Topic: London Madras base?

[Nickywelsh]

Very long time, no post. Like so many my favourite curry is a tomatoey madras. I’ve called the post ‘London Madras base’ as my favourite London curry houses don’t use any coconut milk, lemon, cream, etc, when making a madras. It’s just a divine garlicky, deep tomato flavoured, curry. I’ve once hit the nail on the head, forgot to write down the recipe, and then…forgot…the recipe. My issue with Tom purée has always been that to my palate, it takes my madras too dark in colour, and can over power without adding depth, especially after cooking down the base gravy. It was driving me nuts, I’ve tried pretty much every recipe on here (over the years), so I started doing random google searches. All the usual suspects popped up, then I found this. This, with of course added spice powders (possibly some more garlic) during the actual making of the curry, is the madras that I was after since moving to the other side of the world.

It nails that very deep savoury flavour, and the colour is perfect. The method is key.

https://www.harighotra.co.uk/tomato-base-restaurant-sauce-recipe

[Kashmiri Bob]

Interesting find.  I am also looking into the tomatoey Madras.  Have experienced it in Manchester and Birmingham, many years ago.  However these offerings had a definite lemon zing to them.  The sauce was also a lot thinner (more velvety texture) than "standard" good quality TA Madras.

The tomato additions to a Madras in the vid below look promising.  The finished curry looks close to what I am looking for.  I will get around to trying it.

Be good see how you get on with the London Madras Nickywelsh.

Rob

www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3KdfZoj9XM&ab_channel=CurryCraftKitchen

[Secret Santa]

It nails that very deep savoury flavour, and the colour is perfect. The method is key.

https://www.harighotra.co.uk/tomato-base-restaurant-sauce-recipe

This is Kris Dhillon's base sauce or a small variation thereof, see  https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=579.0

[Kashmiri Bob]

I had a Chicken Vindaloo from a local TA last week.  They normally produce a very decent curry.  It was ridiculously hot with a bitterness I would associate with under-cooking (chilli powder).  The Saag bhaji side order was also watery, again not cooked properly.  Ate half the vinders and suffered next day.

Later added 4 blended tinned KTC plum tomatoes to the curry left over.  Just mixed it in and reheated in the combi oven.  Vast improvement.  Still way too hot, but very reminiscent of the tomatoey Madras sauce I am looking for.  It also had the lovely silky finish.  Just a start but promising.  Would be good to get this one right.  The best Madras of this type for me was a little TA in Stockport, back in the early 90's.  I can't remember the name.  They also did a great Tandoori Chicken Masala curry, which also had a tomatoey and siky sauce.

A good option for a tasty mid-week curry, leaving the full-flock old school oil special Madras for the weekend.         

   

[Peripatetic Phil]

This is Kris Dhillon's base sauce or a small variation thereof, see  https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=579.0

It is indeed.  The proportions have been changed, but the ingredients are identical, as is the method.  But Hari clearly loves her salt — KD recommends 1 tsp salt in 1.6 litres of water; Hari recommends 1 tbsp salt in 900 ml !
--
** Phil.

[Kashmiri Bob]

Salt I think is an important part of the missing "5%".  Particularly for medium to hot dishes, after a couple of beers.  During lockdown, I heaped in a good rounded tsp of table salt into a Morrison's Chicken Madras before cooking.  Tasted really good.  Before going to sleep I experienced the classic/satisfying BIR indigestion; belching, farting, etc.  Don't get this so much with less salt.  You won't see BIR chefs adding much more the a 1/4 - 1/2 tsp in videos, but from my (albeit limited) experience of watching them in kitchens they do add more.  Saag bhaji is also loaded with salt.