Try this in your kitchen and you'll be in trouble

Hi Mustafacurry,

I like your website and if i was in spain would certainly come to one of your curry nights.
Can you share your recipes on this site if their not already on here?  I for one would like to see them.

Well done on the venture i hope its a success and you never know maybe one day you'll be running your own curry house....

Cheers,
Stew

Hi,

Thas sounds pretty good, the only thing i would add is a whole bunch of corriander, chopped, stalks and all into the pot in Part 1.
I think this makes the difference.

S

Finally got a new digi camera so here is sundays effort, this one really was special so glad i got the photos.
Enjoy

Used Darths Base just out of interest.  Strictly i should not add onions to the dish for a real Madras but hey i like em.

Hi All,

Ok so this is what is in the Pesto i bought: -

Corriander
Chives
Almonds
Garlic
Ginger
White wine Vinegar :-[
Lime Juice
Veg Oil
Chillies

Its called Asian Green Pesto (Corriander & Mild Chilli)

Its my secret weapon at the moment, just little spponful is making a difference.

Stewpot ;D

Yep its getting desperate but this so called pesto just explodes corriander, chilli and almonds into your curry....

Glossary of British Indian Restaurant Curry
?
Below is an extract taken form a standard British Curry House menu defining what the essence of each curry dish is. Just as a reminder of what we are all striving to recreate?.plus it really makes me want a curry when I read this.

TANDOORI?
Chicken, Lamb or King Prawns Marinated In A Blend Of Freshly Ground Spices With Herbs And Yoghurt, Barbecued In A Tandoori Clay Oven Served On A Sizzling Hot Tray With Fresh Green Salad
? ? ?
CURRY DISHES
(Cooked With Medium Spices, Very Saucy)
? ? ? ? ?
BHUNA DISHES
(Medium Hot, Naturally Spiced, Fairly Dry Dish)
? ? ? ? ?
DUPIAZA DISHES
(Medium Spice With Fried Onions And Coriander)
?
ROGON JOSH DISHES
(Rogon Dishes Are Well Spiced And Cooked In Butter And Thick Gravy With A Tomatoe Base)
?
KARAHI SPECIAL DISHES
(Special Flavoured Dish Cooked With Green Chillies And Onions Then Tossed Dry In A Sizzling Karahi - Wok)?

JALFRAZE DISHES
(Hot With Fresh Green Chillies, Capsicum And Onions Cooked In Special Thick Sauce)
?
MADRAS DISHES
(Fairly Hot, Saucy)
?
CEYLON DISHES
(Fairly Hot, And Sour With Coconut)
?
VINDALOO DISHES (VERY HOT)
(Saucy Dish With Coriander And Potatoes)
?
PHAL DISHES
(Extra Hot & Saucy)
?
DHANSAK DISHES
(Fairly hot, sweet & sour with lentils)
?
PATHIA DISHES
(Hot, sweet & sour)
?
MASSALA DISHES
(cooked with Massala sauce, mild & creamy)
?
KORMA DISHES
(Sweet, mild with creamy coconut sauce)
?
GARLIC OR SAG DISHES
(Garlic, Medium Spices with Fresh Garlic
Sag, Medium Spice, Fairly Dry With Spinach)

KASHMIR OR MALAY DISHES THALI SPECIAL
(KASHMIR: Mild With Banana & Lychees With Creamy Coconut Sauce)
(MALAY: Mild & Fruity With Pineapple)
?
BALTI SPECIAL DISHES
Balti traditional dishes originated from Azaad Kashmir, in Pakistan the dishes vary from Hot, Medium & Mild, very authentically prepared with natural spices & herbs.? Balti dishes are freshly prepared then is served preserving its natural taste

BIRIANI
(cooked with rice, served with mix vegetable curry)?
?

?

Here's a weird one that is working for me at the moment.
I went to a foodshow and found a company exhibiting pesto on the day.  It consisted of Coriander, Chili, Almond and oil all mashed up into an oily pesto.

I bought some and now add half a teaspoon to my curry when its bubbling away on the stove....it really works and adds that depth and nutty feel to the dish.
I always make prawn madras and it seems to coat the prawns so you get that crunchy coriander taste on the prawn as well...very impressive.

I will update this thread on the exact ingredients in the pesto but it might be worth having a look around next time your at the shops.
I am using Darth's base and for the final curry just half a teaspoon of spice mix, 1 teaspoon chili powder, 1 desertspoon tomato paste and 1 teaspoon of coriander powder towards the end plus the pesto......

Stew ;D

Morning All,

I have been going through an old email account from the days of the into2curry board and someone emailed me a base sauce which i have not seen before.? In addiiton to that the process of cooking it is very different to what we are all doing at the moment.? Its Just a bit different but i would value any comments before i go ahead and try it.? If you read the process and visualise what you end up with i have the impression it would be a thick base not the runny soup consistency we are all striving for, maybe this is the answer.? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Curry base

After much experimentation I think I?ve finally got a grasp of the grail of restaurant style taste. The secret, I?m convinced, comes down to the preparation of the base. In particular it comes down to the way the onions - the main component of the base ? are treated. Put simply, they need to be fried in order to draw out their natural sugars ? this is the ?authentic? sweetness you get in a takeaway or at a restaurant. The blend of spices is less fundamental. They may give each restaurant its subtle differences, but it?s the caramelised onions that give the authentic similarity we all seem to crave. It?s a long, protracted and messy process but worth it!
? Because it?s such a hassle you might as well make a largish batch (like a restaurant). This make 1 litre (approx)

Ingredients:

2kg chopped onions
10 good cloves of garlic
1 ?thumb? of ginger
1 medium potato boiled and then pureed in half a cup of water
2 bay leaves
6green cardamom pods split
1 dessertspoon of ground coriander
1 dessertspoon of ground cumin
1 dessertspoon of paprika
1 dessertspoon dried garlic powder
1teaspoon hot chilli powder
1teaspoon turmeric
1teaspoon of salt
1 litre of rapeseed oil

Method:

Stage 1
Place onions, garlic cloves and ginger in a large pan with as little water as you can get away with to stop it sticking. About half a pint to a pint should do it. Put a lid on, bring to boil and then simmer over a low heat. The onions themselves should give up some moisture and collapse down a bit.
Stage2
After an hour puree with a hand-blender (it should look similar to apple sauce). Now, with the lid off, (but definitely with a splatter guard on) cook down gently over a lowish heat for a further hour. Stir regularly to stop it sticking. What we?re actually trying to achieve is to remove all the water from the onion puree. This takes time.?
Stage 3
After an hour add the litre of oil. It will spit horribly. Continue to cook down, with the lid off but a spatter guard on, stirring occasionally, until it has reduced significantly, almost stopped steaming and pretty much stopped splattering. Depending on your pan, initial water content of the onions, etc, this could take anything from 1-3 hours.
Stage 4
Now here?s the critical part. The alchemy. Raise the temperature to medium and allow slowly to become darker in colour (20-40mins). This is the natural sugar in the onions caramelising. As it gets darker it should taste increasingly sweet. It should begin to sizzle rather than gloop when stirred. It?s about right when it reaches a dirty, sandy colour.
Add the spices, fry for a further three minutes.
Take off the heat and allow to cool for an hour. Then decant off the oil (don?t throw this away ? use it to cook the final dishes). What oil?s then left over can be added to make up a litre of oil for the next batch of base sauce. The taste should improve with every subsequent batch of base you make!
Finally, add the potato and salt to the base. Refrigerate for at least 24hrs. This serves 2 purposes: firstly, the taste improves even more; secondly, there?ll be another deposit of oil that can be subsequently removed.

Tip. Once it?s removed from the heat and cooled a bit, it?s a good idea to pour it into a taller container. This makes decanting the oil off easier.


Additional Comments sent to me by email
Curry base preparation.

After a week off work and much experimentation this is what I've found: To get that restaurant style "sweetness" in the dish you need to use an awful lot of oil in the base sauce's preparation. This ensures the onions caramelise rather than stew and brings out there natural sugars. Use the normal onion, garlic and ginger boiled base, puree well, and then fry with spices in oil, THE SAME QUANTITY OF OIL TO BASE PUREE (most of the oil is removed from the base afterwards). Be careful the oil's not too hot when adding the base. You'll want a deep pan with a lid. Medium heat.
After half an hour or so the stuff should look curdled and separated. Take off heat and let stand for ten minutes. The solids should settle to the bottom. Pour off the oil into a separate vessel, leaving the solids (this is your base). Use some of this oil to cook the finished dish. The base will need salt adding to taste.
Oil that's left over store in jar in the fridge. Next time you make a base top up with fresh oil to make enough to fry the base, i.e. the same quantity as the onion base.
With each batch of base, the left over oil should become more and more flavoured. I?ve done three batches this week, and each one is better than its predecessor.
I?ve heard that restaurants use the same oil over and over again. This kind of replicates that on a smaller scale.

I use rapeseed oil because, like olive oil, it?s supposedly better for you than standard vegetable or sunflower oils. Its taste is pretty neutral.

Good luck!

George,

I have re-set it so you can only vote once now which should be better in the long run. 
The essence of this poll is so anyone new can get an idea of which curry base perhaps they should start with out of the many on this site avaiable.

I doubt its going to be an exact science. ;D