Topic: Talked about base sauce with take away owner and chef

[DARTHPHALL]

Bright orange could also indicate few spices & plenty of Turmeric ( have you noticed how Take-away Curry stains things worse than your home-made mmmmm !!).
There is another post here somewere about Resteraunt Masala ( Paprika & Turmeric dominated this mix did it not ??).

[Ian S.]

Yes, I thought about food colouring... but it's not quite that  bright and red.

Actually last night's (Thursday's) curry was the best using this base so far, and I managed to get the colour more reddy-golden. The only differences to the last version I  posted were:

After the chopped onion and pepper were flashed off, I added one very heaped tsp of tomato puree and stir fried it untill it had completely broken up, spread around the pan and almost disappeared - it turned the onions pink.  Then I added a splash of base and immediately added 2 heaped tsp chilli powder, 1/2 tsp of spice mix and just a pinch of gound methi.  The spices cooked as the curry evaporated, and what was in the pan turned a deep red.  I evaporated this almost dry and then splashed in some chicken stock and the rest of the gravy, and carried on as above.  I left out the salt completely.

Also, breaking a rule of mine, but out of interest, I stirred in  a good pinch of fresh coriander to the curry as it was simmering a couple of minutes before the end (with the rest added as above).

It really was quite good.  I'm at the end of the batch now, but I'm going to have to try this again next time - perhaps a bit earlier in the evening (and a bit more sober! :)

[blade1212]

I made another batch of the 10 onion version yesterday and it is not as good as last weeks version - not as sweet and 'full bodied' as the last one.

The only difference was I used a couple of tbl of passata insead of a whole tin of tomatoes and used less water.

I'll try out a madras later today as it might work out OK for the final dish.

[DARTHPHALL]

Ian.s
Having made some very bright Curries i know you can make them very colourfull without food colorings,
leaving out Chili powder & replacing with Chilies will allow the Turmeric brighten up the Curry.As with my Darth-Masala !! ( will post soon ).

[pete]

Hi Mark
          when I initially made the curry gravy recipe I was a little dissapointed.
I froze most of it.
But since I got a sample of real curry gravy, from my takeaway I thought I would compare yours to it.
It is so close.
It looks about the same too.
That is a really good recipe.
I feel a lot better now that I know exactly what I am aiming for.
I was thinking the curry base had to have the "taste" in it.
I was wrong
Thanks
Here's a comparison photo
Your gravy is the one on the left
If you can still find out his chicken stock recipe (for the gravy), that would be brilliant!

[lazydays]

Mmmmm  Looks too close to call . Are both the recipes for these in this forum somewhere ?

[Mark J]

Excellent, thanks for the photo pete, Ill quiz him again on chicken stock next time I see him (week wednesday)

[CurryCrazy]

good photos...really shows the bright orange of the oil on the right. I think more turmeric (& paprika?) is the order of the day!

The base certainly does look close though..anyone know where the recipe is?

[pete]

I scaled down the version on the first page
I made it with eight onions, so divided all measurements by 4
I cooked it for two hours
If you follow the thread there are several people who tried a few variations

[DARTHPHALL]

Yep mine turned out a bright Orange/Yellow & i agree loads of Turmeric in the base as my local BIR Curries stain my white sink very easily.