Happy Christmas Folks
Hope to get a bit of Curry Cooking this week!
Maybe also get a takeaway!!
So nice to stop working for a week

this is a very good video
but don't be confused by the editing
Part 1 starts at about 3 minutes in, with the frying of the garlic
Watch to the end, then go back to the start of the video to see the rest

A madras is a very good benchmark of how good a curryhouse is
But here we have again another recipe
No fenugreek leaves?
Naga paste?
What's the spice mix?
I'd love to try it, but have no idea what it would taste like
I love this chap's videos
He is enthusiastic and very helpful

The simple onion base was three medium onions, 3 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons of oil, half teaspoon salt, half teaspoon chilli powder and 500ml of water. I boiled this together for 40 minutes and blended when cool.
The thing is, I tried to tinker with this old school madras recipe the other day and ruined it.
I added a spice mix with the  chilli and totally mucked it up
So I don't think it needs any more spicing than chilli powder
I believe it's very important to add the fenugreek leaves at the start
You get a different result adding later
Madras seems to be the hardest curry to make
The stronger flavoured curries, such as Balti, Korma, Tikka Masala, Pathia are fairly straight forward to get a match.
Soon as you add sugar or pastes they dominate the dish's flavour and that's probably the flavour you want the dish to taste like

Still working on this one and getting closer
Got a perfect texture on this last try
I used the elements that were correct, from the last attempt
I may still be missing something but that's better than having a flavour in that you don't want
If you look at all the different madras recipes that are out there , it becomes obvious how many different variations there are.
Some use garlic, some use garlic ginger, some use whole spice, some just ground spices, some fry onion, some fry onion and pepper
So trying to get YOUR perfect madras really involves a lot of experimentation
Because it is a simple flavour, it's very easily ruined or masked with an unwanted flavour

The old school madras, which I am chasing,  was very saucy
No pieces of onion or peppers
Just sauce with chicken or prawns or lamb or vegetables

So I made  a very simple base
I boiled a few onions with oil, water, garlic, salt and chilli powder for 40 minutes, then I blended it
I heated a little oil and added a chef spoon garlic ginger and fried without burning for a minute
Then I added 1 desert spoon chilli powder, 1 desert spoon fenugreek leaves, and 1 desert spoon of this onion powder (a cheat perhaps, but it definitely helps)

Stirred a minute then added a half ladle of base
I reduced this right down to almost dry and added the king prawns and a little salt
Stirred a minutes then added half a can of blended tinned tomatoes (200g)
I don't believe the places, I used to go to, used tomato puree

Heated this through then added a couple of ladles of the base
Put the lid on the pan for about four minutes and served with a squeeze of lemon

This is the closest I have been to a retro curry
There's room for tweeks

I could add maybe a spice mix in, or maybe a little ground cumin or maybe more fenugreek
But it really was an excellent curry
Very pleased with it
I don't have a photo
But it looked really right, on the plate
The right colour and texture and a very nice flavour

Is there a typed out version of this?
It looks really good

Quote from: Nick D on November 23, 2016, 07:11 PM
Totally agree Pete, used to have a restaurant madras from a place that closed around 20 years ago

Thanks for the support Nick!

Quote from: chewytikka on November 23, 2016, 01:35 AM
I find it amazing, after years of curry fiddling you still fail to cook a Madras.
Hope you post a photo if you ever manage it.

Your posts do remind me of another member Haldi, are you related?
He used to post the same nonsense, practically word for word : ;D

curry psychosis, goes well with a Garlic Naan.
cheers Chewy

I make Madras with the correct look and texture
People tell me it's better than the takeaways round here
But I can tell a difference
Missing a flavour

and yes, I posted for years under the name Haldi
I thought using a "user name" was just a better idea
But recently I thought it doesn't bother me any more,, so I posted under my original registered name

I've enjoyed your recipes Chewy
I've cooked quite a few, including the madras
But they don't match the flavour I'm after
Is that being psycotic, noticing that?
But your videos are great, and the curries I have cooked of yours are very good

In fact the worcester sauce ingredient in your recipe,, took me right back to my pre cr0 days
I bought recipes from someone (who later posted as CurryQueen on here) and she used Worcester Sauce in her recipes
It's a flavour that really fills a "gap", but it's not used in any of the places I have been into, and  influences the final taste of the dish
Some of her recipes were really good too

Anyhow, I guess it just shows that you don't know or understand the taste I'm after.
Probably a good thing, because I don't think it's possible to create at home anyhow
But maybe the biggest difference is that I don't think the less of you, because you don't understand something I've written

The closest I have got to an Old School BIR was from the Glasgow Recipes by Alex Wilkie
Have you tried any of his stuff?
That's very good too

I have had base samples from many places. The good ones are depressingly good, in as much that I couldn't copy them. At one time  I thought that they used an odd vegetable, because there was a vegetable taste that I couldn't work out.
It wasn't until I made JB's base, that I managed to get the flavour. It was more about the tarka stage than anything else. That and  boiling the gravy after you add it. Basically it's the garlic.Please post any findings really interested and happy to eat my words!
But I know exactly what you mean by a vegetable stock

Been thinking about this
I would love to get the flavour I'm after
I had pretty much given up, but this sort of set me off again
I think the fenugreek seed powder is right
The onion powder certainly does no harm and it does have a fried onion aroma
I don't think it needs tomato puree, it's too strong a flavour
I think blended canned tomatoes is closer
garlic ginger is right too
maybe not the garlic powder
I reckon that the base needs to be different
I think a very simple base made with Onion garlic ginger but also chicken bones/scraps and not overspiced
Maybe bayleaf and cardomon
There's got be someone who knows
This is just so frustrating

About five years ago I was in a takeaway kitchen and  allowed to cook my own curry using an old style base.
Absolutely nothing clever about cooking the curry
None of this "pre heat the pan, get the oil really hot, don't burn the garlic, fry out the spices" milarky
All you did was heat the curry gravy, add a little salt, chilli powder and pre cooked main ingredients.
The curry I cooked was a perfect madras

Maybe a pinch of fenugreek leaves or garam masala went into other curries I saw prepared
A couple had a prefried garlic paste
Some had some deep fried onion and peppers added
A few had cream, coconut powder, sugar, red masala paste added
But it's REALLY simple stuff when you've got this base

I was lucky enough to see the base prepared and it's so simple except for one ingredient
This flavoured oil

Basically the gravy is loads of onions & a small can of tomatoes boiled with salt and turmeric
After one a half hours, add curry powder and about two litres of strained old oil

Straining takes out all the burnt bits and impurities left behind

As soon as this oil goes in the gravy, the BIR aroma magically appears
You know that smell when you open a carton of curry
Or the smell on the carrier bag which has got about three curries in
Well it's that, except much bigger because there is so much in the pot

I've even tasted this oil on it's own
It was kept in a fridge
It's slightly hot, and has a used slightly spicy flavour
It's not as runny as fresh oil and the base of the container seems to be almost setting (maybe ghee or fat?)
I don't know if it's just from cooking bhajees or chicken or what
But I got quite obsessed with trying to duplicate it
and I failed

I cook some really great curries
But I want to cook the best
And old style BIR are the best

I made this tonight with king prawns. It does have something of the old style curries about it, but it is still missing that special flavour.Maybe its the base I used. That onion powder is odd stuff,though. It smells almost like fried onion. A very enjoyable curry but sorry MBC not quite there for me. Sorry I can't be more constructive. Short of the manky old oil, I can't think how to change it

will try this recipe on Saturday. I am totally clear on the different flavours between the two types of curry. I have been lucky enough to tsste the old style BIR gravy. It is subtle and absolutely gorgeous. Its the underlying flavour of all the curries. The cooking methods for the curries are far simpler. Sometimes all thats needed is extra chilli. The old style BIR base is nothing like modern bases. One incredibly important ingredient is the old bhajee oil. This oil is heavy with all sorts of flavours. It almost sets when its chilled. I've seen it on many occasions.Its real and you cant make genuine old school BIR without it. Not trying to start an argument, but just because you've not seen something doesn't make it untrue, does it? I have had so much enjoyment from Chewys recipes.Reading and trying them. But I feel his critisism is unfair. Perhaps what I have seen is a local thing but then again, perhaps what he knows is