Topic: greetings from down under

[kiwi curries]

Yo Dudes,
                  Hey wot a great message board!! I can't beleive there are other people out there as obsessed as i am at trying to perfect the home cooked restaraunt curry!! I live in New Zealand so hopefully i can contribute a little with a slightly different perspective. I have never been outside this fair county let alone had a curry overseas BUT... Christchuch (the city I live in ) has LOADS of indian resaraunts and takeaways. I can't really understand how some of them stay in business because some of the curries served at these places are TERRIBLE!! That aside there are some places that have beautiful dishes and I am doing my darndest to replicate them at home. My suspicion is that the curries served in our curry houses are roughly the same as your BIR curries, given that the majoity are delicious and they all have those classsic BIR names for the dishes. They definitley all have this special something you all talk about aiming for ie THAT taste. My thought is (and i know its been said before) is that it is recycled oil from previous dishes. Now I don't think this is the end of it either since all the oil does is carry flavour from previous dishes. The flavour has to be there to start with BUT... I do think those flavours mellow with heat and time. The reason i suspect these things is manifold one being this:  ever walk past an asian takeaway joint and wonder how those places get to smelling like the do? I rekon it's the repeatedly reaheated oil that has little bits of everything floating in it such as little bits of pastry from wantons and spring rolls etc plus all the flavours from these foods have leached intyo the oil and mellowd over time. I suspect the same thing happens with indian spices and other ingredients mellowing in hot oil over time. now the other important reason was this: one time I was carefully watching an indian chef cook my dinner and I saw him do something remarkable but thought nothing of it at the time. He would skim off excess oil from my dish and put it into the little plastic container in front of him. This is the same little plastic container he originally dipped into to add oil to MY meal at the begging of making my madras. So in this restaraunt, the oil going into each dish had been, at some time, been in a whole miriad of other dishes and possibly in the onion sauce and red sauce pots as well. This would lead one to presume that this is where the secret is coming from and why the flavour is so difficult to acheive at home. But the recipe methodology and ingredients have to be there to begin with. All this theory is doing is taking the emphasis off this silly idea of a secret ingredient. I hope this is of some use to someone. my sugestion to anyone trying to prove my hypothesis, is to take a little bit of oil from every dish you make say a tablespoon or two per every serving and add it to the next dish you make ; )    yum thats gotta help.

[blade1212]

Great first post Kiwi...... Welcome. Our BIRs have a lot in common by the sounds of it.

[curryqueen]

Hi Kiwi,

That was a great post and it made a load of sense too!  I suggested to the forum that it was the re-use of oil taken from the gravy and then used to make a curry and then scooped off and put back into the pot and used again and again.  I have used spiced oil from the gravy for years and have started reusing oil from the top of curries for quite some time now.  It makes a big difference and I am quite sure that this method gives a very good Bir copy.  Try it.