Curry Recipes Online
Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: jadeoboe on February 17, 2017, 07:54 PM
-
Have tried so many base sauce/madras recipes over the years but none have come close to what I am after....there must be someone out there who knows how to create an orange coloured curry typical of what you get nowadays? Lightly spiced, thick sauce but not overly oily, with a nice subtle flavour. I have tried reducing spice content to 1tsp but that doesn't work, it just ends up bland. I see a lot of brown coloured madrases being made on this forum which is not what I am after at all. If anyone knows how to help me I will be eternally grateful!!
-
What part of the world are you from and have you any Take-Away or restaurant menus that you either post or link to a website or even better have you any pictures.
-
No evidence of your cooking since you joined 2011
You could join in more, with pics of what your after.
A Madras is not lightly spiced! 1tsp of mix spice is enough
Three good tsps of chilli powder will give it enough heat and far from bland.
Madras is often described as fairly hot, but to most customers it is a HOT curry.
I don
-
Ok, a bit of confusion going on here. I obviously didn't describe it very well. I just mean I have been unable to reproduce curries from my favourite restaurants/takeaway. I was originally in Bournemouth, now London - obviously a madras is spicy but when I try my sauce cold the next day it just tastes so overpowering and nothing like the restaurants. (I've always found you can tell more what a sauce is like once it has cooled down). I'm obviously the only one who has this problem so I'm sorry I bothered you...
-
Hi jadeoboe. There could be several reasons why the curries you cook are not right. If your base sauce is too thick the flavour of the spices won't develop as they should. If you don't fry the spices in the oil enough that can also lead to the incorrect taste. I find the curries I cook now still taste good even cold but I'm not sure what you mean by 'overpowering'. The recipe CT gives above will give a really good madras as long as it's cooked properly on a good high heat. The other thing that may give a more orange colour could be the use of certain chilli powders, I use kashmiri mirch quite often and that gives a more orange/red colour to my curries.
Hope this helps a little.
Best regards
Rob
-
It does not sound to me as if the basic problem is of the colour, Jade; it seems more to me that you have not yet got close to mastering BIR cuisine and technique, regardless of colour. Try (if I may suggest) a basic Kris Dhillon chicken curry (which does not rely on any hard-to-acquire technique) and see if it works for you.
** Phil.
-
Thank you everyone for your advice, but I have had 20 years' experience - started with Pat Chapman (as everyone probably does!) then moved to Kris Dhillon, Mick Crawford's 2 e-books, more books/e-books, the "other" curry forum, then finally this forum. Ok I have made some great curries over the years but not really what I'm after...the search continues
Jade x
-
Oh yeah, here's a post from littlechillie:
?Hi for me we always tend to over complicate a Real BIR Madras sauce, but when it comes from a TA it is light on spice and subtle of flavours and deep on heat.
IMO 60% of a madras is in the base sauce and if this is over spiced then it's never going to happen...."I am able replicate my TA Madras no problem with 1 spoon oil, half a teaspoon of mix powder and half a teaspoon of ground fenugreek leaf + 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder + pinch of salt + half teaspoon of tom puree, little tamarind and a slice of lemon. That's all it takes along with a very lightly spiced base gravy and the correct cooking and reducing."
Seems I'm not going crazy then....
-
You're certainly not going crazy jadoboe and I've asked the same question myself a few times over the years. Some of the curries I had in london back in the early eighties were more orange than brown and almost see through and yet still had incredible depth of flavour, So I think I know where you're coming from.
The basic answer is to use a yellow base sauce and a bright red chilli powder such as degghi (my favourite) or kashmiri (I don't get on with this as much). For the base that means light spicing and not too much tomato. I can't say I've cracked it myself but that's the general idea. If you've been cooking BIR curries for so long you should be able to put some meat on those bones.
Oh, and don't rule out the obvious such as the use of food colouring.
-
Oh, and don't rule out the obvious such as the use of food colouring.
I would respectfully suggest than an orange colour (as opposed to red) is more likely to be the result of the omission of heavily-pigmented ingredients rather than their inclusion ...
** Phil.
-
Oh, and don't rule out the obvious such as the use of food colouring.
I would respectfully suggest than an orange colour (as opposed to red) is more likely to be the result of the omission of heavily-pigmented ingredients rather than their inclusion ...
** Phil.
You've clearly never had occasion to use orange colouring powder Phil. It'd make black, orange!
http://www.preema.co.uk/food-colours/food-colour-powder/deeo-orange-powder-500g-detail
-
I use it routinely in my pulao rice, Santa (the powdered colours are wonderful compared to the liquid) , but I do not believe that any BIR would have added such a thing to a normal curry 20 years ago ...
** Phil.
-
I use it routinely in my pulao rice, Santa (the powdered colours are wonderful compared to the liquid) , but I do not believe that any BIR would have added such a thing to a normal curry 20 years ago ...
** Phil.
Do you not then consider CTM a "normal" curry? There probably isn't another curry so laden with food colouring and that's the way it has been since it was first introduced and how long ago would that be? Forty plus years?
In London in the eighties all the jalfrezis were green, Purely through the addition of food colouring. Some other dishes were made more red as well, all of them "normal" curries. In particular food colouring was added to differentiate a particular establishment's curries from another one down the road and even to differentiate one similar curry from another, a madras and vindaloo for example.
I don't think you're right on this one.
-
Do you not then consider CTM a "normal" curry?
No, I regard it as an abomination, but that isn't really relevant here ...
There probably isn't another curry so laden with food colouring and that's the way it has been since it was first introduced and how long ago would that be? Forty plus years?
Maybe. But I was speaking specifically of orange food colouring, not red.
In London in the eighties all the jalfrezis were green,
I have no such recollection.
Purely through the addition of food colouring. Some other dishes were made more red as well, all of them "normal" curries. In particular food colouring was added to differentiate a particular establishment's curries from another one down the road and even to differentiate one similar curry from another, a madras and vindaloo for example.
I do not dispute for one second that red food colouring has been used in BIR cuisine for at least 50 year (nothing else could explain the colour of tandoori chicken); but I remain convinced that so-called "orange" curries owe their appearance primarily to the minimal use of highly-coloured ingredients rather than the use of artificial orange.
I don't think you're right on this one.
"I may disagree with your views, but I will defend to the death your right to hold them" :)
** Phil.
-
SS what part of London do you hail from?
Coming from the Bermondsey area I must admit that in the curry houses we used, from Bermondsey to Brixton and the edge of the City/East End, the curries were uniformly brown or a pale Korma; I don't recall ever seeing a green one.
When visiting in-laws up in the Midlands we used to see some weird and wonderful concoctions that were similar to those in London by name only. Never looked the same or tasted the same.
But saying that, my kids insist I no longer have a memory, just a forgettery, so they may have been purple!
T63
-
Wow, I've really started something here...! Ok, I don't mean orange as in bright orange, probably red. I don't know, it doesn't really matter, It's just that I know that if my curry looks nothing like that then it doesn't taste anything like it either. Even the texture seems to be wrong - I don't understand the confusion as if you have been in any Indian restaurant in the past 20 years then this is what you get!!
By the way I already use red colouring...
-
I remember green jalfrezis but they are not like that anymore.
-
Jadeoboe
The Taz base produces a madras that is orangey coloured and subtly spiced, at least when used with my madras recipe.... You might want to reduce the oil content though.
-
Thanks MushroomMike, it's ok I'm not afraid of a bit of oil :D
I have used the Taz base in the past, with Stephen Lindsay's recipes - what is your madras recipe if you don't mind me asking? You don't add extra oil do you as I thought the Taz base just used the oil already in the sauce....
-
To be honest if I ever made it again I'd probably drop the oil to 150-200mm myself. And as you said, the curries you are trying to replicate are "not overly oily". I like to start off any curry with oil, if only reclaimed from the base itself or pre-cooked chicken as I like to tarka the G&G and mix powder to mellow the flavours before "building" the dish so to speak. It's a nice base and the subtlety leaves room for extra spicing to suit your tastes. My madras is as follows.
3 tbsp Oil (skimmed off the top of the base if using the original recipe amount!)
1 tsp Garlic & Ginger Paste
1 tsp Mix Powder (you could also get away with up to 1 tbsp in this base)
1 level tsp Methi crumbled fine
1 tbsp Tomato Paste (1 pt tomato puree 2 pts water)
2 tsp Extra Hot Chilli Powder (or to taste)
Pre-Cooked Chicken (I quite like the Glasgow recipe)
Salt
2 ladles Base Gravy
Squirt of Lemon Dressing
1 tbsp Fresh Coriander finely chopped. (1/2 Stirred into the curry two minutes from the end and 1/2 sprinkled on top)
You know the rest! ;)
-
Thank you so much MushroomMike, that's great - yes I did like the Taz base when I used it before but will try your suggestion of using less oil...
-
My experience in regards to "brown or orange" curries is this: concentrated tomato paste (as is called for in most recipes) leaves a dark brown color in the curries. The stuff I get here is very strong concentrate and provides an after-taste that I personally dislike, so I often am using Passata (sieved tomatoes) instead, and these do not have such an impact on the color. So indeed, together with a "light yellowish" base (I use CBM), the curry comes out more with an orange color tone - but still it's more like a light brown rather than orange provided by food coloring. I use orange food color (and red) for my Tikka, so maybe that can have an impact on the color of the dish too.
-
the "other" curry forum
what is the other curry forum?
-
what is the other curry forum?
The Rules of the Forum :
- There is no "other curry forum".
- There is no Rule 2.
:)
** Phil.
-
the "other" curry forum
what is the other curry forum?
Www.bircurries.co.uk.