I add the liquid from precooking meat to my base sauce, not one for the veggies obviously  ;D

I cant wait to see this guy prepare this in person, he said he usually does this at 16:00 unfortunately this takeaway is not in my home town and just happens to be somewhere I visit every Wednesday for the night.

I must confess I am not going to try this, personally I am so close to the BIR meal as to be practically indistinguishable from the real thing that I don't fancy peeling 30 opinions but am happy to bring this info to the group  ;D

The big question to my mind is that of scale, can you really just half all of the ingredients and try this kind of recipe? I don't know, is it just a case of halving all the spices & salt etc or should the spicing be kept the same??


Blade: I have made Pete's 600ml oil base with coriander stalks and I used ~20-30 stalks, I would suggest the same or a whole bunch of tesco/asda coriander that currently costs ~99p. I would also guess 500g passatta is about right, if maybe a bit too much, for 10 onions worth of base sauce in this recipe.

Pete:I will ask about the chicken jelly/stock, he didnt mention it but then again he probably wouldnt  ;D

Darth: Go for the full 30!  ;D ;D ;D

Blade: It was about 3/4 sticks of celery

Did you leave the curry for a few hours after cooking it?

The thing that suprised me the most about this is how little volume of spices there is compared to the overall volume of base this recipe produces.

Quote from: joe2 on May 18, 2005, 09:10 PM
Some people may not like this but:
I strongly urge the members of this forum to forget the whole idea that 'this can't be done at home'. - I know it is a great excuse every time your NOT overjoyed with the curry you've just cooked. But it simply CANNOT be true.? Sure, all the BIR chefs and bosses would love us to think that - and I don't blame them at all, it's their livelyhood.

One comment my takeaway chef/owner said was its difficult to get the spicing right, I wonder if this is compounded when making smaller quantities and hence his comment you cant make the base at home.

I think the only secret ingredient was chicken jelly that Pete found, and I dont think every BIR uses that

And one other thing my takeaway owner said was that HE cant recreate it at home either! When he cooks curry he says his kids tell him "bring it home from the restaurant dad"

I dont know if the quantity thing is right or not, my gut feeling says it should be possible to reproduce at home (and I believe I can do)

Im sure that some BIR owners will talk bullshit but this guy I talk too just seems genuinly interested in helping me, he is amused by the idea. I obviously know a massive amount of what goes on in the background of a BIR and when talking to a chef I know if they are bullshiting.

A case in point, I talked to my local restaurant, I asked about the curry powder and they said "its a special mixture known only to the chef, you cant reproduce it" - total bullshit

The same question to this guy - "Its just curry powder", I say "I use rajah, is that ok", "yeah thats fine, the actual make isnt really that important"

OK, I chatted to the guy again tonight and have his recipe for making up his standard sized pot of base sauce, bear in mind the size of the pot is huge, its about 14-16 inches in height and diameter. The guy is very honest and is entertained at what I am doing, he has also said he would be happy for me to come and watch him make the base.

This is a full recipe of base sauce in the quantity that a BIR would make, when I refer to chefs spoons below I am referring to the big spoon they use to make all the curries, I estimate this is approx 2 table spoons, all measurements are round spoons, not level nor heaped.

In this 14-16" pan add veg oil up to a depth of 3/4 inch, heat on a high heat

Add 2 chefs spoons each of ginger and garlic puree, he was at great pains to point out to me this should be cooked until brown as Pete has seen before and to make sure I keep stirring it.

When brown add 1.5 chefs spoons each of curry powder and turmeric, add half a level chefs spoon of chilli powder (I have seen him add chilli powder to my dishes and he doesn't use very hot chilli powder)

Stir quickly frying for a short while and then add some water "otherwise it gets too sticky/thick"

Next add the following chopped:
30-35 onions (thats no typo!)
5/6 carrots "or 4 big ones"
3 green peppers
half a bunch of celery
and half a cooks spoon of salt
2 desert spoons of garam masala "be careful not to over do this as it will easily dominate the base if you add too much", this is equivalent to 4 level TSP
fresh coriander and tomato paste*

Add water and see the top post now for how long to cook this for and what to do next

* I didn't get the measurements for these 2 ingredients, will do next time I go

He was at great pains to be wary of adding too much chilli, salt and garam masala. Too much of any of these will ruin the base and are irreversible.

But surely the BIR's dont use an ingredient like black cardamom, apart from possibly in the base?