blade1212, it still doesn't answer it for me. You seem to be saying that the general smell in a restaurant is the same as the smell we are trying to recreate in the curry itself. For me at least the two are totally different and it might explain why we are having so much trouble agreeing on this forum whether we have achieved the 'smell' or not. Perhaps we should have a poll as to who believes the smell of the restaurant is the same as the curry smell and who doesn't?

Thanks Mark, I had read that thread but didn't know if it was the same one. Now can someone tell me how to use Bittorrent please as I don't seem to be able to get it to work.

Does anyone have these videos or have any other information on them?

As far as I know they are made by a chap called Robert breakwell (or Brakewell)

http://tinyurl.com/8ogrb

Interesting, but it doesn't answer the question of where the unique smell of the curry comes from, it only addresses the smell of the restaurant if I read it correctly. The restaurant smell is easy to produce. I am currently about three weeks away from putting my house on the market and I reckon it will take at least this amount of time with windows open and no more curry cooking to de-stink the place from my normal two or three curries made each week.

I suppose it addresses the question asked but I want to know where the strong unique aroma of the curries themselves comes from really.

On the bright side, if they continue to answer questions that could be very useful.

I had to stick a fork in my eye to stop myself replying to this one!

Oh, wait, now I have replied. Damn!? ?


Payal, I and others on this forum consider this man the greatest charlatan since snake oil salesmen went out of business, although you'll probably find as many who think the sun shines out of his proverbial!

That's like asking 'why do men have nipples' ??

Quote from: raygraham on September 20, 2005, 06:26 PM
Good idea Yellow Fingers. My only comment here is that most of us would never get to the particular restaurant on review to try what's reccomended.

Hi ray

No, that's exactly what this type of review would not be about. My idea is that the reviews are a way to share the texture, the smell, the ingredients, whatever relates to the dish.

It would not primarily be a review of the curry house, there are many web sites that do that already. Of course a review of the curry house is also nice, but it would be secondary to a review, no not a review, a description of the dishes you had.

What I wanted was a description in as much detail as possible of the dishes that you had. Hopefully that would benefit us all to be able to copy the restaurant style and to see exactly how much difference there really is across the country for each particular curry.

Quote from: Curry King on September 20, 2005, 03:55 PM
I've always assumed that a Bhuna is the same as a standard curry except less sauce goes in but the same amount of spice, thefore you end up with a fairly dry and extra spicy curry.

This is exactly why I want the restaurant review section!? I know what you mean by a dry curry and this is how an authentic bhuna would be cooked, but I personally have never had a dry bhuna in any restaurant. The bhuna's I have had have been spicier and richer than a standard curry, which is why I like them, but they have never been dry, they have generally had just as much sauce as say a vindaloo. Infact if a restaurant served a bhuna as it should authentically be made I think it would be sent back by your average curry house punter.

If you are saying that you personally have had a dry type of bhuna in a restaurant, I can only think that you have gone to one that serves more authentic curries. This is exactly the sort of thing that I hope the restaurant review section will show up.

I just realised that the one thing missing from this forum is a restaurant review section. I would really like to see this as it would help me to know what's really going on in the Indian restaurants across the country. If the idea is taken up can I suggest that the admin, or whoever, provides a pro-forma review page that you just fill in the blanks on. I personally would prefer it this way to provide some standardisation for the reviews. But, also, I would specifically like sections like description of the curry, to include colour, thickness, known ingredients, guessed ingredients, heat etc. The list could be endless, but my motive is to see what the restaurants are really serving, down to the fine details that anyone who wants to copy it, and I assume that incldes most of this forum, would want to know.

In other words it has to be more than a 'we had three dishes , one was ok , one good but too hot' type of review and more of a ' the vindaloo was excellent, unusually there were whole spices in it, cardamom and cloves, it was quite runny consistency and the fresh red chillies made all the difference' type of review. Detail is what I would require if this is to work effectively.

I really think this could be of help to us all.

So there's my suggestion. Any thoughts?

I've posted here before about the use of two sauces for the base because I had heard that it was used in some restaurants, but as far as I know no one who has posted recipes from restaurants here has ever seen a 2 stage base sauce used. I have a feeling that this method may have been used in restaurants many years ago, but for convenience the '2 part' base sauce has now become a one pot affair and this might also explain why the different curries are all starting to taste the same.

If you look at Kris Dhillon's curry base, she uses a 2 part method quite similar to the one you have posted, but she then combines them to make the final base sauce. I still rate the Kris Dhillon base quite highly even though it is quite simple and lacks most of the extra veg we now seem to think a base sauce needs. If you have never used the 2 part method it is definitely worth a try. The tomato part is very interesting because it is essentially fried for a long time and it gives the tomatoes a very intense, very savoury, almost smokey flavour.

I've been looking for a recipe or ideas for the very mild veg curry that usually accompanies a Biryani and I think the veg curry in this recipe sounds like it might fit the bill, so there's another curry I need to make.

I also noticed on some menus that the bhuna is described as being made with a 'separate double strength sauce', now what's that all about?