Topic: Orange curries, please help!!

[jadeoboe]

Have tried so many base sauce/madras recipes over the years but none have come close to what I am after....there must be someone out there who knows how to create an orange coloured curry typical of what you get nowadays? Lightly spiced, thick sauce but not overly oily, with a nice subtle flavour. I have tried reducing spice content to 1tsp but that doesn't work, it just ends up bland. I see a lot of brown coloured madrases being made on this forum which is not what I am after at all. If anyone knows how to help me I will be eternally grateful!!

[Unclefrank]

What part of the world are you from and have you any Take-Away or restaurant menus that you either post or link to a website or even better have you any pictures.

[chewytikka]

No evidence of your cooking since you joined 2011
You could join in more, with pics of what your after.

A Madras is not lightly spiced! 1tsp of mix spice is enough
Three good tsps of chilli powder will give it enough heat and far from bland.
Madras is often described as fairly hot, but to most customers it is a HOT curry.

I don

[jadeoboe]

Ok, a bit of confusion going on here. I obviously didn't describe it very well. I just mean I have been unable to reproduce curries from my favourite restaurants/takeaway. I was originally in Bournemouth, now London - obviously a madras is spicy but when I try my sauce cold the next day it just tastes so overpowering and nothing like the restaurants. (I've always found you can tell more what a sauce is like once it has cooled down). I'm obviously the only one who has this problem so I'm sorry I bothered you...

[SoberRat]

Hi jadeoboe. There could be several reasons why the curries you cook are not right. If your base sauce is too thick the flavour of the spices won't develop as they should. If you don't fry the spices in the oil enough that can also lead to the incorrect taste. I find the curries I cook now still taste good even cold but I'm not sure what you mean by 'overpowering'. The recipe CT gives above will give a really good madras as long as it's cooked properly on a good high heat. The other thing that may give a more orange colour could be the use of certain chilli powders, I use kashmiri mirch quite often and that gives a more orange/red colour to my curries.
Hope this helps a little.
Best regards
Rob   

[Peripatetic Phil]

It does not sound to me as if the basic problem is of the colour, Jade; it seems more to me that you have not yet got close to mastering BIR cuisine and technique, regardless of colour.  Try (if I may suggest) a basic Kris Dhillon chicken curry (which does not rely on any hard-to-acquire technique) and see if it works for you.

** Phil.

[jadeoboe]

Thank you everyone for your advice, but I have had 20 years' experience - started with Pat Chapman (as everyone probably does!) then moved to Kris Dhillon, Mick Crawford's 2 e-books, more books/e-books, the "other" curry forum, then finally this forum. Ok I have made some great curries over the years but not really what I'm after...the search continues

Jade x

[jadeoboe]

Oh yeah, here's a post from littlechillie:

?Hi for me we always tend to over complicate a Real BIR Madras sauce, but when it comes from a TA it is light on spice and subtle of flavours and deep on heat.
IMO 60% of a madras is in the base sauce and if this is over spiced then it's never going to happen...."I am able replicate my TA Madras no problem with 1 spoon oil, half a teaspoon of mix powder and half a teaspoon of ground fenugreek leaf + 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder + pinch of salt + half teaspoon of tom puree, little tamarind and a slice of lemon. That's all it takes along with a very lightly spiced base gravy and the correct cooking and reducing."

Seems I'm not going crazy then....

[Secret Santa]

You're certainly not going crazy jadoboe and I've asked the same question myself a few times over the years. Some of the curries I had in london back in the early eighties were more orange than brown and almost see through and yet still had incredible depth of flavour, So I think I know where you're coming from.

The basic answer is to use a yellow base sauce and a bright red chilli powder such as degghi (my favourite) or kashmiri (I don't get on with this as much). For the base that means light spicing and not too much tomato. I can't say I've cracked it myself but that's the general idea. If you've been cooking BIR curries for so long you should be able to put some meat on those bones.

Oh, and don't rule out the obvious such as the use of food colouring.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Oh, and don't rule out the obvious such as the use of food colouring.

I would respectfully suggest than an orange colour (as opposed to red) is more likely to be the result of the omission of heavily-pigmented ingredients rather than their inclusion ...

** Phil.