Topic: Latifs Inspired "How To Make a Base Gravy Indian Restaurant Style"

[Bobby Bhuna]

I was intrigued by Latifs Inspired's youtube posts so thought I'd give it a go. I used a variety of recipes for the various components:

Latifs Inspired's "How To Make a Base Gravy Indian Restaurant Style" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAyEdD8g5Pg

Latifs Inspired's "How to make tomato puree Indian Restaurant way @ Latifs Indian Restaurant" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzgfyVwplV4

Fusion Inspired kitchen's "How to make Garlic and ginger paste ( extremely easy to make ) will last 3 to 4 months )" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg8kyIoR75w

Curry Academy's "how to make mix powder used in indian restaurants" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VO_QPz8ZQc

Straying from the recipe:

• I'm not putting dairy in base sauce. UHT cream, denied.
• I'm convinced Latifs is using his mix powder in the base but is not sharing the recipe. He says he uses the same amount of salt as mix powder but has no mix powder in the recipe. I replaced his dry spice mix for the equivalent amount of the mix powder linked above.
• I boiled the onions whole because that what he does in the restaurant batch and I've seen others on here experimenting with the concept.
• He's all over the place with water volume so I just boiled it up with enough water to cover it and topped up to the 4L yield specified. That was still way thicker than his, so I've been watering down at the curry stage.

Observations:

The base is difficult to blend. I tried with a stick blender but it wasn't smooth. Upgraded to a good jug blender and blended for 1 minute on full. Still not smooth. I never saw myself as a base siever yet here we are. I got the sieve out and that sorted things. I think the issue was the seeds from the 2 peppers.

The base smells very good. I'm putting this down to the whole spices fried at the start.

I'm not convinced by the tomato paste thing. A lot of effort for the addition of water, mix powder and methi you're going to get elsewhere anyway. I used a massive tin of White Tower so now have a kilo of the stuff.

End result

I used Latifs Inspired's "How to make Chicken Madras" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6K-5uf3LDo as a basis and I learned a lot. Quantity of garlic/ginger paste, quantity of mix powder, quantity of base, cooking times and temperature. I think previously, I was getting elements of this wrong. The end result was excellent, it's up there with my best results.

[livo]

Nice work Bobby. A good curry day in the kitchen is fun.  I'm overdue for one myself.  I did Latif's Inspired ingredients and cooked a few  curries with them when it first hit Youtube.  The problem back then was he showed the restaurant style ingredient preparation and then showed restaurant dishes that didn't use any of it.  It was a while before he started putting up videos of the BIR style dishes.

As for the Mixed Powder, he may well use his own "secret restaurant" blend but there really isn't all that much you can do that hasn't been done before.  The dry roasted one by Syed is about as different as it gets.  If you've watched his video on the essential must have spices you'd have seen that he includes "Curry Powder".  The guess would be that it's Rajah Mild Madras CP or similar.

You cooked his Madras and his written instruction mention adding the mixed spice powder which he lists as 1 tsp Coriander, 1 tsp Curry Powder, 1/4 tsp each of GM, Turmeric and Cumin plus 2 tsp of Chilli Powder.  I would think that omitting the Chilli Powder or at least reducing it would give you a mixed powder along the lines of what he uses.  Of course I may be completely wrong.

The Base Gravy video was one of his first if not the first.  I just noticed that I commented to him about it 2 years ago.  He went on shortly after this, and a few of his other early ones, to say that his quantities in cups, spoons etc was all over the place and largely due to his nerves.  He didn't appear nervous but apparently he was.  He apologised for it and made special efforts in later videos to specify quantities more accurately.

One thing we can be thankful for about Covid is the number of Chefs who put their recipes on video for us all to see.

[Bobby Bhuna]

Thanks Livo! You're bang on, a good curry day in the kitchen is the best fun!

On the spice mix thing, "the mixed spice powder which he lists as 1 tsp Coriander, 1 tsp Curry Powder, 1/4 tsp each of GM, Turmeric and Cumin plus 2 tsp of Chilli Powder.  I would think that omitting the Chilli Powder or at least reducing it would give you a mixed powder along the lines of what he uses." I agree, I'd bet he has some personal twists in there too.

Having used the base and had time to reflect on it, what do you think? For me it goes in the bag of good bases, nothing crazy stand out, I'd deseed the peppers next time. I'm very happy with, glad I have a stocked freezer but nothing that new.

[livo]

I always deseed capsicum and usually fresh chilli as well.  I enjoyed his base but as I said, back then I had to use it with recipes that weren't his.