I had Richard and Judy on as background noise and they did a piece on the world's biggest curry attempt at Preem restaurant on brick Lane. They succeeded with a vegetable curry weighing in at 5.1 tonnes! They froze some for Richard and Judy and they said it was really nice. Obviously this proves the theory that good curries can only be made in large quantities, so get your burners set up underneath your bath if you want that authentic restaurant taste?

Also on Saturday there was a short programme on about chefs' secrets and guess who was on there, none other than Mr Haydor the chef involved with the Balti book we are all waiting for. His tips were dissappointing though, one was to add whole lemon to a curry that has too much chilly and then remove it, apparently it takes some of the heat out and the other was to roast your spices to bring the flavour out.

Quote from: Curry King on September 07, 2005, 01:19 PM

Quote from: Yellow Fingers on September 04, 2005, 08:00 PM
I will arrogantly state as a fact that no one on this forum can make a curry that would make me think it was from a restaurant. Now that's what I want. If you think you can, then post the recipe.

I bet I could!

I'm very glad to hear it. Can you post the recipe please if it hasn't already been posted and can you make sure the instructions aren't vague as I intend to follow them to the letter. I don't have enough money to place a bet on it but I am confident that when I have made the curry to your instructions it will neither have the taste or the smell of a restaurant curry. I would genuinely love to be proved wrong.

Quote from: bryan@232 on September 05, 2005, 02:29 PM
? ? ? ?Why not try the " kitchen door test " I suggested some weeks ago?

I use a far simpler test. When I make a curry I put one portion in the fridge and the next day I open it up and sniff. Every curry I have ever had from a restaurant always has the distinct smell the next day even when cold. The curries I make don't. As I've said elsewhere I've been at this lark for about twenty years now and very little of what is posted on this forum is new to me. I've tried many base sauces and uncountable curry variations but I am still missing that unmistakable smell.

Quote from: pete on September 06, 2005, 08:17 PM
I can make very good curries

I can too and I wasn't trying to infer that the curries posted here are naff, quite the opposite. But they just don't go that last bit towards restaurant style curries.

QuoteThere is a definite aroma and taste missing
They are not the same
They miss a fried spicy smokey smell/taste

Precisely and in my opinion when we find the missing ingredient/technique that gives that unmistakable indian restaurant curry smell then the last bit of the taste puzzle will also fall into place automatically.

QuoteI will try Darth's 99% recipe

With a claim like that, I'm going to try it too but not for a few weeks yet because I have too much base sauce in the freezer. Actually that makes me wonder how people manage to try so many different bases in such a short time. When I make a batch of base sauce it usually makes about eight curries, which then lasts me about three weeks. So I usually don't try another variation until about three weeks later. So some of you must either have very full freezers or just eat an awful lot of curries.

QuoteI only have one theory
We are not getting the frying oil hot enough on our cookers

I used to think that, but some people here have 'wok' rings on their cookers which are just about the equal of the restaurant cookers and they haven't reported any great leap forward, so I'm doubtful now about the high heat theory. The only method that obviously has to impart some smokiness to the curry is the flambeing of the curry as it is cooking and not many people seem to have much success doing this correctly. This does require a high heat to achieve. Some people report getting flickers of flame around the edges of the pan, but it's just not the same thing. This, as you know, is how it should be:

Quote from: George on September 04, 2005, 06:51 PMIn a nutshell, where does everyone feel they've got to, and how much further work is there to do?

George, I think I am where I was about twenty years ago, give or take a pepper and carrot in the base sauce. I haven't posted for a while (but have been reading the posts) because the forum seems to have turned to a discussion of more traditional indian style cooking. That's OK if that's your thing, but I like this forum for what it was set up to be, i.e. a discussion of Indian restaurant style curries.

I also get bored reading yet another version of a base sauce, when if you read the ingredients carefully they are rarely different, a few extra onions maybe, garam instead of curry mix, fresh toms or puree, blah blah.

Yeah I know I'm being negative again, but just look at some of the posts, they generally go like this: best curry ever, still missing the taste and the smell, but yes best curry ever. What is the point of any of this if we are still missing those two golden principles of Britsh curries, the unique taste and the unmistakable aroma of the British restaurant curry?

I will arrogantly state as a fact that no one on this forum can make a curry that would make me think it was from a restaurant. Now that's what I want. If you think you can, then post the recipe.

But back to the origional theme George, the biggest steps forward for me: some veggies in the base sauce, the curry massala mix, fried onions mixed in at the end of certain curries.

My positive contribution to this....well I don't have one. I am still where I was 20 years ago, more or less. But what I will say, is that this forum is where you will find the definitive British Indian restaurant style cooking, and thats no bad thing

Quote from: Curry King on July 21, 2005, 09:56 AMAnother restaurant ive started going to has a window in the car park that looks right in on the kitchen so I will be peering through there over time and hopefully see whats going on?

I can see the local paper report now...'Curry King car park caper - Copper catches curry kitchen clocker'? ?

For those not up on their British colloquialisms, 'to clock' is to watch or see something.

I think this red onion idea is a complete myth. I don't know how it got started but I've tried several types of onion when making the base sauce and there is no difference whatsoever. I don't know about the paste though I haven't tried that yet.

Quote from: Curry King on July 13, 2005, 08:15 PM
I have just tried adding the "special" onion paste to my regular

Hi CK

Did you taste the onion paste before you added it? What is that 'soapy' taste that's mentioned all about?

Also what did you take 'bread dough' consistency as meaning; raw dough texture or baked white bread texture?

Quote from: Blondie on July 04, 2005, 02:36 PM
Hope this helps and not hinders our collective progress,

It will help if you can share a recipe for the separate curry sauce with us.? ?

Unless you intend to use the oil from the curry gravy in your fnished curry I don't think there is any need to use oil in making the gravy at all. With no oil in the base, you can then add as much as you like when you make the curry. Try it without oil if you haven't already, I can't tell the difference in the finished curry between using oil and not using oil in the base. When I make a curry base I do blend it with the oil, if I'm using oil, but I also always leave the curry base at least a day before using it and then some of the oil comes out of the sauce when I reheat it for 15-20 mins. In the end I think the amount of oil you like in your curry is down to personal preference and what your used to from your local curry house.