Topic: Takeaway visit with answers

[Whandsy]

I visited my takeaway tonight after having a good chat with the owner and thought i would post a few findings having  been behind the counter and questioned them. They cooked me a chicken tikka jalfrezi in full view (in fact they allowed me to cook mine but i wanted to see exactly their efforts). whilst cooking i asked lots of questions about topics recently covered.
1) they gave me their recipe for their gravy (the one i use) but mine looks different so i asked for a taste of theirs and they obliged and it was different, theirs was a deeper sweeter flavour and darker in colour. When i pointed this out they opened another pot which was off the stove and similar in colour to mine. They called this their "uncooked gravy" and told me that would go on later to carry on cooking on a low light for the rest of the evening and would go into curries later that night and tomorrow.

Lesson for me - i need to continue cooking the gravy after the blending stage, i have put some pre-made gravy in my slow cooker for the night to see the changes hopefully tomorrow

2) i asked if they use goor / jaggery in the gravy for sweetness and it was no
3) they don't use coconut cream in the base either

4) i asked about their mixed powder and they obligingly gave me a full takeaway carton of it. The takeaway owner again told me about the bangladeshi chef mixing it in secret and he says the chef even tips the remaining powders into jars so none of the other chefs can guess the quantities left in the bag to replicate the mix. He did however tell me they use rajah spices inc curry powder as he buys them not Eastern Star as ifindforu does
5) they had patak jars all over and when questioned use in chicken tikka etc they said it was a definate.

6) i asked about pilau rice and mine being slightly discoloured compared to the takeaways being brilliant white and they said washing the rice 3 or 4 times is a must as its dirty and to use tilda basmati, they also slightly undercook it to allow it to swell slightly when microwaved for when needed.

7) they cook their tomato puree with garlic before allowing to cool to add yet more flavour.

they use fresh oil in curries not reclaimed / spiced oil.

9) the cooking of the curry was no different to what most of us all ready do. It was on a high heat for all the ingredients adding then low for the last 5 mins.(no pataks or manufactured products added at all in cooking)

10) their naan bread dough was with s/r flour and baking powder not yeast and the texture of the premade dough looked like it was of a bakers standard not homemade ie lumpy, wet or oily!
11) when i got home i had the curry and it was fantastic and better than my version of it.

The key for me was their base sauce as i have their mixed powder. Looking forward to checking out my slow cooked base.

I hope this post helps clear up some recent myths in the forum and gets us nearer our dream curry!!!

[Graeme]

What you say makes sense to me and is very helpfull.
Every now and then we get myths on here, lately one seems to be for profit.
I dont want to confuse the word Myth with peeps trying new ideas but sometime we have to
let go. Your post seem to take us back to the basics.
Thanks for posting, and your common sense approach.

I dont need to say much, but i would like to say i think the use or reclaimed oil in my opinion
is a money saving objective, simple, not a secret anything it may add a little something but i am
sure its just a way of getting rid of left over oil. Rice, my local quality BIR used tilda basmati for customers
and a basic brand for the staff. I ask about this when i seen two large bags in a store room, tilda and a generic brand.

well done.

[emin-j]

Nice Post Whandsy  I had a similar experience to yourself some time ago with similar findings,keep up the good work 

[George]

I visited my takeaway tonight

Your findings are very interesting. You certainly covered a lot of ground!

In order to put everything into perspective, would you say the takeaway which you visited serves perfectly good, typical BIR food or is it in the top (say) 10% or 20% of places which produce very special, particularly fine-tasting food?

[CurryCrazy]

Well done Whandsy - great post.

What strikes me is that, as so many have found, there really doesn't seem to be a real secret to this game.

You say that the chef secretly mixes his spices. I'm sure every BIR chef does the same. Maybe there are minor adjusments that each one makes, but I very much doubt they are all adding the secret fairy dust brought directly from Bangladesh 

The base sauce doesn't seem to have anything remarkable in it. You've not mentioned the actual recipe, but given what you said isn't in there, I would guess most bases are similar (ish)!

We have all seen our curries being made - I saw no Harry Potter style hocus pocus going on

My best bet is as many say - it's sensory overload after cooking, that takes away that last percentage of what we are looking for. If we can't quite describe what it is that's missing - how can we expect to taste it after the full frontal spice blast of a frantically prepared curry?

Has anyone got their wife (excuse me, partner  :-X) to cook a curry for them, using pre prepared ingredients?

My Mrs hates curry with a passion  , so I've got no chance (plus me screaming instructions at her may cause my rapid demise!). Anyone else got someone special to let loose on their equipment

Thanks again Whandsy - made me think.....and waffle!

Phil

[curryhell]

Terrific post Whandsy . For such a short  visit you made all the crucial observations and asked all the right questions.  I shall be re-reading this post several times as there's a lot to be learnt from it.  Superb job mate ;D

[alarmist10]

An excellent and informative post, Whandsy.  Well done, and many thanks for getting answers to so many questions.

As many on the site have speculated for quite a while, it really does seem as if the secret is in the way the base sauce is prepared......rather than in special 'techniques'.  I can appreciate that some spice mixes (such as that identified by Ifindforu) will make a difference, but as ever, simplicity wins and cooking the gravy base right is the prerequisite for a real BIR.

I don't know if I have missed this, but did you post their base recipe?  It definitely sounds like it'll be well worth giving it a go.
Best
al.

[bamble1976]

cracking job mate   Again just backing up what the majority suspect with regards to the "missing something" being spiced oil etc.  Keep in their good books!!!!!

Regards

Barry

[noble ox]

Hi Whandsy
That was a good post and interesting thank you.
I too share the idea of sensory over- loading. If I open my store cupboard I only have to look at lime pickle and to get those taste juices flowing. when I make some its different as there is overload.
 Try making a curry eat it then eat some of it the next day,its the same curry with a better appreciation of the flavours and spices
All my best BIR experiences have been those spur of the moment curry fixes.

[Whandsy]

Hi all thanks for the positive post comments,

To clarify, for an earlier question. I haven't posted the base on here as I feel it's no different to anybody else's thats already here, Ie lots of onions carrot pepper cortiander stalks tomatoes, oil etc. As I think alreadys been mentioned in another thread the quantity of veg etc, i feel, doesn't really matter as long as the majority is onions so 1 or 2 carrots here or half a pepper there doesn't matter and only adds depth.

They did however tell me to cook the onions whole for additional sweetness and only when the onions and veg are softened then add the spices and oil and again cook for half hour or so before blending (I previously haven't done this). The spices they add in are mixed powder and chilli powder (deggi mirch). A little haldi (turmeric) is added before blending for colour. Enough water should be added if needed so the resultant gravy is of a soup like texture. they didn't tell me any exact quantities because of the size of the pot they use is vast but i feel around a dessert spoon of mix powder for a small cooking pot should be fine. (the colour was pretty yellow)

This to them is what constitutes an uncooked gravy, ie this is when it then sits on the stove for hours on a low light. This adition of oil then very slowly cooks through the onions and veg and drastically alters the colour and flavours. They don't add additional water as the light is so low that it doesn't reduce it just simmers away.

The resultant base did not taste like a curry and you couldn't really  taste the spices. More like a rich soup.

I got some of my yellowish base out of the freezer last night and put it in slow cooker all night and impressively the gravy did turn to that burnt orange colour and smelled a lot sweeter, richer almost caramelised flavour.

If anything mine was slightly thinner consistency than there's so another lesson learnt there.

Can't wait to knock up a curry and try it. Friends round for dinner tomorrow so gonna try and knock there socks off!!

Again hope ths helps

Wayne