Topic: MBC's Retro Madras

[pete]

Totally agree Pete, used to have a restaurant madras from a place that closed around 20 years ago

Thanks for the support Nick!

I find it amazing, after years of curry fiddling you still fail to cook a Madras.
Hope you post a photo if you ever manage it.

Your posts do remind me of another member Haldi, are you related?
He used to post the same nonsense, practically word for word : ;D

curry psychosis, goes well with a Garlic Naan.
cheers Chewy

I make Madras with the correct look and texture
People tell me it's better than the takeaways round here
But I can tell a difference
Missing a flavour

and yes, I posted for years under the name Haldi
I thought using a "user name" was just a better idea
But recently I thought it doesn't bother me any more,, so I posted under my original registered name

I've enjoyed your recipes Chewy
I've cooked quite a few, including the madras
But they don't match the flavour I'm after
Is that being psycotic, noticing that?
But your videos are great, and the curries I have cooked of yours are very good

In fact the worcester sauce ingredient in your recipe,, took me right back to my pre cr0 days
I bought recipes from someone (who later posted as CurryQueen on here) and she used Worcester Sauce in her recipes
It's a flavour that really fills a "gap", but it's not used in any of the places I have been into, and  influences the final taste of the dish
Some of her recipes were really good too

Anyhow, I guess it just shows that you don't know or understand the taste I'm after.
Probably a good thing, because I don't think it's possible to create at home anyhow
But maybe the biggest difference is that I don't think the less of you, because you don't understand something I've written

The closest I have got to an Old School BIR was from the Glasgow Recipes by Alex Wilkie
Have you tried any of his stuff?
That's very good too

[Onions]

All a bit psychotic pete,
A quite sad and misguided view, that as you say and seem to think (adamant)
that members won

[Peripatetic Phil]

and yes, I posted for years under the name Haldi
I thought using a "user name" was just a better idea
But recently I thought it doesn't bother me any more,, so I posted under my original registered name

Welcome back, Haldi/Pete !
** Phil.

[Secret Santa]

What you have to appreciate Chewy is that you're cooking modern style generic junk that any old fool can churn out, as many BIRs do. Some of us (Pete, me and a few other forum members) still yearn for a missing flavour that just hasn't been created by anyone on the forum.

Stick with your Northern style curries if that's what you like but they are a pale imitation of a decent BIR curry from the 70s and early 80s.

[pete]

Still working on this one and getting closer
Got a perfect texture on this last try
I used the elements that were correct, from the last attempt
I may still be missing something but that's better than having a flavour in that you don't want
If you look at all the different madras recipes that are out there , it becomes obvious how many different variations there are.
Some use garlic, some use garlic ginger, some use whole spice, some just ground spices, some fry onion, some fry onion and pepper
So trying to get YOUR perfect madras really involves a lot of experimentation
Because it is a simple flavour, it's very easily ruined or masked with an unwanted flavour

The old school madras, which I am chasing,  was very saucy
No pieces of onion or peppers
Just sauce with chicken or prawns or lamb or vegetables

So I made  a very simple base
I boiled a few onions with oil, water, garlic, salt and chilli powder for 40 minutes, then I blended it
I heated a little oil and added a chef spoon garlic ginger and fried without burning for a minute
Then I added 1 desert spoon chilli powder, 1 desert spoon fenugreek leaves, and 1 desert spoon of this onion powder (a cheat perhaps, but it definitely helps)

Stirred a minute then added a half ladle of base
I reduced this right down to almost dry and added the king prawns and a little salt
Stirred a minutes then added half a can of blended tinned tomatoes (200g)
I don't believe the places, I used to go to, used tomato puree

Heated this through then added a couple of ladles of the base
Put the lid on the pan for about four minutes and served with a squeeze of lemon

This is the closest I have been to a retro curry
There's room for tweeks

I could add maybe a spice mix in, or maybe a little ground cumin or maybe more fenugreek
But it really was an excellent curry
Very pleased with it
I don't have a photo
But it looked really right, on the plate
The right colour and texture and a very nice flavour

[Shami]

I would like to give this a go Pete, could you post the quantities for your simple base etc. please?

All the best

[pete]

The simple onion base was three medium onions, 3 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons of oil, half teaspoon salt, half teaspoon chilli powder and 500ml of water. I boiled this together for 40 minutes and blended when cool.
The thing is, I tried to tinker with this old school madras recipe the other day and ruined it.
I added a spice mix with the  chilli and totally mucked it up
So I don't think it needs any more spicing than chilli powder
I believe it's very important to add the fenugreek leaves at the start
You get a different result adding later
Madras seems to be the hardest curry to make
The stronger flavoured curries, such as Balti, Korma, Tikka Masala, Pathia are fairly straight forward to get a match.
Soon as you add sugar or pastes they dominate the dish's flavour and that's probably the flavour you want the dish to taste like