What Ingredients are we missing

[Derek Dansak]

Hi chinois, yes i get the odd waft of bir in my kitchen, but not quite the same as that from some of the top notch curries i buy. i will try the spiced oil approach some time soon. although i am loathe to go down that road, as it adds more preparation to an already long list of stuff to do each week. (base, garlic puree, spice mixes, marinades, feck !!  ) you know the drill !  so i wont bore everyone !

[chinois]

Hi chinois, yes i get the odd waft of bir in my kitchen, but not quite the same as that from some of the top notch curries i buy. i will try the spiced oil approach some time soon. although i am loathe to go down that road, as it adds more preparation to an already long list of stuff to do each week. (base, garlic puree, spice mixes, marinades, feck !!  ) you know the drill !  so i wont bore everyone !

Derek i dont do any more work to get my spiced oil, it's a natural byproduct.
If i make caramelized onions or bunjara i'll add lots of oil at the end and stir it in. Then if i precook some onions/peppers for a balti/dupiaza i'll use that oil and then return it to the caramelized onions. Then i use some of it to make the base, again reclaiming it and returning it.
I dilute it each time with fresh oil or ghee so i have enough to go round but it's so strong it's fine.
This time i marinated my lamb (shoulder, with bone) in lots of oil and a bit of tomato puree and chilli powder and even before i cooked it the oil tasted nice. So i took quite a lot out and started my spiced oil stash with that. By the final curry i cooked that session it'd been used about 5 times but even the first use was noticeably good.

[chinois]

I have a feeling the reason a lot of restaurants reclaim oil is financial. Indian food needs a lot of oil to cook well and oil's not that cheap any more. Also restaurants are required to have fat disposed of, which often incurs a cost.
For a restaurant it makes sense to use the oil that's floating there on the base and a byproduct is that its flavoured already. I imagine that's the reason chefs arent often honest about it. They think it would be frowned upon as recycling food.
Keen, questioning chefs will have looked into it and have made their own minds up but a lot of what happens in BIRs is 'learning by repetition'. If your teacher did it like that, you do it like that. If the menu never changes it's not a learning/inquisitive work environment.
(This culture is similar in most english kitchens BTW, just in case a racism-flag-waver was about to pounce on their keyboard)

[JerryM]

there are numerous other spices in many indian grocers i am curious about.

DD/Stephen,

there's going to be some humble pie if tarragon does work out.

what are the "other spices" u're thinking of. i can ask at my local store as he is pretty clued up on what the owners buy.

[Cory Ander]

there are numerous other spices in many indian grocers i am curious about.

there's going to be some humble pie if tarragon does work out.

By whom and why Jerry?

[PaulP]

I would be very surprised if tarragon turned out to be the missing piece. I've never seen it mentioned in any Indian recipes and a google search revealed that it isn't used much in India even though a type does grow wild.

Last night I had a lamb korai from a new local restaurant/TA (The Saffron, Waterloo, Liverpool) and it was very nice and had the aroma and flavour that I think we are still looking for. I couldn't detect any tarragon at all. I tend to agree with others that there is something about the oil to be discovered yet.

Paul

[peterandjen]

It could always be poppy seeds, they're apparently quite addictive. Also they're used in indian cookery.

[Cory Ander]

I would be very surprised if tarragon turned out to be the missing piece.

I agree Paul, unless you're tying to make a curry flavoured pizza topping!  But I'm willing to eat humble pie!  I would be absolutely ASTOUNDED if tarragon was the "missing ingredient"

For me, what is "missing" (still) is as follows:

-  the depth of flavour
-  the intensity of smell
-  the savouriness

There is NO WAY, to my mind, that these things are addressed by adding tarragon, pumpkin, poppy seeds, cherries, mango chutney, lemon juice, chilli sauce, cabbage, or anything similar.

[Mikka1]

Hi folks.
Pretty damned cold here with the storm 'n' all and outside cats are cold so I hope that two hot water botties help them some? (Hope so).

Anyway, Tarragon.
Yeah it works. Not as good as would have hoped and let's not forget the "Personal taste" thing from our favorite TA's. I'm not totally convinced either but I'm willing to at least try something different, there is more to come on this but perhaps not here.

@ Cory. What is your favourite Ozzy restaurant and why?

Just because you see someone flash fry a dish and though you may watch for many hours you'll never truly know what went into the dish despite what you are told.

Life's a journey, so is cooking.
All is good in both.

Cheers. 

[JerryM]

CA,

Derek Dansak suggested he had a few ingredients on his mind - i was interested what they were. my thinking always being that it may not be directly an answer but it could unfold additional clues.

for example i'm currently pondering onion seed and mustard seed. both i've used before but i'm beginning to think (no one has added a new ingredient except poppy seed) it may be just down to how we use what we already know.

the humble pie is that i tend to detect across the forum a tendency to poo poo ideas straight off without trying them.  if the answer was so visible then we would not be here.