Quote from: Yellow Fingers on May 06, 2005, 04:26 PM
Also when I'm eating at a restaurant and I feel like a poppadom mid meal and order it, within a couple of mins I hear a ping and from the waiters' alcove comes one freshly made poppadom.

Restaurants precook the poppadoms in oil and either keep them warm in a heated glass container, an oven draw or use a microwave to reheat them.
Hence the ping!
I have cooked them, in a microwave at home, for years.
They are good.
I do prefer the far unheathier version, done in oi,l though

Perhaps it's a little obsessive but have any of you actually tried tasting raw spices?
Or how about the curry pastes?
It strikes me that they have aroma but very little flavour.
And what aroma does a curry have?
Which spice?
Certainly NOT garam masala.
If that is correct, then all the flavour we want should be coming just from the onions, garlic, ginger, carrot, pepper, chicken stock and oil.
I am wondering if the spices have almost nothing to do with what we are trying to achieve.
Yesterday one of my family said I the whole house reeked of curry.
All I had done was fry some garlic ginger puree.

You've really been working on this.
I have never totally given up on KD curry secret.
I had a "back to basics" last night using her recipes.
The finished sauce is just so far off what you hope for, but near enough to know it could be done.
I normally end up with something that looks right at least.
Next time I will try your frying the garlic first.
And your observations on overdoing the fenugreek and garam masala are spot on.
Both can totally dominate the meal and neither are the main feature of a takeaway.
Bought curries have a very subtle flavour.
It's so subtle that you can completely miss the fact you have achieved it.
The number of times I have frozen my "failed tasteless" curries and been amazed at what thawed out.

Quote from: Mark J on May 11, 2005, 11:27 PM
He was adamant that it cant be done at home and seemed to indicate it was to do with quantities, he said the amounts of spice are very important.
He also said he cooks curry for his kids at home and they say, dont cook it at home, bring some from the take away kitchen!

You know, I really believe this man.
I think you can get close to the flavour by being very scientific about it, but at a restaurant they must just chuck it all in!!
There's no time for our methods.
Maybe the "bengali cuisine" curry gravy recipe is ok.
You just needed to make up thirty times it's volume.
There are too many similar curry gravy recipe reports for them to be untrue.
Onions, carrots, green pepper and? tomato paste come up again and again.
It just can't be that difficult to make!

Quote from: thomashenry on May 13, 2005, 05:44 PM
I've never used chicken jelly. Howver, I've never had a leftover takeaway firm up at all in the fridge. to me this indicates no jelly (and no ghee of course, but we all know this).

There isn't enough jelly in a portion to make it "firm up".
Probably less than a tablespoons worth!
The curries I made at home using jelly didn't set when cold either.
If you make the jelly, you will recognise it's smell and taste.
When you next buy a curry, you will know if it is in there.
It is very distinctive.
If you are making chicken curries anyhow, then there is little reason (short of curiousity) to do it.
However the vegetable curries I make showed a marked change with thae addition of the infamous jelly.

I have had very good oven results too.
I believe the difficulty in cooking in a pan, like a restaurant, is because the curry gravy is so hard to get right.
Some restaurant meals are just curry gravy heated up with pre cooked meat!

Quote from: George on May 10, 2005, 10:36 AM
85g of either the onion powder or coconut flour cost ?2.90 each. What a price! I guess they are looking for a healthy profit. I'm sure these two ingredients are available at any half-decent Asian grocer for a fraction of that price.

I have never seen onion powder for sale at the asian shops I go to.
Maybe it goes under a different name.
I don't reckon restaurants use it

That base looks like it will be pretty hot!!

Quote from: woodpecker21 on May 11, 2005, 02:54 PM
will post under new "i been to my local restaurant

Dear Woodpecker,
                           I am really looking forward to this.
Please post soon!!

I have tried so many different versions of curry gravy.
Some made up, some from books and the internet.
The gravies I tried without oil, came out like an old style vegetable stew.
Check out Pat Chapmans recipe:-

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=259.0

that uses very little oil