Topic: 'Currytester's' Visit to a Takeaway

[Yousef]

Posted by Admin on behalf of Currytester

Last nights Curry

Had to work late last night so stopped off to pick up a TA at my local. Discovered two new guys/chefs working and nobody in the restaurant. So I asked if they would mind me watching them make the curry.

The Kitchen

There was an open can of vegetable ghee, and an array of open top containers with the spices that they use for every curry they consisted of:

Onion/green pepper mix at a ratio of about 5 onions to one pepper
Powdered Coconut
Spice Mix
Ground Almonds
Sugar
Salt
Fresh Garlic/Ginger Puree covered in oil
Dried Methi
Medium Chilli Powder
Garlic Powder
Tomato Puree - this looked like a mix of fresh tomatoes and puree mixed together
Cumin Powder
Coriander Powder

The Stove

On the stove was the curry sauce much the same colour and density as the BE base with just a small amount of oil floating on the surface which was the statutory red colour.

I asked if I could taste the curry sauce and was allowed to test it.

I may have found something here which is of interest to you base fanatics - this was the first base sauce that I would have been really happy to eat just as a basic curry.

It tasted like the time you just went in and ordered your first chicken curry - a liitle bit of heat, slightly sweet/sour, slightly salty and full/rich with curry flavour.

I expressed my surprise to the chef who said in very broken english something like " You Like?" But i am deaf in one ear at the moment so it may have been something else.

I asked how it was made but not quantities

The reply was

Onions - Red onions
Carrots
Ghee
Red Peppers
Garam Massala
Chilli powder
Garlic/Ginger puree - he was very proud of his puree so he pulled another fresh container from the fridge to show me.

Looking around there was all the usual suspects curry leaves, cardamoms etc - however a lot of them were in containers with brands I hadnt seen before but that I dont think is too important.

The curry

By this time I was losing a bit of concentration due to the effects of a couple of pints that I had to have before visiting  the curry house - some of you may remember I mentioned that we had a bring your own alcohol establishment and this was it.

Korai Chicken

In went some ghee and some of the onion mix - then I lost it because I couldnt see through him as he added the various ingredients from the open containers - however when it came to adding the chicken it was definitely pre-prepared and partly cooked as it came in a container from the fridge and was yellowish/slightly green in colour. This was added and the whole mixture was simmered for about 3-5 minutes. When placed in the container no coriander was added and I was told I didnt need it it would be good without it and they had run out. Oh I just remembered he added a pinch of methi at the cooking stage

Chicken Patia

He smeered the pan first with around half a dessert spoon of garlic ginger mix put it on the heat added ghee and onion mix - then I lost it except for about half a dessert spoon of chilli powder and roughly two dessert spoons of lemon juice from a bottle.

The same chicken was added then the simmering began and he added a very unusual ingredient which was grey/light brown in colour I asked what it was and was told
it was ginseng?
I suspect that in fact this was either Amchoor or Garlic Powder. He added around a dessert spoon full.

Arriving at home I piled my plate high and tucked in, both dishes were excellent even without the coriander.

If anyone wants to contribute to our knowledge by funding some extra curries I could be easily persuaded to live off them for a week or two - otherwise you will just have to wait until I work late again.

[Yousef]

posted on behalf of JerryM

fantastic post curry tester - i'm going to have to read this many times to take it all in.

very best wishes for us all and many many late night working's hoped for.

[Yousef]

Posted on behalf of JerryM

Currytester,

as you know/expect i'm still not a fan of ghee.

the "liitle bit of heat" in the base is of interest as i've been leaving chilli out recently but kept feeling i was doing wrong - i will add chilli back into my base cooking.

the use of red onions i can't believe on cost grounds. i'm also not sold one bit on red peppers instead of green.

the "ginseng" is interesting - i think i've heard of a Chinese wine with a similar sound but i can't imagine that's it.

the powdered garlic is an interesting slant. i make pizza all the time and of course add loads of garlic. over the last few weeks i've not been able to get to my local Asian store and been stuck with supermarket stuff (not the same quality or as easy to peel). so in desperation i tried using my stock of powder (normally used for jerk seasoning). it made the pizza taste very different - not worse not better just different. it has a very different taste to the fresh - i need to try this out in curry. i have Amchoor and sure it was not this unless the chef was using it to sour the dish - which i suppose he might given pathia needs some souring -tamarind seems to work best though although I guess I?m now going to have to try the amchoor (I can?t actually find why I?ve bought the amchoor in the past).
 

[Curry King]

Great account curry tester, lets hope you have to work late sooner rather than later!

[Derek Dansak]

great work currytester. ginseng is a japenese herb usually associated with an increase in well being if taken as a daily tablet. (i think!) never heard of it being used in cooking though. the base sounded interesting. the real bir base i tasted was totally the opposite, and tasted pretty poor, until it was used in the final dish. obviously the base must vary a lot between restaurants. some have a base which is almost 'there'. others have a base which is just a very basic soup, which needs working on! or am i talking rubbish? 

[Bobby Bhuna]

Yeah curry tester, what a great post! ;D

[haldi]

Garlic Powder & the first base sauce that I would have been really happy to eat just as a basic curry.

Are you positive it was garlic powder?
You can get amazing results with this stuff, but I have never seen it in a BIR

And yes, the base at some places is the nicest curry you will ever have.
It has almost a drug like quality
Certainly some places create the curry in the frying pan, but others do it by making an amazing base
Please find out more!!

[JerryM]

the real bir base i tasted was totally the opposite, and tasted pretty poor, until it was used in the final dish.

the real bir base i tasted was like a soup. i don't feel the taste suggested anything special in it to help with the amazing transformation of the final product. the question for me is how does this chef with frying fan do his magic c/w what we do at home.

I?m going to try out the revised cooking method (following the spice/oil frying trials) tonight and hoping the much bigger emulsification does the trick. Will keep u posted.

[JerryM]

i cooked 4 off curry sauces using the revised method and have adopted it going fwd http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2968.msg26431#msg26431.

i also tried out 1 tsp ground garlic and was uncertain on whether it made any difference as i already use a lot of fresh garlic (at least 1 tbsp per 200ml portion). i probably would not add it again. i've also tried adding it to naan with pretty much the same 50/50 result.

[currytester]

In reply to some of your questions

The chef said ginseng but the colour for me was more like Amchoor and having cooked my share of Patia's I would definitely suggest that it was Amchoor - I was only relaying the answer the chef gave me.

Not convinced about red onions or white or yellow or brown onions - well once again the chef said red but he also said it makes a difference. Now I am not suggesting that he would deliberately lie to me so I suspect some red onions were used in the base - not necessarily all

Red or green Pepper - the pepper must make some slight difference to the outcome as green peppers arent anywhere as near as sweet as red peppers. The chef said red peppers - but he could also have meant paprika or chilli powder if you think about it. And the oil colour was red so therefore chilli powder/paprika/tomatoes must have been used.

Ghee or Veg oil - the oil came from a ghee metal container which could have just as easily contained vegetable oil - I didnt taste it.

I need to make some base today so I intend to use an adaptation of my soup - which I still think has merit - BE's base and some artistic licence. I'll let you know if it  tastes anything like the one I tried which I thought was pretty good.