Topic: Who believes there is a secret ingredient to the curry base?

[pete]

I used extra oil and skimmed off to save for the actual curry.? As soon as I poured it into the warm pan, I knew this was a very important stage.?

The aroma of this reheated spiced oil is amazing
This part I know is right
At most of the demos this is the predominant smell.
That, and also when, they add the curry powder

[curryqueen]

Pete,  At last some are taking on board that the use of extra oil when making the gravy and skimming it off when it is cooked is the way to go!   I can't believe that it has taken this long for people to take the initiative to find this out.  As soon as you start a curry with this oil then you know it is right, and, of course, if you keep reusing it the smell/aroma intensifies even more. Thankyou Angelina for taking the time to listen.

[pete]

As soon as you start a curry with this oil then you know it is right, and, of course, if you keep reusing it the smell/aroma intensifies even more.

I shall be using old oil in the next KD base
I'll probably have to use new oil too, but I reckon a restaurant wouldn't throw away any oil left over.
I saw one place using the oil from the deep pan fryer
If you'd use that, what wouldn't you use?
I shall post the results

[traveller]

Thats a very interesting point!  I reuse the oil in cooking after deep frying one time.  I use it in all my indian dishes because I was told not to deep fry with the same oil again.  The flavor is great!  it really adds depth to the dish I am cooking - especially when I have deep fried some onion pakodas and the such with the oil!!

[Ashes]

Thats a good point, there are other dishes that use oil, like pakora.
This oil could easily be returned to a common pot to be used for curries.

If you check out the Balti recipes in "The Curry Secret", you?ll see that
they chop bell peppers and onions and deep fry them and then add
them to the curry at the end. I?ve used the oil from deep fried onions
and peppers and it smells great (although it means frying them in advance)

Although I?m not convinced it added much to my curry, but
fried large quantities of onion and peppers would definately make a difference.

[steve e]

Hi All,

Noticed in one of our local asian shops that not only was there tomato puree on the shelf but next to it was a tin of tomato paste it was made by EUROFOODS a company in my home town Newport Wales.I read ingredients on the tin and there were slight differences but what did surprise me was the tin was about the size of a large tin of potatoes,i dont know if this suggests more useage of this product against puree or not.
keep up the good work
steve e   

[pete]

Hi Steve e
              they definitely use tins
I had another look around my local Asian shop, trying to find the tomato paste, I cooked with last time.
It wasn't there but there were loads of italian (almost pizza tomato base) tins.
I've just bought an Asda jar of tomato paste
I'll post if it's any good

[kiwi curries]

Yo Dudes,
                   My thought is (and i know its been said before) is that it is recycled oil from previous dishes. Now I don't think this is the end of it either since all the oil does is carry flavour from previous dishes. The flavour has to be there to start with BUT... I do think those flavours mellow with heat and time. The reason I suspect these things is manifold one being this:  ever walk past an asian takeaway joint and wonder how those places get to smelling like the do? I rekon it's the repeatedly reaheated oil that has little bits of everything floating in it such as little bits of pastry from wantons and spring rolls etc plus all the flavours from these foods have leached into the oil and mellowd over time. I suspect the same thing happens with indian spices and other ingredients mellowing in hot oil over time. now the other important reason was this: one time I was carefully watching an indian chef cook my dinner and I saw him do something remarkable but thought nothing of it at the time. He would skim off excess oil (which also had a tiny bit of my meal in it) from my dish and put it into the little plastic container in front of him. This is the same little plastic container he originally dipped into to add oil to MY meal at the begging of making my madras and he also started the next dish (after mine) with this same oil. So in this restaraunt, the oil going into each dish had been, at some time, been in a whole miriad of other dishes and possibly in the onion sauce and red sauce pots as well. This would lead one to presume that this is where the secret is coming from and why the flavour is so difficult to acheive at home. But the recipe methodology and ingredients have to be there to begin with. All this theory is doing is taking the emphasis off this silly idea of a secret ingredient. I hope this is of some use to someone. my sugestion to anyone trying to prove my hypothesis, is to take a little bit of oil from every dish you make say a tablespoon or two per every serving and add it to the next dish you make and from that dish add a bit to the next dish and so on and so forth  ; )    The secret could be this tiny taste of a hundred sucsessive curries!!!    YUM thats gotta help

[pete]

I've lost count of the number of times this has been reported
But it's alot
I think we can take this practice as almost standard, though no chef would admit it.

[Ashes]

Chefs will not admit this become health reasons, also a chef will tell you how to make a curry but not what the so called "secret ingredient" is, probably because they don?t know themselves. It does seem to be the by-product of reused oil. The only mystery is, how do you reuse oil from a vindaloo and a phal, the heat level would ruin the oil for the next mild curry. Or would it? Has anyone tried this yet?