Topic: Hello there:)

[Archthesheep]

Hey I'm arch and just thought I'd say hello!
Just a quick question(not sure if it's the right place and threres soo many sections!) but every thing seems to have in the recipes a load of ingredients then curry base? Is this like a starting block for all curries that you then add to to make a different type?

Sorry if it's the wrong place
ARch:))

[Razor]

Hi Arch and welcome to cr0 mate.

Ok, it is in the wrong section but don't worry too much about that.

To make yourself a BIR (British Indian Restaurant) curry, you need some essential building blocks

No1, Curry Base, aka: base gravy, base sauce.  This is the foundation onto which every restaurant type curry is built.  It is a soup like liquid, usually made up of oil, onions, garlic, ginger, peppers, tomatoes, coriander and some ground spices and of course water.  Here's a link to our base sauce recipes http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?board=2.0

No2, Curry Masala, aka: Mixed powder, spice blend, mixed spice, base spice and more confusingly 'curry powder'. This is usually a combination of ground spices mixed together to form a standard spice blend required in most curries.  Note the comment I make on 'curry powder'!  usually, the term curry powder is reserved for the commercially branded curry powders such as 'Rajah madras curry powder' which is quite different to a curry masala.  Unfortunately, the term 'curry powder' occasionally gets used for curry masala but on this forum curry powder usually means shop bought and is often found as an ingredient in curry masala's.  Here's a link to our 'Curry masala mixes http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?board=28.0

No3, Precooked meat, aka: Base meat, base chicken, base vegetables.  These are meats, chicken or even veg, that is pre-cooked in large quantities to enable the restaurants or takeaways to get the food out in little less than 8 mins usually.  Chicken in most of these dishes can be cooked from raw as it doesn't take much time, but lamb, usually requires some pre-cooking if you are to achieve a nice tender piece of meat in your curry.  Here's a link to our pre-cooked meats http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4293.0

Basically Arch, once all of these steps have been done, your restaurant standard curry is but minutes away. 

Hope this answers some of your queries?  Don't hesitate to ask questions if you need to mate.

Happy cooking,

Ray

[Malc.]

Welcome to CR0 Arch.

Ray's covered it pretty well indeed.

[Vindaloo-crazy]

Welcome Arch