Topic: Secret Curry Recipe from e-bay

[SnS]

From the original thread http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1429.0

Fonts in green are quotes directly off the recipe sheet.

Received the package today. Contains a recipe sheet, a CD and a plastic takeaway carton containing the following spices:-

60g Garlic powder, 60g ginger powder, 15g cummin, 5g turmeric, 25g chili, 30g garam masala, 5g paprika, a tiny bag of dried coriander and a smaller bag of fenugreek.

Here is the base curry gravy recipe (which I think we all know already). Makes about 7 to 7.5 pints of curry gravy. In fact the first stage is remarkably similar to the Curry Secret by Kris Dhillon - surprise surprise!

6 lb peeled and roughly chopped onions
2 oz ginger powder or 6 oz fresh ginger
2 oz garlic powder or 6 oz fresh pureed garlic
1.5 to 2 pints of chicken stock
1 tsp salt
1 tin chopped tomatoes
8 tablespoons veg oil
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp paprika

In a food processor blend the onions down to a paste, then add them to a large pan with the rest of the above ingredients, bring to boil, simmer very slowly and keep blending some of the mixture, returning it to the pan, stirring and blending some more. The more you do this, the smoother your curry will be. Keep this up for approx 45 minutes, stirring often, making sure the sauce does not burn on the bottom of the pan. On to stage 2 ..

... and stage 2, the curry (which doesn't have a name)

10 tablespoons veg oil
4 tspn salt
2 tspn chili
8 tspn garam masala
4 tspn cummin
0.25 tspn fenugreek
half a Jif lemon juice

Mix the above ingredients in a frying pan and fry out slowly for about 3 minutes to release the taste of spices. Mix the fried spices to the blended mix and continue simmering very slowly and continuing with the blender, simmer for about 20-25 minutes before adding coriander. IMPORTANT - if any 'scum' appears on the surface, around the edge, spoon it away, this gives the sauce a more bitter taste. This doesn't always happen, it depends on the onions. Finally mix in 1.25 tspn of dried finely chopped green coriander or 3 tspn chopped fresh coriander (fresh better) again this amount to taste. Stir for 1 minute.

CONGRATULATIONS - Enjoy your first Restaurant style home made curry


Personally I don't think there is anything here that we don't know already.

I'm not quite sure whether this produces 7 pints of a mild curry or 7 pints of a spicy curry gravy (which he calls a curry)??

Either way, I will give this a go - as soon as my freezer has some room.

Also the e-bay seller claims the spices alone would cost over 20.00 quid. I really don't think so.

Regards
SnS

[Curry King]

Also the e-bay seller claims the spices alone would cost over 20.00 quid. I really don't think so.

They probably did cost him 20 quid for huge bags before being split down to sell on at massive profit 

Problem is you if you leave honest feedback on ebay you would probably receive negative feedback in return 

Thanks for letting us know anyway.

[Bobby Bhuna]

Here are some things I think sound wierd about this:
I don't understand the use of both dried AND fresh varieties of the same ingredient. I always thought it was the tomatoes that caused the scum.
Does that sound a bit on the lemony side to anyone else?

Also, whats on the CD? Maybe some authentic Indian music to let you really enjoy the flavours of India?

[fumble]

I can't see how the seller hopes to make any money from this.
At ?4.28 a pop he has to:

- go out and buy the spices, presumably in bulk
- buy the packets to put them in
- print labels for the packets and label them
- weight out the spices in to the packets
- seal the packets (says vacuum packed so add cost of equipment)
- print and laminate a recipe card (add cost of plastic and laminator)
- buy CDs, copy them, print labels for them
- put the lot in some packaging and go off to post it

The profit on each pack can hardly cover his costs, and then
he effectively has no repeat business as his customers can
subsequently get the spices from any asian shop more cheaply.

[SnS]

Hi Bobby

Exactly as IanR described in an earlier post

Free E Books (all subjects)
Holiday India
Indian Music MP3 (No Robin Williams or Sydney Divine)
Jokes (including the Tarka otter joke .. !)
National Symbols
Pictures
Recipes Hints & Tips (Basic recipes you will find in any Indian cook book or on the web)
So Called E Recipes

Not a lot really

Regards
SnS

[SnS]

- seal the packets (says vacuum packed so add cost of equipment)

Not vacuum packed. Just normal seal bags.

But you're right, I can't see him making much on each transaction.

Despite everything, as far as it goes he's done a good job. Can't knock him for trying.
 ;D

[Bobby Bhuna]

Indian Music MP3 (No Robin Williams or Sydney Divine)

Hahaha, a little Robin Williams with your curry? Now that would be odd!

[IanR]

Sorry, did try to stop you. Always hard to resist though when someone declares the secret! With regards to the quality of the curry, i personally didn't like it but my brother in law absolutely loved it.

Ian

[George]

SnS

Many thanks for posting the recipes, and so quickly too!

I agree it looks like KD's recipes plus enough changes to introduce an element of doubt. The main changes in the base sauce ingredients are:

1.5 to 2 pints of chicken stock (20% of KD amount and she uses plain water)
1 tsp salt (33% of KD)
1 tin chopped tomatoes (what sized tin?! - useless recipe)
8 tablespoons veg oil (33% of KD)
2 tsp turmeric (66% of KD)
2 tsp paprika (66% of KD)

But he makes up for less salt in the base sauce, with what seems like a huge quantity in the stage 2 recipe. Could a takeaway-sized portion of curry contain as much as 4 tsp salt, plus underlying salt in the base sauce?

Then he says: "half a Jif lemon juice". Does that mean half a complete container?

I agree that, to many people, this item would represent a fair deal, at the price. I just hope he's being honest about having paid to get the recipe friom a curry house. If not, it's a shame that some people would stoop that low to tell such a lie.

Regards
George

[ast]

SnS

Many thanks for posting the recipes, and so quickly too!

I agree it looks like KD's recipes plus enough changes to introduce an element of doubt. The main changes in the base sauce ingredients are:

1.5 to 2 pints of chicken stock (20% of KD amount and she uses plain water)
1 tsp salt (33% of KD)
1 tin chopped tomatoes (what sized tin?! - useless recipe)
8 tablespoons veg oil (33% of KD)
2 tsp turmeric (66% of KD)
2 tsp paprika (66% of KD)

But he makes up for less salt in the base sauce, with what seems like a huge quantity in the stage 2 recipe. Could a takeaway-sized portion of curry contain as much as 4 tsp salt, plus underlying salt in the base sauce?

Then he says: "half a Jif lemon juice". Does that mean half a complete container?

I agree that, to many people, this item would represent a fair deal, at the price. I just hope he's being honest about having paid to get the recipe friom a curry house. If not, it's a shame that some people would stoop that low to tell such a lie.

Regards
George

Hi George,

Your post made me go back and dig out my KD recipe.  I'm confused by your percentages.

I'm not sure how much 6 onions are supposed to weigh, but I'm guessing that unless they're large-ish, they won't weigh 900g will they?  Seems like this one has less than hers.
Both the salt and the oil are the same for the base sauce, but the turmeric and paprika are actually 200% the amount in the KD recipe I have.  it's also missing the tomato puree.  Not having enough experience with trying different bases yet, I'm not sure how much difference that would make, but as KD doesn't use more turmeric or paprika in her curry recipe, that, plus the potential lesser amount of onions and lack of tomato puree (even if it's only 1 tsp) could be enough to alter the taste.

I agree that the salt is loads more, but then so is the garam masala and cumin.  The chilli amount should make it a madras by the book.  Based on the directions presented, I think it would turn out sorta strange, myself.  After that much simmering at the final curry stage, I think the spices would be well blended, but they certainly wouldn't jump out at you the way I think they do in a typical BIR curry--certainly not if they were fried (dry or paste) as part of making the final curry.

Again, according to the KD book, said amount should make 8 servings of curry (enough for 6-8 people), so I don't think it's a "standard" takeaway size they're going for.  Even with simmering for such a long time, I don't think it would reduce all that much unless it was a pretty hard simmer...

Did you also notice how much difference there is in the cooking times?  I think SnS is right.  It's got to result in some sort of pseudo-base/curry hybrid.  It doesn't factor in any time for cooking the curry part (approx 10 min, KD style), and it only brings the whole lot to the boil initially.

Re: Jif lemon, yes, that's gotta be half a container.  They're roughly lemon sized bottles of lemon juice (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jif_(lemon_juice)).  I've never seen them outside the US, but I used to use them occasionally for making cocktails, etc. when I lived there.

Maybe since whoever is selling this recipe paid for the KD book and that's supposed to be based on her restaurant, he can get away with saying he paid to get the recipe from a curry house.  Maybe it really is a curry house recipe, but I don't think they'd end up selling much of it--except maybe between 3-5am here in Dublin on Thursday-Saturday nights! ;D