Topic: Pat Chapman knows the answer to the secret

[Blondie]

Hi all,

from a newspaper article,

The hybrid Bangladeshi-Indian curry house is a much-loved institution, but its cooking is scarcely inventive. And though the food may be irresistible in its way, especially on a Saturday night after a few pints, it's not exactly of the highest quality. As Pat Chapman, the founder of the The Curry Club (an organisation that promotes Indian food), explains, the classic curry gravy will include taste enhancers such as 'factory-bottled curry paste, garam masala, asafoetida, fenugreek seeds and even some chemicals. Monosodium glutamate enhances taste and thickens sauces. The restaurateur achieves his bright oranges, reds, yellows and brown colours using powdered food colouring and then there's tinned tomatoes and tomato puree and ketchup, and sweeteners such as sugar or even pureed mango chutney.' Still fancy that chicken Madras?

Who says there are no secret ingredients now ?

To read the whole article go to

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,9950,711834,00.html

Cheers,

Blondie

[pete]

I have emailed Pat and hand written as well.
If he does know anything then he's not saying anything outside his book recipes.
This was the recipe I got emailed and he seemed rather fed up at me not being satisfied with my results!


Curry Masala Gravy

Makes over 1kg curry masala gravy

120ml vegetable oil
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons ground coriander powder
6 to 8 whole garlic cloves, peeled
4 x 225g whole onions, peeled (four large)
10cm carrot, coarsely chopped
1/2 green pepper coarsely chopped
500ml water
1 - 2 teaspoons salt

1. Place everything in a saucepan minimum size 2.25 litre (4 pint).
2. Simmer for 2 hours (yes two hours).
3. During the simmer period, add more water as needed. (Keep the onions covered with water.)
4. Mulch the mixture down using a hand blender or jug blender, until you achieve a gravy-like pur?e.

So what to do with this 'gravy'?

Here's a typical recipe for

Chicken Korma Restaurant Style

Serves: 2

250g chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2-4 teaspoons curry powder
200 -250g g Curry Masala Gravy, pur?ed (see above)
150 ml single cream (optional)
1/3 block (65 g) creamed coconut
1 tablespoon fresh coriander leaves, very finely chopped
1 or more tablespoon ground almonds (to taste)
2 to 3 teaspoons garam masala (optional)
white sugar to taste
salt to taste


1. Heat the oil and stir-fry the curry powder for 30 seconds
2. Add the Curry Masala Gravy and bring to the simmer.
3. Add the chicken and simmer for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, and adding just enough water to keep a thickish texture.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and continue cooking and stirring for a final 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. This is checked by cutting one of the largest pieces in half and ensuring it is white right through.

These recipes were no closer
Interesting use of fennel seeds, though

[ghanna]

Dear Pete
well done  GOD bless you  you are a great person.
please keep as informed
thanks
ghanna

[Yellow Fingers]

This was the recipe I got emailed and he seemed rather fed up at me not being satisfied with my results!

Pete, the man's a charlatan. What makes you think that showing him up for what he is would make him happy?

He may have been able to get away with his half baked recipes twenty years ago when there was no alternative, but you only have to look at this site and not least of all your own efforts to see how things have moved on, while he still peddles the same old rejigged recipes.

Given what you know of techniques, base sauces etc, I'm surprised you give the man any time at all.

[ghanna]

hi, blondie
thank you very much it is a very very good and powerful article.I kept reading it more than three times until now.
at last i find some one that share my view of the secret ingredient.
thank you for sharing this with us all .
you are a very good  person
GOD bless you
ghanna

[George]

My search for DIY versions of UK restaurant style curries started back around 1984. It was in that year that I bought a book by Pat Chapman called 'Indian Restaurant Cookbook'. I paid ?7.95 in 1984 money because the claims sounded so promising:

Rear cover: "'...will help you achieve that special Indian restaurant flavour in your own kitchen - with minimum effort...". Remember that term 'minimum effort' - see my further comments below.

Then on page 10, there is a section headed 'That Restaurant Flavour' with a full page of text. It suggested Pat Chapman was on the same wavelength as I was then, and we are now.

But the book never delivered. The recipes which I tried all fell well short of 'that restaurant flavour'. Worse still, Mr Chapman quickly drifts from the subject in hand (restaurant curries) to fill out pages mostly with recipes not from restaurants at all.

I have another Pat Chapman book, called 'Curries' published by Sainsbury's in 1989. This book demonstrates another pet hate I have concerning Pat Chapman' approach:

e.g. There is a recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala on page 59. It includes 300ml curry puree (see page 9). Page 9 includes the recipe for curry puree but in turn needs 7 heaped tbls mild curry paste (see page eight). Page eight has the recipe for curry paste, which requires 250g of mild curry powder (see page 7). Page 7 has the recipe for mild curry powder. Phew! Minimum effort? Is he winding us up or what?

[Curry King]

I thought he had only written one book, just changed the cover and the title every so often and rereleased it  ;D

[pete]

Do you remember all the "must cook out the raw taste" of the spices?
Pat Chapman used to go on about that a lot in his books.
You had to make the spices into a paste first as well, before frying.
What on earth made him say that?
The most important recent thing for me, has been learning that this is NOT how it's done.
The spices are cooked for only about two minutes.
Overcooking kills their flavour.
Pat seems to have done a disappearing act, too.
I re-joined the Curry Club about a year ago.
I've only had one Curry Club magazine in that time.
I did get, around Christmas, an apologetic letter, and a complimentary copy of Tandoori.
I emailed him and he doesn't reply.
Has anyone else had a recent copy of the Curry Club Magazine?
Maybe we've upset him?
I'd be surprised if he was unaware of this site.