Curry Recipes Online

Traditional Indian Restaurant Recipes => 'Regional Style Restaurant Recipes' => Topic started by: indianbeg on April 04, 2018, 06:07 AM

Title: Spicier Curry Color
Post by: indianbeg on April 04, 2018, 06:07 AM
I'm looking to copy a masala recipe from a favorite restaurant of mine. However, I've noticed the spicier the dish gets it actually changes colors from a light yellow to fiery red. Does anyone have a clue as to what they might be using to make it spicier? I've attached pictures.
Title: Re: Spicier Curry Color
Post by: london on April 04, 2018, 09:20 AM
Chilli powder.
Title: Re: Spicier Curry Color
Post by: livo on April 04, 2018, 10:42 AM
Perhaps you could name the Restaurant and the dish you are asking about. Maybe you could explain how it is the same dish with different colouration due only to heat variation.  Perhaps you could explain the naming of your photographs.  :-\
Title: Re: Spicier Curry Color
Post by: Peripatetic Phil on April 04, 2018, 11:09 AM
I'm looking to copy a masala recipe from a favorite restaurant of mine. However, I've noticed the spicier the dish gets it actually changes colors from a light yellow to fiery red. Does anyone have a clue as to what they might be using to make it spicier? I've attached pictures.

Almost certainly ground chillies.  As a 16-year-old beginner at curry cooking, I believed that the only spice used was curry powder, and I would regularly search Brick Lane and its environs for the hottest curry powder I could find.  Eventually a kind shop owner explained to me that although there are minor variations in the strength of curry powder, it is actually ground chillies that give a curry real heat, and of course being red, the more chilli that is used, the redder the dish becomes.  But food colouring also plays a part, since tandoori chocken is not very hot yet (at least as served in the UK) it is almost invariably a very saturated red.

** Phil.
Title: Re: Spicier Curry Color
Post by: mickyp on June 21, 2019, 11:42 AM
Thanks for the Laugh Phil, my experience of curry then was curry powder into a pot with beef, pinapple chunks and sultanas, dumped onto a pile of rice, thanks mum.
Title: Re: Spicier Curry Color
Post by: Garp on June 21, 2019, 03:12 PM
Micky, that reminds me of my first curries from the canteen at work. Awful. That and chip-shop curry sauce put me off for ages.
Title: Re: Spicier Curry Color
Post by: mickyp on June 21, 2019, 05:55 PM
Garp its a good reference point to look back to and see how far along the BIR path one has travelled.
Title: Re: Spicier Curry Color
Post by: livo on June 22, 2019, 02:35 AM
My first curries were the Australian 1960's housewife version of either curried sausages or occasionally lamb, but the curry sauce was the same.   Garp, it was and still is surprisingly similar to chip shop curry sauce and I still love the curried sausages made that way.  It isn't Indian by any stretch of the imagination but for me it is real comfort food.  Onions, apple and sultanas but I've never seen pineapple used.  I usually omit the sultanas as my wife isn't keen on them in the dish.   Curried egg sandwiches was basically the only other use of curry powder in our home.

As for spiciness / heat / colour, my wife informs that when she was an exchange student to Sri Lanka her host family would prepare very mild curries for her assuming Western tolerance to heat. Her host father had his own special curries and they were invariably dark brown to black.  The darker they were the hotter / spicier they were.  Red curries weren't a thing.
Title: Re: Spicier Curry Color
Post by: mickyp on June 22, 2019, 07:24 AM
1960
Title: Re: Spicier Curry Color
Post by: Garp on June 22, 2019, 02:43 PM
Always liked the idea of a sausage curry, but BIR style - not that horrible yellow sauce with fruit in it (puke).

Will add it to my bucket list.
Title: Re: Spicier Curry Color
Post by: livo on June 23, 2019, 01:21 AM
It's a simple dish to prepare Garp and it's usually puke yellow. ;)  Blanch some good quality sausages till nearly cooked right through, cut them up into roundels and add them to the curry sauce of your choice to finish cooking. It's that easy and remember that they are so much better the next day. Chipolata Tikka Masala, Madras Pork Sausage, Cumberland Vindaloo or  a Chicken Sausage Korma.   I guess you could even throw some spices into the pre-cook for that real BIR method,

As for the standard 1960's version (the puke I love, ;) Each to their own.) you can modify it more to your liking.  Leave the fruit and sugar out add whatever additional spice you'd like or simply use different curry powders,  I've tried it with many different brands and styles but keep coming back to Clive of India as that's the one my family expect now.  I get in trouble if I vary it.  Keen's Hot is good if you want a bit of warmth to it.  I tried it with "Mixed Powder" but wasn't overly impressed.

Mickyp, you're just that little bit older than me and I don't ever remember seeing the Terrible Ten. Had to google it to see what you were talking about.  Good old Australian TV content.  My favorite as a kid was from over your side.  The Beatles cartoons.