Full Size Curry Gravy
There were no excuses left, but plenty of unproved theories
Years of failure, finally required some ghosts, to be laid to rest
I have a really large stainless steel cook pot
I begged it, off a chef, a few years ago
It cost nothing
One handle is loose, so it can?t be lifted when hot and full, and there is no lid
I have to use a lid, from a wok
I have a second hand BIR gas hob
What held me back for years, was the fear of cooking a curry gravy to a wrong recipe
I didn?t want that level of wastage, without justification
Last year I got into the kitchens, of a local Indian Restaurant kitchen
I was shown twice, in detail, how they make the Curry Gravy
I also saw various stages of the gravy, being cooked, on several other occasions
One thing became clear, the only random element, is the oil used
Sometimes this would be the oil from the chip fryer
Sometimes the oil from cooking poppadoms
Sometimes from oil from cooking poppadoms first and then onion bhajees
I never saw fresh used
Although this experiment is clearly excessive, it was fairly cheap too
Two 4 kg bags of onions cost ?1.98, Poppadoms ?7.60, Oil ?2, pepper, carrots, chick peas & tomatoes about ?3
So ?15 to prove, or disprove a point
And hopefully some first class curries with gravy to freeze
I began, on Friday evening
I roughly chopped 8kg of onions to nearly fill the large saucepan
I added 2 carrots, 1 green pepper, 1 400g can of chick peas, 2 400g cans of tomatoes & enough water to bring the level to half way up the pot
The pot was brought to the boil then simmered covered for two hours
(using my antique Ken Hom wok lid)
Meanwhile, I heat 1 ? litres of ktc veg oil, in Ken?s large wok
I cooked 60 poppadoms
Yes, this is where you start questioning how far, you can go.
I saved 20, the rest were crunched & binned
After 30 poppadoms, were cooked, the oil seemed to lose it?s heat
It required turning the gas up, to increase it?s temperature
I had planned to cook the whole pack of 100
But the oil was clearly getting past it?s best
After the oil had cooled, I poured the oil into a pyrex jug
There was only a litre left
The aroma was (unsurprisingly) poppadoms and it was very cloudy
I waited until the next day to continue the recipe, because that?s what the restaurant did
So bright and breezy, on Saturday morning, I continued
I reheated the pot of onions and simmered for another hour
Then I added 1 chef spoon of turmeric & 1 ? chef spoons of salt.
I simmered it another ten minutes, then blended
Now, that was a job and a half!
It took about ten minutes to get to a fine consistency
I heated the litre of poppadom oil and added 3 chef spoons of garlic ginger puree, 400g of tomato puree and gently folded the purees together in the pan, as it rose to a simmer
After five minutes I added 3 chef spoons of spice mixture (coriander,cumin,paprika,madras powder,turmeric)
After a couple of minutes the spices stopped fizzing and I added the oil into the pureed onion pot.
I stirred everything really well, for a couple of minutes
The recipe was nearly complete
All that was needed was to simmer the pot until the oil separated again.
This took another hour and red oil, rose to the top, of the gravy
At the end of cooking the gravy really looked the part, but didn?t smell right
Maybe I had been overexposed to spices
I honestly don?t know
Anyhow, a couple of hours later I used some, to cook a recipe shown me by the author of this gravy
Tarka Dhall
I heated some fresh oil (in my BIR pan) and added 1 ? chef spoons of precooked lentils (They are simply boiled with a little turmeric)
Stir this all round for a couple of minutes, until the mixture dries out
Then I added 1 desertspoon of spice mixture, 1 teaspoon fenugreek leaves and ? teaspoon of salt
Stir this round the pan for a couple of minutes, scraping the pan
It does stick!
Add 2 ladles of curry gravy and simmer/reduce for five minutes.
In another pan, on a low heat, I added a little oil
Into this I put 3 sliced cloves of garlic and a desertspoon of chopped fresh coriander.
I stir fried this for about three minutes, so the garlic was just turning brown at the edges
It?s not wanted dark brown, and is easily burnt!
At this stage I poured the garlic oil, over the lentils
Tarka Dhall ready!
The curry was good
Probably as good as ones I had bought from the restaurant
My wife loved it
But in no way had I made any quantum leap, with my cooking
No extra fantastic flavor appeared
I would conclude that , cooking in quantity, doesn?t affect the gravy outcome
I would also conclude that my wheely bin stinks of crushed poppadoms and old onion skins
I shall freeze a couple of litres of gravy, and who knows, when I thaw it out, the curry fairies may have worked their magic
