Topic: Recipes just like the restaurant

[jakebodle]

Me and my family are huge curry fans. From high end restaurants to the local curry takeaway, we love it all.

We've also been cooking curries for years and have tried all the methods (base curry via Voigt, Toombs etc) but have never got a curry close enough to pass the blindfold test with our local BIR takeaway.

The sweet curries are the most difficult - CTM and Korma just never have the sweetness of a restaurant dish.

Does anyone have any recipes they have confidence in that they can match a restaurant dish? We're beginning to think it's a conspiracy!

Grateful for any pointers

[Peripatetic Phil]

Welcome aboard, Jake (and family !) but regret I can't help with the sweet dishes

[ELW]

Me and my family are huge curry fans. From high end restaurants to the local curry takeaway, we love it all.

We've also been cooking curries for years and have tried all the methods (base curry via Voigt, Toombs etc) but have never got a curry close enough to pass the blindfold test with our local BIR takeaway.

The sweet curries are the most difficult - CTM and Korma just never have the sweetness of a restaurant dish.

Does anyone have any recipes they have confidence in that they can match a restaurant dish? We're beginning to think it's a conspiracy!

Grateful for any pointers

Hi Jake, welcome to the forum. Agreed most published bir recipes don

[livo]

Hi Jakebodle. Hope you enjoy the forum and get as much from it as I have.

You are far from the first person to express the view that something is missing.  If you read back to some of the earliest posts, and all the way through to your own, you will find that the "Secret" and the "missing 5%" is nothing new. The fact that you've done everything you already have and still feel the way you do is not surprising.  I still feel that way most of the time.

There have been a few members here over the years with actual BIR industry experience and they've shared a lot of great information. There are some fantastic curry recipes here and in other places both written and in video.  The is still no doubt in my mind that sometimes the curry you buy is just better than the one you make.

Secret ingredient, old spiced oil, singeing, tarka, banjara / bunjara paste, aluminium pans, high heat, etc etc.  Nearly everybody has tried it all and occasionally lucks into a great dish, then if they're like me, usually can't remember exactly what they did.  It must be pretty widely accepted by now that there is no secret and no single element will magically reproduce the dish you get at your favourite local.  This comes from experience and knowledge in the industry and the mastery of spices, ingredients and techniques.  You can still cook a good curry though.

I'm told the curries out here aren't anywhere near as good as proper BIR, but I think they're sometimes better than the dishes I've prepared using exact BIR methods.  Even BIR is not one thing.  Curry from different regions will be different just as different chefs will have different dishes.  Unless you can get someone to actually show you exactly what they do from start to finish in the preparation of your required dish it will be very difficult to get close.  Even then you may not get it exactly right every time.  There is something missing and I don't know the answer.  There are too many people saying it for there to be nothing in it.  Of course there are some who say that they have cracked it.  Without trying one of their dishes you'll never know.

CTM should be relatively easy to get an acceptable dish. I've always managed to produce tasty and reliably presentable dishes. Korma on the other hand, is a tricky one and you will find a great diversity in what different people expect of a Korma.  Then of course there are some people who refuse to entertain the notion that a Korma is worth cooking at all.

Good luck with it and remember to let us all know when you've found the answer.

[Robbo141]

Hi Jakebodle
Welcome to the best BIR resource online.  A true gem of a forum.  Your experiences are common to many of us chasing the BIR holy grail. Honestly, if I still lived in the UK, I'd probably just give up and go takeaway / restaurant, although I do love cooking a curry.  However, here in the US, I don't have the BIR option - only traditional Indian dishes are available to me which, while good and tasty, aren't BIR.  they don't have that certain something.
I don't have the skills / experience to experiment with recipes and remember what I did, so am getting all analytical.   I've started a spreadsheet to track each curry I cook, in an attempt to try and identify variances / consistencies in the ingredients.  I lucked out with a vindaloo the other week that took me by surprise.
I will also include the various mix powders I try and track that aspect.
In the end, no amount of spreadsheetery (nice word) will cook me the 'proper' BIR vindaloo I crave but, hey, I get to think about curry a bit more, which is never a bad thing.  I attach a Word doc with a picture of the spreadsheet to show the level of insanity obsession detail I'm going for.

Tomorrow's attempt is a Madras from the Glebe Kitchen website. 

Keep calm and curry on.

Robbo

[Secret Santa]

The sweet curries are the most difficult - CTM and Korma just never have the sweetness of a restaurant dish.

I think that's the first time I've ever heard that. It's usually the savoury curries that are hardest to reproduce as that very aspect is mostly masked by all the sweetness in the sweet curries making them easier to copy.

And I don't have an answer to your question as I'm not a great fan of the sweeter curries but, you know, sweetness is sweetness, only varying by amount and any unique quality of the sweetener. So you could try for example jaggery, if you haven't already, for a toffee like sweetness. Or perhaps a blended can of fruit cocktail in syrup as the sweetener in a CTM along with plain sugar or brown sugar or mango puree or mango chutney. There are only so many sweeteners they can use that are common in a BIR but, of course, the art would be in knowing exactly which combination your local uses.

Korma has many variations and is a personal b

[Peripatetic Phil]

Korma [...] is a personal b

[Bob-A-Job]

I have never eaten or cooked a Korma as I just don't think it is a curry.

The only time I have even been around one was over 30yrs ago, at a meal with a partner and my parents where my father, who doesn't like anything spicy or with garlic, refuses to eat cheese (must be a WWII/rationing experience thing) and won't eat anything with an excess of oil (Maybe where I get it from, though I am trying) was advised to have a Korma.  He really enjoyed it!  Enough said I think.

Welcome A Board jakebodle

[livo]

The thing about Korma / Quorma / Kurma is that it is not a single dish, but more a group of dishes or style of dish. I must have cooked at least 20 different korma dishes over the last few years, all of which were "A Korma".  There is also a misconception that a Korma is not spicy.  Some I've tried are loaded with green chillis, have plenty of spice and are far from being sweet.  The korma I'm after is full of flavour from carefully blended spices, rich and thick, creamy and with the body and texture provided by nuts ground to a paste.

This of course appears to be completely different to a BIR Korma. I recently tried one of those.

https://thecurrykid.co.uk/recipe/korma/

I have, on several occasions now, come across mention of an ingredient which until recently I could never find.  It showed up again in some of the Hotel style gravies. I was able to find some this week so I intend on giving it a try very soon.  The ingredient is magaj / magaz / melon seed.  I will be interested to see what it adds to a dish if anything at all.

[Gav Iscon]

Its not just the recipe, its replicating the chef. I've cooked my wife's favourite Ceylon using the exact recipe  and it came out different. Replicating the skill of the chef has a lot to do with it as well.