Someone else used cashews in the gravy, was it you CK ?

Also CTM from a BIR is a really easy recipe to replicate, creamed coconut block is the secret

Quote from: Yellow Fingers on March 27, 2005, 05:49 PM
1.very high heat from start to finish (not normally reproducable at home as the curry house gas rings put out at least five times the BTU as the largest ring on a domestic gas hob). If you're using an electric hob you've got no chance of reproducing the required heat.

2.loads of oil, possibly of the spiced variety from the top of the base sauce, or from the frier

3.browning the garlic/ginger adequately

4.two or three small ladles of base sauce with at least one of these reduced to almost dry consistency

5.igniting the oil/sauce during the final cooking (I briefly got a look in two kitchens many years ago and I saw this in both)

6.pre-cooking anything that can't be cooked in about 10 mins, which is the average final cooking time for the finished curry

Ill just lob my 2 peneth in here, I have been in a top restaurant kitchen and a takeaway kitchen.

1. - Yes both on high heat but I think easily reproducable on a home gas ring
2. - I think this is the killer (in more ways than one  ;D), they use shedloads both added at the start of the process and in the base gravy. For a portion for 1 person you should probably start with 4 TBSP of oil at least.
3. - Maybe, both chefs I have seen didnt seem to brown the garlic/ginger (actually both only used garlic not ginger), they certainly cooked it for a little while though and it was the first step so maybe it ends up brown by the time the curry gravy goes in?
4. - The restaurant added a small lade and reduced it both times, the takeaway just added one big ladle and that was that so I dont think reducing the gravy is that important.
5. - The restaurant didnt ignite the pan
6. - Absolutely

Quote from: Yellow Fingers on March 27, 2005, 03:55 PM
Until someone actually sees this made it remains the only possible place to 'hide' a necessary ingredient. Equally of course, if someone did get to do this and there was clearly no secret ingredient being used and a curry made with this sauce has that missing something we are looking for, then it would be case proved and we could move on.

I must confess that on witnessing the chefs making the curries it did cross my mind that maybe it wasnt salt they were adding but was actually MSG. There is absolutely no doubt that chinese restaurants use MSG and asian grocers do stock MSG (although they supply chinese restaurants also)

As I recall Pete said that taste was in the base sauice he bought.

Out of interest last night I cooked a chicken balti for 2, recipe was as per my previous post (restaurant demo), my wife said it has 'that taste', I wasnt sure myself (so difficult to tell when you cook these things yourself I find).

The only things I did different were:

The chicken I used was straight from being pre cooked

I fried only crushed garlic at the start (not ginger, the 2 kitchens I have been in dont use ginger/garlic puree as the first stage) and used 6 big cloves (reason for so much garlic was that recently I cooked an authentic indian dish which was for 3 people, it used 8 cloves of garlic and had something similar to 'that taste').

I also added 2 oxo veggie stock cubes (which have a high amount of MSG in them) disolved in a 3rd pint of water to my base sauce (bruce edwards)

I used pataks balti paste

I used an entire packet of Tesco's fresh corander,  half went in the dish, the other half was used as a garnish

Served in sizzling cast iron karahis


Tasted bloody good I must admit!

Quote from: adamski on March 26, 2005, 06:27 PM
I don't believe its all in the base sauce.

I think it probably is or the oil, the actual recipe's the chefs use are very simple.

Quote from: adamski on March 26, 2005, 06:27 PM
I did an a test the other day, one curry cooked with hardly any oil as a starter the second
was cooked with loads of oil as a starter and the second one tasted very different, infact the second one tasted nearly like the real thing.

This is a very good point, the restaurants use a shedload of oil, for a portion for one I saw about 3 TBSP of oil floating just on top of my curry the other night.

Quote from: adamski on March 26, 2005, 06:27 PM
Hell, it can't be one simple ingredient, I think alto of people would be happy if that was the answer.

The only single ingredient I think it could be is MSG

Quote from: adamski on March 26, 2005, 06:27 PM
A) you cooked it and it's not in a sliver foil container or served on a sizzling platter
B) you've not done it day in and day out for 10 years (well most of us have not)
C) you really don't realise that what you've cooked IS the real deal.

I think these points sadly could be the nub of it (although my baltis are served sizzling in a cast iron karahi? ;D )

Quote from: George on March 26, 2005, 11:28 AM
Here's some text from a job advert at caterer.com:

Tandoori Chef ?7.51ph
Rajinda Pradesh is our modern contemporary Indian restaurant located in the unique surroundings of Sherwood Forest. We require an experienced Head Chef and Tandoori Chef to enhance our already highly qualified team. The restaurant has high volume turnover and also provides a busy take away service.

Salary: ?7.51ph ?? Location: Nottinghamshire ?? Date: 16 Mar 2005 16:01:32 ?? Employer type:? ?

For the head chef, they are offering ?21K plus bonus.

A chef on ?7.51ph might well be interested in earning some pocket money for a private demo!

Thats centreparcs for anyone thats interested, I have eaten at the Indian restaurant and it is very nice indeed, extremely limited menu but good

Yes it gives the curry a heavy caramalised onion taste (although I did use the whole jar  ;D)

I have been in 2 kitchens and seen 5 dishes cooked, both places used fenugreek leaves in the final curry, both had the thinnish yellow base sauce, both had that taste. Im not sure if they used oil off the top of the gravy, they certainly didnt skim it off at the time of cooking, both had a little pot of oil on the stove.

And on another note if I'd been going to the same takeaway for 20 years and they wouldnt let me have some base sauce I'd tell them Ill be going elsewhere!

When I asked to get into the kitchen of my local restaurant they were very cool about it but if they had refused I wouldnt have taken no for an answer, I go there every Thursday night without fail.

Quote from: adamski on March 25, 2005, 10:12 PM
I think your all mad.

Curry Secret. Look at this way nearly every curry gravy recipe that has been posted here on this site is very very similar.

Wake up people there is no one secret ingredient, what the hell would it be?? and how could such a thing be kept so secret.

A secret so secret only hundreds of chefs all over the country know to the exclusion of everyone else.

The secret is there is no secret, I tried out Pete's gravy made a few curries, now they tasted as good as a take-away, the only
difference was and this is the secret, I cooked it, not the local-takeway. It's all in the mind.

Read again the article from the guy in the curry club, he details how the staff worked overnight to make the base sauce, he was there saw it all (at least that is the impression he gives). Unless the staff at this restaraunt were theatrical geniuses and the whole thing was staged (which I doubt very much) then what he saw and documented is exactly how thousands of Indian resteraunts and take-aways make curries every day.

Good luck on your search for the holy grail but I think you will be sadly disappointed.

Hey for all I know maybe there is a secret ingredient, but the only way it would ever be totally secret if it? was so awful and terrible an ingredient that to tell anyone other than someone in the trade would be to destroy the Indian take-aways for ever. Do you still want to know the secret???

I pretty much agree with everything said here, my feeling is the secret taste is in the oil reuse from the curry gravy, so yes in a way this is a secret ingredient.

I would be happy to be proved wrong but I strongly doubt that there is a missing ingredient that somone is suddenly going to find "hey folks, just add 100ml of shampoo to the base sauce" and everyone lives happily ever after.