ? 

[madpower]

I am not really sure but i asked a chef i was watching cook what it was that he had sprinkled on top of the curry a few minutes before the end of cooking,he said it was paprika,i give it a go myself and the oil in the curry was quite red so paprika could be to blame.

[Dajoca]

Careful with using smoked paprika. The tiniest bit bit can be overpowering.
The one I bought from the indian supplier was much smoother than the supermarket own brand, which was utterly vile.

I have read though, that the smokiness may be obtained by pouring a drop of veg oil onto a burning charcoal in a small dish and floating this in the base (lid on), so the smoke permeates through the sauce.

[petespot]

Thank you for the info !

[hukkas]

I know this is an old question, but I recognise the technique with the coal that Dajoca mentioned; it's done in quite a few recipes on "Cook  with Faiza"; for example with this keema recipe - http://www.cookwithfaiza.net/behari-keema-recipe/ -which has a video so you can see it done.

(I haven't tried it myself, I need to find somewhere that sells tiny bags of coal!)

[Sverige]

Nice video. Is that coal (like you would use to heat your house), or charcoal (from a BBQ)?

[chewytikka]

  No No No, Not Coal as it is poisonous.

If your going to use this ancient Indian Dhunga method
You have to use natural lump wood charcoal.
Even BBQ charcoal briquettes are suspect in my opinion.

Your average BIR does not use Dhunga, for your curries.
The smokey flavour of a good curry, happens naturally
through the BIR chefs cooking technique.

[Sverige]

Ok thanks Chewy. Maybe I'll give it a try next time I'm BBQing, but trouble is when I fire up the BBQ it has so much food on it I dont think I'm going to manage a curry on top!