Hi Mick,
It certainly sounds like you've earned your stripes mate, and good luck to ya too.
Out of interest, how long back does your kitchen experiences go, and have you noticed any thing change over the years, even if it's just equipment?
Ray 
Hi Ray,
The first kitchen I got into would have been mid 80's but to be honest my interest in cooking curries wasn't as strong as my interest in eating them. It was enough for me at the time to know about the garabi and how the curries were put together using the garabi. I have seen the use of dark coloured bhaji frying oil without knowing the impact it would have on the base. I suppose I wish I had taken more interest then about the base making.
The access I have now means that I could watch a pot of garabi being made from start to finish but I didn't have that opportunity in the 80's. Nowadays I see new veg oil go in the garabi.
As far as I'm concerned "the taste" (assuming we are all talking about the same thing) came from the garabi.
The access I had then would have been "come in and watch your curry being made" which was great but no difference to how I see them being made today.
I believe "the taste" came from practices like the use of 'burned bhaji oil' or similar, practices that nowadays may be considered as poor practice,.. as most of us know... if you ask your local curry house chef what goes in the garabi many will tell you onions, green pepper, maybe carrots, maybe potato etc .. but they won't mention flavoured(burned) oil.
I also believe that as the use of such methods disappear the great tasting curries some of us remember are also going by the wayside.
Those of us that remember such great tasting curries would also know that a madras would have the same distinct background flavour as say a dopiaza, which I had seen both being made. They were made the same way then as I see now, I think the only difference being what was in the garabi.
Certainly, the two restaurants that I have access to at the moment don't use the bhaji oil in their garabi, consequently I can have great tasting curries from both but not like I used to have.
Another insight I have is to see a chef add his mix powder to the oil and tomato paste and 'fuse' the ingredients for some ie 30 seconds or so, and then see the same chef make another curry, add his mix powder and give a quick stir and put in the garabi and reduce down, without the two curries tasting any different to each other.
My point to that is this....I think people can get a little hung up on the idea that it's all down to technique and the 'decades' of training a curry chef has had. I believe as long as you and I had the same ingredients and used roughly the same timings we can produce a curry to match a chef. After all a madras is simply oil, tomato paste, spices, lemon dressing(optional)
and garabi, meat and coriander, it's not exactly Blumenthal.
Just my take on things....
Mick
Topic: Garlic and Ginger paste. (Read 33003 times)
