hello

[woldfield]

I think I must have died and gone to heaven. I've been trying to cook authentic Indian foods for the last 30 years or so. I have only recently seen how to cook British restaurant style curries. The base gravy seems to be they key and is well worth making a large batch if you have half a day to spare.

Here to Learn

[Peripatetic Phil]

Welcome aboard, Woldfield

[woldfield]

is this onion soup/ gravy base commercially produced?

i have only tried making it once myself from a recipe found via the e-book British Indian Restaurant Style Cooking

Crawford, Mick. British Indian Restaurant (BIR) Style Cooking Volume 1 (British Indian Restaurant Style Cooking) . Mick Crawford. Kindle Edition. 2011.

i have been browsing the site for a basic base and tbh some of them are way too complex, with too many ingredients and too time consuming to be believable authentic BIR commercial recipes.

could you point me to a bog standard one for, say, the sort of generic veg curry served with a biriyani? - I'm a vegetarian btw.

thanks

ps

its going to take me years to go through everything on this site. props to the mods

[woldfield]

oh and tarladalal.com is my go to for trad vege grub.

it has to be said though that the best tasting "indian" was in a Bradford curry house 30 some years ago. Very cheap, using tinned veg, but omg i can still smell and taste it.

[Peripatetic Phil]

is this onion soup/ gravy base commercially produced?

Shaheen make one which for my taste needs further liquidising and diluting, but Mick Crawford (a.k.a. "Curry Barking Mad") is a true BIR aficionado and his recipes can safely be relied on.  Apart from Shaheen and CBM, there are many many alternatives

[Bob-A-Job]

Welcome woldfield,

I thought I had a recipe for a Paneer curry that I make every so often, although it seems to be quite a while ago now since I last made it as I have just spent some time going through my books for the hand written recipe and I can't find it at the moment.  It was a recipe from a website that I was directed to from a local Asian Supermarket, years ago (5-10yrs)... the employee hasn't worked there for a few years now since she got married so I can't even ask.  I will search some more and see if I can find it or make contact as it really was rather good although my friends and family are much the same as Phil and prefer there to be some 'meat' to the curry, even if that is fish.

I have also had some good results with the base gravy's from Taz, Kris Dhillon, CA and the "Belting Balti!" by welshnuckles (the gravy is listed in the recipe in the Main Dishes > Balti curry forum, not in the Curry Base recipes forum).

Have fun with your exploration though, as you said, there is a great deal of information here to read through.

Regards,
BAJ.

P.S. I would be interested if you can remember what the name of that Bradford curry house was.  I doubt it still exists but I probably ate there, back in the day. 

[romain]

I'm a big believer in keeping the curry base as simple as possible and driving the flavour from the ingredients used in specific curries.

I use this base. https://glebekitchen.com/indian-restaurant-curry-base/

Mods, if this is inappropriate please delete and let me know.

[woldfield]

"P.S. I would be interested if you can remember what the name of that Bradford curry house was.  I doubt it still exists but I probably ate there, back in the day"

it was just to the south of the film and photograph museum, maybe only 5 mins walk.. It looked like any british greasy cafe from the 60's. Formica table tops and plastic mats. no cutlery but as many chapati as needed. I remember it was uphill to the museum and a bit of a struggle after too much to eat....

"I use this base. https://glebekitchen.com/indian-restaurant-curry-base/"

that was my first and only attempt, although mine was a bit redder due mainly to the kashmiri chilli powder i added in. i dont like curries too hot and this chilli is mild but great colour and flavour.

I have ordered a few pouches of Shaheen sauces to try out, thanks for that

thanks for all your replies and the warm welcome!!