Right here goes I'll try not to ramble too much but I spent so long in the takeaway last night I don't know where to begin.I might split this into two or three posts-I spent ages typing today,the site went down and I lost the lot!!
Anyway I arrived about 6.45pm,met the manager and explained what I knew already after having my previous lessons.I donned my chef whites and was led into the
kitchen.As it's a small open kitchen where I've seen the chef cook before,there was only two people working,the Manager(who spoke very good English)and the chef(he was a bit harder to understand).The Manager took care of naan breads,bhajis etc whilst the chef did everything else.I thought as it was a Monday it would be quiet but it was in fact very busy.This gave me the added bonus of standing next to the chef watching everything he did.I found it hard to concentrate at first as there was so much to look at,behind the cooker was the table where he had all of his fresh ingredients and at the side was his spices.I really wish I could have had another member of the forum with me,I asked a lot of questions but I've since thought of a lot more!!The place is in Essex not far from junction 31 on the M25 if anyone live near here,he's quite keen to do lessons for some reason.I left about 10.40 laden with my goody bags,the Manager said I was welcome to come back for more lessons,in fact he said when I'm cooking my base sauce at home to phone him if I get stuck!!
Base Sauce
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First question was obviously the base sauce.I had a good look inside the pot,the contents was the normal yellow/orange with a little film of oil at the sides.He said he would show me a scaled down version but using exactly the same ingredients as they use in the kitchen.He explained there is no definite base sauce recipe,every takeaway uses the same basic principles and add their own touches to make it different and unique to them.I asked about the inclusion of asofotedia(hing),margarine,ajowain seeds etc.He had never heard of hing and didn't use the other two,although others may use
them.My big question was the use of spiced oil,or onion bhaji oil.He'd never used that either although again he said others might just to avoid throwing oil away.On the subject of spiced oil I saw no use of it whatsoever in the take-away,I asked him if he skimmed the top of the gravy to make dishes and he said no.On the stove was a tin full of vegetable oil(I think the make was pride).No ghee was used(except for naan breads and pillau rice).As I watched the chef cook all the dishes using plain oil(and having tasted them before) I'm confident that the elusive taste can be done without spiced oil.The gravy ingredients themselves were pretty standard apart from one thing..
5 large white onions
1 spring onion
3 chillis
small piece of lemon
1 carrot
handfull of coriander leaves and stalks
half a green pepper
small spoon of tomato puree
1/4 of coconut block(this one surprised me)
chef spoon of ginger/garlic paste
1/4 teaspoon each of Cinnamon,coriander,cumin,garam masala(he actually makes his own-I smelt it and it was wonderful)
Everything was chopped and put into a large pot. the ginger/garlic was added as well as the spices.Two mug fulls of vegetable oil was added as was water to cover
it.It was then put on a high heat with the lid on for about 45 mins.He actually added some more water about half
way.It was then left to cool.After fumbling about with a mini blender he decided to get out the big industrial stick one they use to blend it which was quite amusing.
(continued onto next post)
