Topic: Base sauce, local curry house style

[telecaster445]

I had the chance to visit a customer at the Ladywell Tandoori. Not a BIR, but a completely standard curry house with no variation on what you'd expect from generic dishes. I made notes on the "gravy" and have a had many attempts to obtain the best results. In fact, I have used a method posted elsewhere on how to avoid to dreaded bitter onion syndrome. Although, the chef only boiled, not fried the onions. in fact the gravy pot is constantly simmering all night in his kitchen.

 Incidently, the aroma from the cooking(main dishes) arises from a particular technique. it involves the onion, galic/ginger paste, then 1 big spoonful of base sauce being cooked on a super high heat. by rapidly moving the frying pan back and forth, the contents catch fire for a second. it is this process that that marks the difference between restaraunt speed cooking and home simmering.

anyway gravy time.


3 large onions
1/2 green pepper
1/2 a cup of corriander stems
8 garlic gloves
1" square ginger
level teaspoon salt
heaped teaspoon cumin
  "       "     corriander
  "       "     paprika
  "       "     tumeric
  "       "     madras curry powder (yes they do use curry powder!)
1 1/2 pints of water
1 cup of oil
approx 300ml of tinned chopped toms

method:

chop onions and fry in oil until translucent(about 10 mins). keep moving to avoid colour.
add chopped green pepper
blend garlic/ginger with water to make paste.
add paste plus corriander stems, to onions and fry for further 2 mins.
add salt.
add tinned toms, fry 1 min
add water and bring to boil.
add spices.
boil on medium for 1 hour.
cool then puree
now simmer for 40 mins, adding water if it starts to stick


good luck! my kitchen has a BIR smell about it. Not such a good thing at breakfast time!!

[Curry King]

Thanks for this telecaster, it's almost exactly the same base I was shown by a chef, the only difference being no madras curry powder!