Quote from: grimmo on March 17, 2005, 04:07 PM
I DSP of chopped garlic (not chopped as fine as you might think it would need to be).
4 DSP of veg oil
2 DSP onion
? TSP of salt
A pinch of ?metti potti? that what his answer sounded like when I asked. ?Id got distracted here and didn?t get a good look. It was a green herb. Anyone any ideas?
1 TSP tumeric
5 DSP spinach (cooked and dried).

All cooked on high heat, stirred and shaken vigourously for a minute or so.

Then 1 Ladle of curry gravy
1 TSP fresh coriander
1 TSP quartered toms

Simmer for 2 mins. The taken off heat.

Next up Bombay Aloo.

1 Ladle oil
1 TSO onion
1 TSP of toms paste (from ?family size? tin)
1 TSP salt
1 TSP curry powder
Pre-cooked potatoes
A couple of piece of sliced tom
1 Ladle of curry gravy
Fresh coriander
Cook on high heat for 2 mins. Shake and stir vigourously. Take off heat.

With the two above recipes, do you add them in the order written, in quick succession?
Or do you brown onions or garlic a bit first?
The trouble is that these chefs do everything in such an "easy" fashion.
They make it look no effort at all.

Those recipes are brilliant and I can't wait to try them.
The "missing" flavour must be in the base, though. where else could it be?
The other parts of the recipe are all very ordinairy.
I think the flavour comes from preparing a very large quantity of curry gravy in one go.
It just can't be as difficult as we are making it!
No way do you need a university degree to make the stuff and no way is there a secret ingredient that they hide.
Like the man said "it's simple"

Hey!
I got a reply from creative chef on in2curry
He said:-

Thank you for your suggestion Pete we are looking into this, however, time and co-operation can be very difficult to obtain from busy restauranteurs. We will try our best please bear with us everyone.

You never know, maybe this will amount to something!

The Company Cofresh are the best for all these "bombay mix" style snacks.
They are based in Leicester.
I am very lucky and can buy all these goodies at my local Asian supermarket.
Check out
http://www.theindiangrocerystore.com/cgi-bin/theindiangrocerystore-cgi/Catalogue.pl?cat=Dry%20Fruit%20and%20Nuts
It should get you what you want

I spoke to a chef and he actually wrote down the recipe.
He is a really nice man and I am sure that what he gave me is accurate.
There is no deception.
My only misgiving is that it seems very familiar.
I believe him, when he says, there are no other ingredients in the restaurant gravy pot.
I don't think there is a conspiracy to hide anything.
So, here it is:-

Stage 1:-

1 lb onion
1 tablespoon garlic/ginger puree
5% tomato puree (I assume he meant that as a percentage of the? overall amount)
He said use pureed tinned tomatoes or paste.
Both were ok.
1 small green pepper
2 teaspoon salt
Water (you'll have to guess the amount)

Boil the above for at least an hour and then puree

Stage 2:-

Spices? 2 teaspoon mix spice
This is Curry powder,Paprika,Turmeric,Cummin,Coriander in equal proportions
Salt as required
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon dried fenugreek
1 teaspoon balti paste

Also:-
1 tablespoon garlic/ginger puree
3 teaspoon oil

Add the spices to the pureed onion mix
Heat the oil and fry the garlic ginger until brown
Then pour in the onion mix (watch out for spluttering)
Cook for at least ten minutes and it?s ready

I think it might be an idea to use vegetable ghee instead of oil
(ghee from an asian shop)

He also said that his vegetables are boiled in simply water.
No spices.
I would also add that his curries are some of the best, I have ever tasted
If the gravy doesn't work, then it MUST be down to scale.
Try it again with ten times the ingredients!
Right then....someone else get a recipe to compare.
I bet it will be just like this, or like the thin yellow gravy from Bengali Cuisine

I honestly believe that the answer to the perfect curry lies in the base.
Maybe it does come down to the quantity you cook in.
Maybe if you used a sack of onions it would somehow affect the flavour.
I don't believe that there are any unknown ingredients or techniques.
It just doesn't make sense, and I really want to know.
For me this is not a recipe, it's far more.
When I took Muttleys recipe to a couple of takeaways, all they said was that it was missing salt and a little too thick.
That's how stupid this is.
I can't even take the word of a indian chef, who cooks it.
Reubik's cube had nothing on this.

Quote from: curryqueen on March 14, 2005, 07:43 PM
The strange thing about this is that the "kyknos" was bought in Asian grocers, but, was made in Greece!

Yes, the paste I bought was Italian.
Crazy!

After doing direct comparisons, I am still not totally satisfied.
Bruce Edwards sauce (curry house cookery) is very good
The curry base I was given ,where emphasis is placed on the browning of the ginger garlic, is probably a bit better.
I don't understand why the Brick Lane thin yellow sauce isn't totally right.
I saw it made.
Then of course there is the Muttley base which I took to a couple of takeaways and asked their opinion.
The base sauce I bought as a sample, tasted absolutely delicious.
It had the missing taste.
When ,I have a proper bought curry to compare my cooking to, all my home results fall slightly short of the mark.
I don't know why.
Without comparison they taste very good, and they look exact.
I will keep trying.
We need someone to see the base made from start to finish.
Does anyone feel they have a 100% result?

Quote from: Mark J on March 12, 2005, 06:28 AM
This Jalfrezi was quite thick, which is the odd thing, even though the base sauce is thinnish the final dishes do turn out quite thick. They reduce the sauce under high heat.

I don't understand? how the restaurants have the gas ring turned up so high but nothing seems to "catch" or blacken like if you cook at home.
I have watched them, and they never have the gas on low.
Because their gas rings are wider, the heat is going more to the edge of the pan.
That's why the pan keeps catching fire, in little bursts.
Maybe you should cook in the smallest pan you have.
To copy the restaurants I find it easier on a gentle heat.
At the very end of the cooking I will turn it up, but garlic seems very difficult to control.
It can burn in a moment.

Quote from: PACMAN on March 13, 2005, 07:15 PM
This paste is very salty and i am getting more convined that the better restaurants use fresh pureed italian plum tomatos.

The restaurants use hand blenders to puree the curry gravy.
It makes sense that they just might puree some cans of tinned tomatoes, at the same time.
The ordinairy puree does seem far too intense a flavour for the curries.