Topic: You can't cook restaurant curry at home - official

[Ian S.]

Yeah, I watched the Baker Boys this morning - I wouldn't bother if I were you. There was a scene about a minute long in the restaurant, then straight into their own fish curry sketch. Which, to be fair, didn't look bad, for what it was.

Thinking about posting here again made me revisit how I got into trying to cook restaurant curries at home. It was about 15 years ago. There was a series of programmes on TV where they challenged good home cooks to go into restaurants and run service using their own recipes for an evening. Does anyone remember that?

One programme was set in an Indian restaurant, and a couple of women went in with their home-style curry recipes and redesigned the menu for the night. They had the regular kitchen staff at their disposal. The main problems were getting the dishes out on time, and the fact that most customers wanted the traditional '8 pints of lager and a vindaloo' experience.

I remember the narrator saying something like: "Indian restaurants use an onion and tomato gravy, from which they can prepare many dishes quickly by adding different spices". That was news to me at the time, so I scuttled off into my kitchen and tried to put together a gravy with onions and tomatoes and then cook a curry from it. I had no idea about purees or blenders or anything like that. Needless to say it was awful.

Then my partner gave me an old clipping from an early 80's Curry Club magazine, which claimed to spill the beans on the restaurant curry secret. It was long before Bruce Edwards, and I've long since lost the clipping, but it basically involved boiling a couple of onions in oil and water for an hour or two, adding some milk and then pounding the contents of the pan to mush using a potato masher. Then you added curry powder and roast chicken pieces and heated it up.

I served it to my partner. She said: "Looks like curry. Smells like curry. Tastes like sh*t". And that was the end of that.

Then a friend recommended Pat Chapman's New Curry Bible, so I worked my way through that for a while. Low points consisted of flushing a finished dish down the loo, and one spectacular row with my partner which started with her saying "Why are they always so claggy and brown?" after I'd slaved away in the kitchen for the umpteenth attempt. But I still use his curry masala mix from time to time.

Undeterred, I discovered the KD1 book, and met with some success, once I started discarding the finished recipes and just used the base gravy with my own tweaking for the individual dishes. And just after that would have been about the time I joined CR0.

[Razor]

And just after that would have been about the time I joined CR0.

And the rest, as they say, is history

Ray

[Whandsy]

I watched this programme too and also thought what a load of bo!!0cks, a kitchens a kitchen and its a lot easier to say its unachievable at home rather than describe making a base and cooking a decent curry or pretty much repeating the contents of this forum

hehe

Wayne

[natterjak]

Ian, sounds like you served a harsh apprenticeship on your curry odyssey. How are your curries now - are you satisfied or still in search of perfection?

[Ian S.]

Hi, Natterjak

Would it be a cop-out to say, 'Both'?

I'm satisfied that I can knock out a good, tasty, authentic BIR-style curry which is better than most of the takeaways I've had locally over the past couple of years, and fairly consistently too. But like others whose posts I've read here during my lurkage, I'm still searching for that final 5% 'wow' factor.

I just don't let it get to me too much! ;D

In case that sounds a bit smuggins, I should point out that the curries around my neck of the woods have taken a real nose dive over the past three or four years, so the competition isn't great! I'm more often disappointed with one I've bought than one I've made. I suppose if I'm chasing anything, it's the memory of the curries I could buy back in the late 90's/early noughties.

I think I made the biggest breakthrough when I relaxed a bit, and started concentrating on just trying to make nice food. I stopped trying to add all sorts of weird and wonderful things to the base, and just worked on pan technique. As long as the usual suspects are in the base I'm happy. I backed off on spice amounts quite a lot, too.

It's worth saying that I've made many curry recipes from CR0 to spec over the years, and all of them would beat the curries I've bought from local takeaways recently hands down. There are probably about two restaurants in my local area left which still have the magic.

I do want to get a bit more adventurous, as I only ever cook Vindaloo and Madras, though. I'd also like to sort out my Tikka texture, as far as possible without a tandoor. That's partly why I've stuck my head above the parapet here again!

Just wondering if I've sussed out the picture uploading process here. If so, here's 'one I made earlier':


Chicken Tikka Vindaloo and pilau rice. 

[chewytikka]

Ian S.
Looks good to me, no need to duck mate.

Haven't seen that classic style of Pilau for a while and I like the way
you've colour coordinated the Vindaloo with your tray.

Should post your recipes
cheers Chewy

[natterjak]

Nice looking curry Ian. All you need now is a bigger plate

[Razor]

I think I made the biggest breakthrough when I relaxed a bit, and started concentrating on just trying to make nice food. I stopped trying to add all sorts of weird and wonderful things to the base, and just worked on pan technique. As long as the usual suspects are in the base I'm happy. I backed off on spice amounts quite a lot, too.

Exactly.  I think we should all start to pat ourselves on the back a little bit more if I'm honest.  I know I've said this many times before but we ARE better than we give ourselves credit for.  Ok, I agree, there has been a change in the BIR flavour over the years but c'mon fellas, surely we must be almost there?

I hear it quite often on here that "the local TA's/BIR's aren't as good as they used to be" fair enough, but we are a hell of a lot better than we used to be too.! Does anybody not think that we are matching them, punch for punch?

Well done Ian, and thanks for sharing your personal journey mate.

Ray

[solarsplace]

Hi Ian

I agree with your post & sentiment entirely (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=7715.msg67347#msg67347).

By the look of the curry in the picture you posted, you may not be giving yourself enough credit! - I hope it tastes as good as it looks - which is superb  

Regards!

[Stephen Lindsay]

Looks great Ian!