Curry Recipes Online
Curry Base Recipes => Curry Sauce, Curry Base , Curry Gravy Recipes, Secret Curry Base => Topic started by: jasper on January 01, 2007, 01:48 PM
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Hi guys!
I just received from my local curry restaurant after spending a lot of time in their kitchen and helping those guys with chopping onion their secret for the curry base?
It is not a BIR?but it is a really good curry house situated in Munich (Germany) where they serve north Indian cuisine.
I became addicted to their curries after eating it for about 2 years ago? and started the big search for their curry secret. Those guys where really friendly and always let me in their kitchen to help and observing them.
I really tried a lot of curries because I am most of the time travelling in Europe and I still think their curries are on of the best?
Actually the recipe is remarkably simple ;D
Put in a pan:
2 big Onions roughly chopped
1 cup of oil
2 cups of water
2 small teaspoons salt
1 heaped teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon chilli
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon cumin ? seed
Boil this for about 30 minutes with a cover on the pan.
Let it cool down and liquidize
In a frying pan put a little bit of oil and when hot:
1 dessertspoon garlic ginger paste
(garlic and ginger with water chopped in a food processor)
fry for about 2 minutes until browned a little bit then add:
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon paprika
fry for another minute and add:
2 soup ladles tomato passata
maybe add a little bit of water and let it cook for about 2 minutes
Poor this tomato garlic ginger mixture in the pan with the chopped onions. And cook for another 15 minutes?
After seeing here that a lot of guys are putting carrots in their curry base I asked my Indian friend and he told me he never puts in any other vegetables in his curry base.
He told me also that the use of a large amount of oil is very important.
Please guys try this one and let me know how it tastes?
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Jasper
Many thanks for sharing this recipe. I look forward to trying it, especially given that it uses sensible quantities, rather than industrial amounts. Two questions:
1. Could you please indicate the weight of the onions you use? The weight of a 'big' onion can vary so much from person to person, let alone region to region. Also, is that white/brown onions, rather than red onions or any other type?
2. Do you have any recipes for turning this base sauce into any of the curries which you enjoy so much at your Munich curry house?
Regards
George
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Hi
The big onions they use are approx. 250 grams and normal white/brown onions.
Take about 500 grams of onions for my recipe?.
When they make a vindaloo sauce
The use the gravy above(about 2 soup ladles) and put in the following:
2 teaspoons pataks vindaloo paste (they only product they use from patak?s?)
? teaspoon Garam masala
? teaspoon Cumin
1 teaspoon fenugreek leaves
about 2 dessertspoon cream
1 fresh green chilli
? teaspoon chilli
1 teaspoon fresh coriander
ginger (to decorate)
1 potato
I always take this sauce with tandoori lamb?
Have fun
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Jasper
Brilliant. Very helpful. Many thanks.
Regards
George
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Yep great stuff, simple and easy to try thanks ;)
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I;ve just done stage one of this and it is now cooling until I can blend it - Seems quite good so far!
KP :P
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Hi All,
OK- Now after it cooled I took the oil off the top (nice and red it was too!) then pureed the onions to a paste. Then I added the oil back and carried on with the rest of the recipe.
At this point I thought the smell and taste of the removed oil was very nice. The pureed onions were a nice yellow colour.
Then on to the tomato stage.
When this was finished I added it to the onion paste, I thought is seemed a lot, but it was only a little too much for my likling. I had to add about 1/4 cup of water here to as the paste was now quite thick.
I then cooked this mixture for about 25 minutes, skimming off the froth that formed on the top.
Job done! - Its cooling in the pot with the lid on and I won't get to try it until tomorrow, but it seems to be very pleasent with no cominating flavours (which has to be good if you are using this for a variety of dishes)
The only thing that came to mind was the difference between this and the KD base (apart from the spice in the onions) was the use of a cup of oil in the pot with the onions (KD uses only water)
Next week I hope to try a KD base (double quantity) with oil in the onion pot and see what the difference is (unless anyone here cares to try it sooner - IF so then please let me know how you get on).
Nice find Jasper, I think I will be 'playing' with this one again! ;D ;D ;D
KP
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I've just completed stage 1 to the letter. The onion base is currently cooling down but I can tell you this is gonna be fantastic. It has THE smell already. I'm sure this is down to the paprika. I used a brand new batch of paprika and that is the prevalant smell and wow it is the business.
Jasper, more details of the final stage technique please !
Cheers.
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Great first post Jasper, welcome
Interesting to see this base from Germany is very similar to a couple of recent bases we've seen on here (and close to the KD also)
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Nice one Jasper, Thanks for the input, and looking forward to try this one. { keep up the good work } Paul
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Hi Guys,
This is the recipe from the tandoori lamb from the curry house.
Superbe Tandoori Lamb to put in the gravy above.
They make a slightly different mixture for the chicken, When making chicken tandoori they don?t put in the Gram flour? I don?t know exactly why the use the Gram Flour. Unfortunately that is too difficult to ask, because their English German and Dutch is pretty limited and my Hindi is not that good as well? ::)
1 Teaspoon Vinegar (100%)
2 heaped Tablespoons Garlic ginger mixture (this mixture is about 50/50%)
1 Teaspoon Lemon juice
3 Teaspoons Paprika
1 Teaspoon Turmeric
1 Teaspoon Cumin
1 Teaspoon Garam Masala
1 Teaspoon Chilli
1 Teaspoon Fenugreek leaves
3 Tablespoons Oil
2 Tablespoons Gram Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt
The trick here is to make this mixture and add sufficient Oil that it is looking like a liquid paste? ;)
Add about the same volume of yoghurt (spices/yoghurt = 50/50%)
Cheers,
Jasper
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Hi Jasper!
Thanks for this! I think the gram flour is, no doubt, simply to thicken the sauce?....or is this a marinade?......are there any procedures to go with the ingredients Jasper?
Regards
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I've made 2 of these now (used Patak madras paste though). Best curry I've ever made at home and definately had the taste in each.
Great post Jasper.
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That's really great Jeera!.....you mean the Vindaloo do you?
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What was in your tomato passata? for this sauce.
thanks :)
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Cory, yes the vindaloo. Only slight tweak was I added some watered down tomato puree at the final stage (per the recent scrape around the bottom of the pan posts) and of course used madras rather than Vindaloo paste (I'll try that next time).
mustapharuby, just plain passata. I used a jar - approx 400ml.
The colour, texture and taste were all perfect.
fyi, since there is a lot of oil in this recipe, I decided to add some more water to the final stage of my 2nd attempt alongside adding the 2 ladels of base (I suppose you could easily water down the base for the same effect). Once I added the base & water, I let it simmer for 5 mins, rest for 2 mins and the oil seperated really well - I spooned this off back into the base.
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Hi Cory,
No special procedures for the marinade... just put everything together! 8)
mustapharuby, just plain passata. I used a jar - approx 400ml. That?s also exactly what I use!
Do you guys know how I can upload pictures here??
Cheers,
Jasper
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Hi Guys!
Nice that already some people are trying and enjoying the gravy!
In the restaurant they have also a second curry base?This one is not liquidized!
By preparing most curries they put in about 2 soup ladles of the first gravy and about ? soup ladle of the second curry base.
Here comes the second curry:
10 Big Onions (250 gram) chopped very fine.
3 paprika (1 green 1 yellow 1 red) chopped fine
4 tomatoes chopped fine
They take a big frying pan and put in at least 1 litres of oil.
They fry the onions for about 10 minutes and add the paprika and the tomatoes and continue frying for another 5 minutes.
Then they add 2 soup ladles with garlic ginger paste (with water) and fry 2 more minutes.
Then they use the SAME soup ladle for the spices?because here in the kitchen they don?t use teaspoons or dessertspoons?
? Soup ladle turmeric (I think that?s about 3 dessertspoons)
? Sl Cumin
? Sl Garam Masala
1 Sl Paprika
? Sl Salt
1 SL =1 Soup ladle, let?s day about 10 tablespoons...
They continue frying for another few minutes and then put in 2 litres Tomato passata.
Add a little bit of water when the curry is becoming too thick.
Enjoy,
Jasper
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......? Soup ladle turmeric (I think that?s about 3 dessertspoons).......
......1 SL =1 Soup ladle, let?s day about 10 tablespoons...
Hi Jasper,
Thanks for posting these recipes :)
One point of clarification please.......by my reckoning:
- 1 dessert spoon (dsp) = 10ml (so 3 dsp = 30ml)
- 1 tablespoon (tbsp) = 15ml (so 10 tbsp = 150ml)
So, depending on which you look at, your soup ladle is either 2 x 30ml = 60ml (former) or 10 x 15ml = 150ml (latter)?? Quite a difference, I think you'll agree?
Perhaps you meant 10 teaspoons rather than 10 tablespoons in the latter (i.e. 10 x 5ml = 50ml)?
Perhaps you could clarify this please?
Ta, 8)
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Do you guys know how I can upload pictures here??
Hi Jasper,
We have a section dedicated to pictures here:
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?board=10.0 (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?board=10.0)
If you need a hand or anything just reply here or send me a PM.
cK
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If you need a hand or anything just reply here or send me a PM.
Hi CK,
I still think it would be helpful to include some brief instructions in the "Pictures of your Curries" section....either in the "Test your Upload Pictures Here" section or in an independent thread entitled.....oh I dont know......how about "Instructions for Posting Photos"! ;)
PS: I'm happy to write these if you (or another administrator) can post them in an appropriate place?
Regards,
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Go for it, just post a thread in the picture group and it can be made a sticky.
cK
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.......Do you guys know how I can upload pictures here??......
Hi Jasper,
I've written some guidelines for uploading photos here: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1475.0 (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1475.0)
It would be great if you could try the guidelines and let me know if they make any sense and if they are at all helpful! :P
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Thanks for the help!
Thats a good one Cory.. The size of the soup ladle! because 60 ml sounds like a bit too small and 150 ml sounds pretty big to me...
I am going to the curryhouse tomorrow and I will check the size of the soup ladle!
cheers
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......? Soup ladle turmeric (I think that?s about 3 dessertspoons).......
......1 SL =1 Soup ladle, let?s day about 10 tablespoons...
Sorry guys... :(
That was a bit confusing but the first one should be
1/2 Soup ladle (about 3 Tablespoons)
I thought a tablespoon and a dessertspoon had the same size (both 15ml)
and the second one should be
1/2 Soup ladle (about 10 teaspoons)
But to be absolutely sure I go to my curryfriends and measure the soup ladle 8)
Hopefully nobody spoiled a curry because of this sloppy information ::)
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I'm just doing the first stage (boiling the onions and spices) but is it right that there is cummin powder and cummin seeds?
most other recipes i've seen have coriander powder and cummin seeds
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Hi John,
Thats right! They use both of them! cummin seeds and cummin powder. And they don't use coriander in the base.
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The onion base is currently cooling down but I can tell you this is gonna be fantastic. It has THE smell already.
Cheers.
I think this points out one of the problems we have discussing food on a forum where you can't share you idea of taste and smell. I've made the base and it definitely doesn't have THE smell as I know it.
I've made 2 of these now (used Patak madras paste though). Best curry I've ever made at home and definately had the taste in each.
I made the recipe with madras paste as well and again it definitely didn't have THE taste.
Clearly what we all think of as the taste and smell mean different things to different people.
YF
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The Soup laddle used in my recipe has a size of about 100 ml...
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I quite liked this base, in my opinion the boiling of onions with cummin seeds and loads of oil gave this base the smell. days after i made this base i scooped the oil into a jar and dropped some onto some paper......wow the smell was just like a bir smell, you know when you get your order and oil spills onto the paper holding the poppodoms....exact same smell and colour.
I feel i need to play with this base as it didn't have the correct flavour im looking for, but it was promising, i think i'd like to try kris dillions base using bits from this recipe like the cummin seeds and added oil... i think the reason that the oil is sooo important is because any spices you add are oil base and so the flavour can only dillute into other oil...miss out the oil and miss out the flavour/aroma.
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Funnily enough I did try a modified KD base with more oil and a little of the spicing (don't want to over do it so I have more choice over the final dishes falvour).
I also went for the KD method with no tomatoes in the first sauce (the boiled onion paste) and instead cooked it seperately and added the two together.
So far it's been a nice manageable base. Still haven't got to where I'd like to be with this style of cooking but each year I make some progress in the right direction.
KP(V)
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ok that seems to be 3 people who have tried this base (excluding the poster) and 2 have the taste.
Anyone else tried it ?
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Ive done 3 different base sauces now and I prefer jaspers, but rather than tomato passata I used tin tomatoes and reduced the oil a little. You can always add more if you want later. This turned out better as it was not as rich and too overpowering with tomato.
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Well done Vinda looo!
Why have you chosen jasper's base as the best one, and how are you judging it, on its own or in a finished curry?
YF
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I tried this base over the weekend and although it produced a very nice curry it's not what i'm looking for in terms of the "taste". I still have some left so will use it up to make another curry or two and will report back then, it may age well.
Thanks for the recipe Jasper!
cK
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Im judging Jaspers on end result not just base sauce. I like the smell and colour of the base but not the taste however when used it to make a madras I was well pleased, it all came together great at the end. I am in the process of doing a Darth base at the moment and Im hoping for another good one which I think should be ok as many others on here have had success with it.
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I have just tried Jaspers Madras and its certainly the best curry I have ever made at home
I dont think it quite has the BIR taste but its better than anything else i have ever bought
ie Asda ,pataks etc .I do however think its close to a BIR curry so I am going to have a fiddle with it and see what happens ::)
Just finished a batch of Darthpauls base so ill try his Madras next :P
Once again thanks for posting these recipes and for having me on a great site
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Hi Jasper, made your base,then 1 lamb madras and then a chicken vindaloo but I left out the Pataks Paste on the vindaloo and I reckon its better without it. :)
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HI all a couple of years ago i went to a local and orded a curry and a curry saurce.the curry was great but the sauce i was going to make a vegtable curry.but i could not be bothered to make anything with the sauce.The next day i made a chicken curry with this sauce off the night before.Not the same tasted like one i made so i am pretty sure the taste comes from something added at the end of cooking that is lost when the sauce is kept.something fresh not been cooked always said the taste had something to do with the garlic and ginger.
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just tried the tandoori lamb ,very good
I dont suppose you can persuade the chaps to give you some other recipes ;)
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Hi Jasper,
Tried your curry base this weekend and was quite impressed. I made a final curry but without the pataks paste because i don't have it but I still ended up with a respectable result. I didn't think it had THE taste or THE smell as a few others have already said and it was it is a little over spiced at the base stage in my opinion.
I also found the end result to be very creamy in texture (too creamy) but this may have been due to me not removing the oil before liquidising. I noted that this is what someone else had done and it looks like the way to go.
That being said I think it's a step or two closer to the ultimate goal and the method and general ingredients seem to be more like what I would expect to see (no carrots and such)
I've since tried the method twice more, varying the ingredients to my own personal taste. The first went straight down the drain (one black cardamom pod was the beginning of the end for that version :-X) but the second version was pretty bloody good. Not yet ready for public trials but close, so when I've fiddled about with it a bit more I'll post my version and you can see what you think.
Anyway - thanks for the original post - it's been an inspiration. ;D
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add some fennel powder and mix it well at the end
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Holy thread resurrection!