Topic: Greetings from Tokyo

[teddytora]

Hi Everyone,

New to this site but am mightily impressed by the wealth of information that's available here. Have picked up some fantastic advice, tips & recipes from browsing here.

It's probably a bit presumptuous as a newbie but here's my take on the tips that have helped me in that elusive search for the BIR taste.

1. Base Gravy. There are plenty of outstanding recipes on this site, each with their own merits. One small tip which I learnt from the great Robert Carrier (he was referring to making stock) is that vegetables shouldn't be allowed to stew for too long because after a time they stop giving flavour & start absorbing it. Not a problem if you're not going to sieve, but if you want that smooth texture & are going to throw away the fibre then I think an hour~hour & a half tops for the gravy.

2. Whole spices, fried/grilled. Am indebted to Madhur Jaffrey for this, there really is no substitute for freshly made spice powder, it is more effort but that, & a small investment in a spice grinder, are well worth it.

3. Flavoured oil. This has been a recent revelation to me which I owe to this site. I've been using Curry Queen's method of adding a pint of oil to the base gravy & skimming it off using a bulb baster (easiest way by far) before blending the mix. Have been recycling the oil via a couple of dishes & I think I've now got something approaching my concept of a BIR taste. I'm sure that various recipes for flavoured oil are equally effective, will hopefully have chance to try them in due course.

The only minor downside to this is that my wife, who is Japanese & therefore used to more traditional Indian food, feels that in pursuing the quest for the BIR Holy Grail my curry's have lost some of their character. I put this down to the fact that the BIR curries I make tend to take about a third of the time that my traditional methods did, & also tend to use a smaller range of spices. I'm going to experiment with finding a happy medium between the 2, if the results are positive I'll post them with some pictures.

TT

[colin grigson]

Welcome teddytora !!

Having read read your post avidly it seems mean to only call you a 'trainee chef'  ... it sounds as though you know loads which will be great for us .. I for one can't wait to try some of your recipes .. 

[solarsplace]

Hi TT

Welcome

Interesting you should mention flavoured oil! - recently a number of forum members had some cooking lessons at an Indian restaurant. We asked the chef about the use of such oils. He said he knows of chefs that did use it but he has never done so, and therefore was not able to show us.

So you make your base gravy with an abundance of oil and then re-claim much of this to start of your dishes with?

Cheers

[Stephen Lindsay]

teddytora - great post - I also think that BIR recipes can be given the same spice treatment as Indian home cookery - why not try making a curry with some base to give you your sauce but with a "one-off" selection of spices to give that complexity and character associated with individualised curries?

[teddytora]

Hi TT

Welcome

Interesting you should mention flavoured oil! - recently a number of forum members had some cooking lessons at an Indian restaurant. We asked the chef about the use of such oils. He said he knows of chefs that did use it but he has never done so, and therefore was not able to show us.

So you make your base gravy with an abundance of oil and then re-claim much of this to start of your dishes with?

Cheers

Yeah, pretty much just that, add an extra pint of oil & take it off & reserve it for future use. Curryqueen was someone who seemed to be a staunch advocate of that method

Hi Pete,  Let's put it this way, my husband is and has always been very critical of my curries over the years.  I don't have many complaints at all these days at all, in fact, "it's as good as" or "even better than a bir" are his comments.  We do buy takeaways still sometimes and its so annoying when they mess it up when you know that you can do just as good as them and you have to pay for the disaster they have made.

The complete taste!  That depends really on dishes you are making yourself.  It's all down to the reclaimed oil from the dishes you make at home and then take back once cooked. I think everyones oil will probably be different to a certain degree depending on the dishes they make.  They are complete for me because they have "that smell and aroma" that comes with takeaways.  When you start making a curry with the oil, you have an instant fantastic aroma which fills the kitchen with anticipation of whats to come.

When you make your base gravy add about a pint or so of vegetable oil.  Before blitzing skim as much off as possible and bottle it.  Use this for starting your dish and then just take out a tablespoon or two and put back in bottle.  Do this with each dish made.  If the oil gets too intense then just add some vegetable oil to slacken it off.

[teddytora]

teddytora - great post - I also think that BIR recipes can be given the same spice treatment as Indian home cookery - why not try making a curry with some base to give you your sauce but with a "one-off" selection of spices to give that complexity and character associated with individualised curries?

Thank you Stephen, that was exactly what I had in mind, hopefully the combination may work. Will report results in due course.

[DalPuri]

Yeah, pretty much just that, add an extra pint of oil & take it off & reserve it for future use.

Ive been using this method when making pre-cooked potatoes. I add 1ltr of veg oil and skim off when cooled down. 

Frank. 

[curryhell]

Welcome aboard TT.  Reclaiming oil, now there's a discussion point that has been going on for quite some time on here : and i'm sure will continue for a long time to come ;D

[PaulP]

I thought the idea was interesting to add extra oil to your base and skim it off before blending. I know it's been discussed before but I think it must be worth trying.

Cheers,

Paul