If you think that's weird, wait till you taste it

Like Curryqueen says, tarka is nothing like the curry gravy oil
The tarka oil has a mild tomatoey taste
The curry gravy oil is so strong that it dominates the whole curry's flavour
If you get it on your hands, then they stink for days
It is the main source of the BIR "flavour"
In all the kitchens, I have been in, it is the only oil they use (apart from scooping a little more from the top of the curry gravy too)
They have it salvaged, in a 6 inch high ghee pot, near (or on), the stove.
The next time anyone has a curry, pour a sample of this oil off.
Get a couple of teaspoons worth
The next day check it out
You won't believe how powerfull it is
It's flavour is not made at the time of your curry
It  is from frying, at the start of the curry gravy, and then many hours of boiling afterwards.
To make a BIR style curry you really only need three things
A really good (but watery) curry base (using black cardamoms)
A good spice blend & curry gravy oil
As soon as this special oil hits a heated pan, you know you are doing something right
It's an instantly recognisable smell from when you are waiting, at the takeaway,for your curry to be cooked

Hi Ray
? ? ? ? I think the most important thing is to get this flipping curry gravy right.
Since having eaten a sample of it, I have almost given up trying
It really is that nice
I have made some fantastic curry gravies over the years
I even had it demoed at Bengal Cuisine
But nothing compares to the real thing!

Quote from: George on January 25, 2006, 06:48 PM
I just found a thread dating back to 2003, featuring teacher Janet.

It's at: http://www.in2curry.co.uk/curry_chat/posts.asp?fTopicID=120

She doesn't give much away. Pete, did her recipes get anywhere near the BIR taste you are after? I guess not, as other recipes appear to have received greater praise.

And in the same thread, a contributor called 'Islam' says: I run curry consultant program where i can teach any body how to cook indian take away style food and not like any tele program or recipie book where you follow and the food you just cooked does not look or taste like the food you use to. any part of country no problem."

His eMail address is given on that thread. Did anyone contact him?

Regards
George

Hi George
? ? ? ? ? ? ? The results were good but NOT exact
Anything less is not good enough for me
I am beginning to think that it is impossible to recreate BIR curries unless you get an unrepeatable, lucky cooking moment.
That has happened to me several times, and I just don't know what went right

On the other matter, of the curry consultant, I emailed him at the time and I've just emailed him again

I bought the course
She seems to be a very pleasant lady
I got a folder with word document recipes in
I don't want to give her recipes out, as that seems to be, how she makes a living
She does use a spiced oil, made in exactly the way as I reported from restaurants
I didn't think this was right at the time
But I eventually found out, that this is exactly what curry houses do
It is the oil from the boiled curry gravy
I think all her meals use it
There are a few other tricks she uses
Needless to say I wasn't totally happy with my results
But, I never am
Even when shown by a proper restaurant chef
She does a workshop on a Saturday
So you can gets a hands on tutorial
I liked her

Sorry George,
                    I didn't mean to sound rude

I had a lot of success with Mutleys recipe last year
I thought it was very good
I tried this modified one yesterday
and it was even better
I think the addition of the black cardomons really improved it
I was comparing it to a sample curry gravy base from my local curry house
Muttleys base wasn't as red as the sample
So I added a little tomato puree
I know the recipe says "NO" tomatoes and that is with very good reason
It totally wrecked the sauce
It lost it's "taste"
Although I have been given base recipes, with tomato in, I reckon that it doesn't work on a small scale using them.
Before the tomato addition, the muttley sauce was almost perfect
Any redness, in my curry gravy sample, must be from paprika

The feature is 16 minutes into the program
I listened to it today
As stated above, it is a history lesson
No recipes

I wrote to the curry secret's publisher
They wouldn't give me her address but said she now resided in Australia and could not be contacted.
It was them that told me she was a woman
Silly, really
She could have easily written a follow up book
I would probably buy it too!

Quote from: gary on January 09, 2006, 02:03 AM
Managed to get a small carton full of curry base tonight? friends GF went to the takeaway, so I asked her to get a carton of curry sauce with no extra spices etc.
No green bits in it, no oil floating on the top (been resting for a few hours now) but by gum it tastes nice? ;D
Gary

It's fantastic, isn't it?
I have made hundreds of curry gravies
Some have been really excellent, but the real thing is so good, it takes the mick!!
How do they get that extra taste about it?

Quote from: scribes on January 06, 2006, 07:32 PM
Well i made it ..... it was nice but something missing ..... probably the spiced oil, but can't see how i can duplicate this method at home.
Hot and sour "fruity" taste is what was missing, but I'll make it again, many thanks

Sorry it didn't turn out quite right
But this spiced oil (see cracked it thread by Mark J) has half the flavour of the curry
It is very important
Without it, there will always be a home made taste
I was given a sample of curry gravy and got some of this oil on my fingers
I could smell curry on them for days
It is a really strong ingredient