Peoples perception of the BIR taste-10 year curry house experience

[andy2295]

Hi all,


First of all i have reversed my normal subject headings so that it is easy to see the actual subject first but have kept my 10 years ,,,etc signature.

Peoples perception of the BIR taste.

There is so much talk on here regarding not being able to get the bir taste. Whether it be points relating to the curry base, technique, final spices and methods etc.

Let me explain.

Having had 10 years relating to this industry there is NO SECRET INGREDIENT that people sometimes think is missing. No-one can suddenly come up with a bir tasting curry. There is a lot of experience involved in this game. The waiter for example could not just nip into the kitchens and cook you up a chicken madras. After some training then yes he could.

The posts i have posted to date i.e. Base/sauce/gravy, Methods, pre-cooked paste are exactly as we do them, nothing added, nothing left out.

However where things change and where the taste will change drastically is the fact that we get a fast turnaround of spices so they are always at their freshest. As spices date they change their flavour therefore changing the flavour of all the dishes they are used for.
Spices must always be fresh.

I have seen recipes on here relating to garam masala and comments like Natco's is the best etc. We do not buy in garam masala we make it. I will give you details later.

The same applies to curry masala. We do not buy in Rajah gold Madras and all that kind of stuff, we make it.

We do not have a single bought curry paste on the premises.

Spices too can kill the taste by overuse. Per example too much cumin and you will end up with yes a curry, but with the taste of a commercial shop bought powder or paste. I have seen loads of variations on here of ingredients for various dishes. With no disrespect to anyone there are some strange ones. Spices react with each other and it is only experience that learns you the reaction of such.

Your local bir works on speed and reputation for good food. If one of our chef's was having to make up pastes for this and pastes for that he would never get any orders out.
I am not saying that all bir's do not use pastes but we certainly dont apart from the pre-cooked paste previously posted.

With one chef we can produce 2 curries every 5 minutes. That is experience and technique.

We get comments from customers that say "That vindaloo was a lot hotter than last week". We have not added more chilli it is just that a new batch may be of a better quality.

The taste is also dependent what you are used to. Bir's do not produce the same taste.
Example a chicken madras from leeds is totally different to a chicken madras in Newcatle both in taste and looks. It the chef's interpretation.

There is no standard curry base that is written down and secretly passed around all the bir's. I have seen photographs on here of peoples final dishes. Some look really good, some not so good  but you cannot get a taste from a photo. It is guide to what it should look like.

A good bir depends on experience.

Keep up the good work its challenging.

Regards

Andy

[Chilli Prawn]

Andy well done.  I have also been beating this trail along with others on the Forum.  You have encapsulated it all in one bloody good post, it says it all.  Keep up the good work.

CP

[Cory Ander]

..........I have seen loads of variations on here of ingredients for various dishes. With no disrespect to anyone there are some strange ones. Spices react with each other and it is only experience that learns you the reaction of such........

Thanks for this Andy; an interesting post!  

I wonder if you can please elaborate on the "strange ingredients" for various dishes that you have seen here (without being too personal about anybody's recipe in particular, of course!)?  

Also, please can you cite some spice combinations (besides the 2:1 ratio of coriander to cumin that CP has mentioned before) that react with each other in a particular way?  Could you please also indicate issues to avoid?    

I'm sure providing specifics on these things would be of great interest to many of us!  As I'm sure you'll probably appreciate,  simply alluding to these things, or generalising about them, without providing specifics, can be quite frustrating to some of us (well, to me anyway!)  

I have seen photographs on here of peoples final dishes. Some look really good, some not so good  but you cannot get a taste from a photo. It is guide to what it should look like.

Whereas I obviously agree that you cannot get a taste from a photo, I firmly believe that photos gives a very reasonable indication of whether the dish even looks the part!  They are, unfortunately, the only means that we have to provide an indication of the quality of the dish (or lack of!). 

I would dearly like to see EVERY recipe accompanied by a photo of the dish!  ......whereupon, I would really appreciate seeing some supporting photos for your and CP's dishes (and anybody elses)....how's about it?.....any chance? 

Thanks for your continued interesting posts Andy!  

[merrybaker]

Very interesting and thoughtful comments, as usual, Andy.  Thanks for all the time and effort you are putting into your posts. 

[andy2295]

Hi cory ander

What i mean re strange ingredients, not being specific to anyones recipes is purely the fact that some of the recipes include ingredients that in our bir just are not there. They are not there for a reason they change the taste.

Per example non of our curries e.g madras, vindaloo, bhuna etc have garam masala in them. Yes we put garam masala in the base sauce so why would you need it in both! It changes the colour of the finished product when added during the final process.

If you follow my future posts you will understand better.

I will be posting our curry masala mixes, balti mixes etc as soon as.

I appreciate a photo helps to get the look right and i will post pictures of as many of our menu items as i can. Please be patient we have to serve people quickly but i will take photos during quieter nights.

With the photo thing as well, i saw the other day a photo of someones base sauce and comments that it looked good. The colour was completely wrong. I was not going to be negative to the author by telling them this as this can put people off. However the positive comments regarding it could easily have sent people down the wrong garden path.

Regards

Andy

[Yellow Fingers]

The colour was completely wrong.

I have to  disagree strongly with you there Andy. The only thing in a curry that really matters to me is that it has the smell and the taste. I've been eating restaurant curries for over 25 years now and I can categorically state that for a given curry, a madras say, I've had colours from bright orange to verging on black and every shade inbetween, and they have all had that desired smell and taste. So colour shouldn't ever be a guide of rightness or wrongness.

YF

[Curry King]

Per example non of our curries e.g madras, vindaloo, bhuna etc have garam masala in them. Yes we put garam masala in the base sauce so why would you need it in both! It changes the colour of the finished product when added during the final process.

I was under the impression that some ingredients are added in both base and curry ala garlic ginger puree to create the illusion that the curry is fresh, bringing out the flavour of said ingredient from the base.  Of course I maybe talking a load of rubbish  :-X

cK

[Graeme]

Hi,

Great post Andy.

I do find that the colour makes a big difference to the dish, if its red it could taste like tom soup (and often does) however dark vindaloos have a good chance of tasting stronger
and having that fresh tandoori type smell.

So out of all the vindaloos i have in newcastle i tend to enjoy the darker ones and never go back to the red tomato soup takeaways.

colour does seem matter to my taste buds.

Regards Graeme.

[andy2295]

hi

yf is on one again. Wish he could come and work with us for a reality check. I am here to try to help but like cp obviously some dont want that. I respect that others do but perhaps its not worth the effort. i have worked in here for ten years, yf has eaten for 25 years. Yawn yawn. Have suddenly lost interest. Some people dont want to know reality.

andy

[Yellow Fingers]

Wish he could come and work with us for a reality check.

Just tell me where to go and what time mate.

YF