Topic: Had a restaurant chef round my house!

[Curry King]

Yes its true he came round and showed me the gravy and vindaloo.

The gravy is the same as before, garlic and ginger (he said use a blended paste so u can see how much goes in) oil, water, onions, tinned toms, carrot, green pepper, tom puree and spices (coriander, cumin, turmeric and half the amount of garam masala).  I asked him about packet curry powder and he thought I was joking when I said I used to put in the gravy, no curry powder at all in the gravy!!!  Cook everything except the spices until boiling then add the spices.  When the carrot is soft blend it and then return to the heat adding water until the oil seperates and its a runny consistancy.  The gravy is done about an hour and a half it took!  The curry, using about 3 tablespoons of veg oil fry a little garlic and ginger paste, I asked about browning it and he said they don't do it just heat it through.  Add a little tom puree and stir in (this is for colour), now add chilli powder and spice, he said my spice mix was fine (from the curry house magazine) but he would put them in seperatly.  Cook this for a minute and then add a little gravy stir in and add some more until you have enough sauce, add your precooked chicken and a little fresh coriander and its done, 4 mins it took.  First taste I thought mmm nice but not right then I tried it again and it did have the taste, the consistancy and look was spot on.  To be honest though I got more from watching how he cooked everything than the actual recipe, I think you could get a decent curry with any base if cooked right. 

He did say though that you cant reproduce it at home, hes tried it before himself and couldnt get it exactly the same,  he didnt really go into detail as to why but im happy that he wasn't lying or leaving anything out.

[curryqueen]

welldone curryking, I will certainly be having a go at this and then I'll report back!  Base is basic and very straightforward and vindaloo looks like a doddle, can't wait, I'm going out into my kitchen now.  Thanks for that.

[Yellow Fingers]

First taste I thought mmm nice but not right then I tried it again and it did have the taste, the consistancy and look was spot on

He did say though that you cant reproduce it at home, hes tried it before himself and couldnt get it exactly the same,? he didnt really go into detail as to why but im happy that he wasn't lying or leaving anything out.

These two statements are contradictory. If it can't be done at home how did it have that special taste?

[ghanna]

hi, curryking
well done, it is a great post.
you are so lucky to have a chef in your house .
did the chef added any fenugreek leaves at the end of cooking.
thanks
ghanna

[Curry King]

These two statements are contradictory. If it can't be done at home how did it have that special taste?

That "taste" was there but you could tell it was home made, if you know what I mean. ?I think its as good as its going to get, theres no secret ingredient and no secret society of chefs. ?When I mentioned this to him he thought it was quite funny, also when I told him about all the people who are trying to recreate it who couldnt belive why we would go through the hassle.

[Curry King]

Hi ghanna,

Yeah it was lucky I kept hassling him for the recipes and he turned round and said I will come round and show you!!

There was no fenugreek leaves in the gravy and none in the vindaloo.

Another thing he didnt mention any measurments at all, it was a bit of this a lttle of that, also I missed out salt, he put put some in at the begining and more after it was blended.  For the spices it was approx a heaped desert spoon of each execpt garam masala which was under half that.  Oil was about 500ml and water as needed, 8 onions, 1 carrot, 1 tin of toms and 1 pepper.   If anyone trys it please post back, ive just got another batch on the go.

[pete]

He did say though that you cant reproduce it at home, hes tried it before himself and couldnt get it exactly the same, he didnt really go into detail as to why but im happy that he wasn't lying or leaving anything out.

I had a chef round last September and he made me the base sauce which I posted on the in2curry site.
He turned up with the onions, tomato puree,spice mix, chilli powder.
He was ever such a nice chap.
He chopped the onions put them in the pot and added salt, water and? oil.
It boiled for for about twenty minutes then he pureed it with my hand blender.
Heat added the spice mix and tomato puree and cooked it another ten minutes.
He said to make a chicken vindaloo simply add chilli powder and chicken to the sauce.
"Is that it?" I asked
"Yes, there is nothing more." he said
The texture and look of the curry was perfect, but not the taste.
I am sure he was genuine and he took his own free time to come to my house.
In all honesty, I can say, that what he made was very similar, to what I could already produce.
Another chef told me there was no point in going to all the trouble to make the curry gravy.
You can get the same flavour using onions garlic and ginger.
He gave me a recipe which I tried and that was ok, but not with the flavour.
After reading your post ,and thinking about my chef's visit, I think for some technical reason you cannot produce exact restaurant curries at home.
I think you haven't got the heat you need.
The oil isn't getting hot enough.
The curry gravy should almost evaporate on contact with the pan.
Maybe that makes the flavour.
However, you did say it had "the" flavour a bit.
Maybe it was just too fresh?

[Curry King]

Yeah it had the taste but as said before the 2 restaurants near me produce completly differnt vindaloos and this one is different again.  Im not sure why it didnt taste right the first time i tried it but second taste it was lovely, i think that the gravy tastes better after being left and we made the vindaloo staright after making the gravy so that probably didnt help.

[George]

I think for some technical reason you cannot produce exact restaurant curries at home.
I think you haven't got the heat you need.
The oil isn't getting hot enough.

This weekend, for the first time in ages, I went to a take-away with an open plan kitchen. They only used one temperature for every stage of everything they were cooking for me and other customers - full blast heat.

I suggest that, to get as close to the restaurant kitchen approach, and taste, in your own home, there are a few things which are absolutely essential:
- a gas hob on full blast (If I had electric, I'd change the hob for sure!)
- figure out how to ignite/flambe the food every few seconds whilst cooking and rolling around the wok. The effect of fire must surely have a significant effect on the taste.
- unbelievably unhealthy quantities of vegetable oil and salt. There were load of huge drums of vegetable oil in the kitchen, compared to only a few small pots of ghee.

This may not be how they cook the base sauce, of course. I'm talking about stage 2 for the final dishes.

[Blondie]

Hi CK,

Absolutely fantastic CK, I'll try the base 2nite or tomorrow and will report back at that stage, and then I will report back after I have made the final dish in a few days,

Cheers CK,

Paul