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To gain some idea of the heat of these sauces (cookery additives really), 'normal' tobasco sauce is rated with a scoville 'heat' rating of about 1,500, whereas the Mad Dog 357 above has a scoville 'heat' rating of 357,000!!!!
The closed thing that comes close to the rich aroma wafting from your local curry house is, I believe, as lot of people here have already suggested, fengreek leaf. I add ground dried methi leaf to many of my curry dishes, and although it produces results nearly as savory as my local, it is 90% 'there' but not quite!Could it be that as we, as 'chefs', are exposed to the cooking smells, it's never going to taste quite right? I cook a mean Sunday morning 'fry-up', but it always tastes better if someone else has done the cooking!!
I think its interesting that many of the other bases include carrots.Unfortunately, my mother's allergic to carrots, so any base including them wouldn't be a good idea.
I'm looking towards getting an analon wok to do my curries in. Does anyone have experience with the brand?
Well it's funny you should say that because they gave me free popodums and spicy onion raita and another gloopy thing also, so I think they actually tried quite hard. I've since googled the restaurant and it gets slated by pretty much everyone, so I think it is just really, really bad.
I think fundamentally, my findings suggest that the likelihood of getting into the kitchen varies in inverse proportion to how much alcohol you consume.
Great post SnS,General:Do they use stock? If so, what type and in what?What does he ascribe that "BIR taste and smell" to? At what stage is it developed?How important does he think high heat is in developing the taste and smell?Does he think the "taste and smell" can be reproduced at home? If not, why not?What type oil do they use? Do they use "reclaimed" oil? If so, from where?Do they use ghee (butter or vegetable)? If so, for what?Do they use a "curry powder" or "spice mix" (or similar)? If so, for what?What other masalas and pastes do they use (e.g. tikka, korma, etc)?Do they use commercial blends of spices and pastes (e.g Pataks)? If so, which and for what?What types of pots and pans do they use?Do they use MSG? If so, in what?Would he like to help us on this forum or know of someone who can?Would he like to help us with our project to replicate BIR curries at home or know of someone who can? (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2187.0)Curry Base:How much oil, and of what type, do they use in the curry base?Do they salvage the oil from the base (or deep fat fryer?) and use it elsewhere?Do they fry the onions or just boil them?How do they get the bitterness out of the onions?What's the overall cooking time for what quanity of curry base?Do they use high heat to cook the curry base?How do the three curry bases differ? Where is each used?I'll add questions to the list as I think of them....
I hope you know how lucky you are! On a more serious note, would you say that the restaurant curries have the "taste" and the "smell"? I ask because I think I stand a good chance at getting some kind of demo at The Balaka, St Andrews. It won Pat C's best 2001 but although the food is great it's aimed at the high end market and isn't in keeping with classic British back street takeout. I would prefer somewhere more classic as that's the flavour I'm out to match.It's intresting that they use the three bases, as I seem to remember the same in that restaurant Gordon Ramsay sorted out on Hell's Kitchen. Can you please try and find out what that's all about?
