Ok so i am up on business near Leeds and pop into a little local takeaway called "Curry Master" on the Bradford Road (A652).

Its one of those place where the counter overlooks the full Kitchen, there knocking out pizzas as well as curry.

I ordered a prawn madras and observed the cooking process in full.

I believe he used water in the pan, yes water from a small ladle i have never seen this before.  Then he immediatly added a spoon of spice mix, some red stuff, presume Chilli Powder then some other red stuff, fried this and walked away to attend to the pizza oven.
After 1 or 2 mins he put 1 and a bit laddles of the base sauce in and then added a handful of prawns.  He let this boil and bubble away for 5-6 mins, it was a deep red sort of colour, he then poured it all into a plastic dish and that was it except he add a pinch of some white powder to the dish at then end, presume salt or msg, no corriander was added.

It had the taste, it had the smell.  I am now totally confused, no flaming pan, limited spices used from what i could see mostly just red powders, no pre heating onion or garlic......perhaps simplicity is the key.

When i ate the currry i swear it had water init and not loads of oil. sometimes i have got home with a prawn madras and when its gone on the plate, there has been what i believe is water that collects under the rice.....?
Maybe i am just going mad but could you fry spice really hard in water!

Any comments!
S
2

Did you see if they had a tandoo oven in the place? I'm interested in the idea that they might be adding tandoored onions to the base sauce.

Quote from: Admin on June 09, 2005, 10:48 AM
I believe he used water in the pan, yes water from a small ladle i have never seen this before

What made you think it was water, could it have been a very light coloured oil?

So no tomatoes, onion or garlic? I can see that garlic and onion might not be necessary, but no tomato of any kind! Perhaps one of those red spice powders had tomato powder in it? Or I suppose there might be enough in the base sauce, dunno.

QuoteMaybe i am just going mad but could you fry spice really hard in water!

You could do it, but it wouldn't be frying.

One more thing .
     This new Curry ive made makes 3 Take-away size portions only ..no base gravy, i am confident to say that this thing about not being able to replicate a Take-away because of the enormous amounts of ingredients etc.. in my humble opinion is a load of  c**p !!       
                                    I agree with Blade, it is down to technique & the right ingredients.
Too many people on this site are looking too hard, you think its the smell of the whole resteraunt that gives the taste but nobody has mentioned that it may be just something simple as an extra or omitted ingredient. ;D ;D ;D
Buy a Curry & examine the dish for clues..your own eye`s wont lie to you.
Do you all think that every BIR in the UK makes the same dish with exactly the same ingredients /technique ?  if it was a franchise like KFC or MC Donald's maybe , they have to conform to a requirement but not so a BIR

I'm new to this forum so I may be going over old ground but....Darthphall said that he doesn't believe in whole huge quantity theory. I agree - otherwise all the producers who supply Tescos and Sainsburys with their "curries" would be able to replicate a BIR curry, and I think you'll agree most of them are no better than dog food!

As for the secret ingredient/technique....sure there are differences around the country but that "taste" always seems to be there. I don't believe it's beyond the realms of possibility that there is a secret ingredient/technique. Afterall the owners of these restaurants don't usually own one but many. Family members then end up running the places and his is how the secret gets passed on!!!

Just a thought.....