Topic: Beginner questions for a struggling newbie

[fRAiLtY-]

Hi all,

I'm embarking on cooking curry just like my favorite restaurant. Certainly my local restaurant manages to achieve really rich flavours and really thick gravies with their currys, something which I'm struggling with, and I'm pretty sure it's down to both ingredients and technique.

Currently I'm using Taz Base with Taz Mix Powder, as I've read that it's best to match the powders/spice mixes with their respective bases. Here's a few questions that I'm hoping you guys can answer to get me on the way.

1) What would a restuarant use for "tomato paste". I've read it's probably just puree mixed with water 50/50, so I've been using Asda/Tesco tomato puree (in a squeezy tube) mixed with water, 1tbsp each. Is this acceptable?

2) How do I achieve real richness of flavour, my partner and I regularly go out for indian meals and agree that my attempts, whilst "taste nice" lack real flavour and richness.

3) How much of a difference does ingredient quality make. I'm realistic in the sense that I doubt all restaurants and takeaways purchase the highest quality ingredients, it's just not economically viable. At the same time I doubt they use crap obviously. I've been purchasing my bags of spices, usually "Indus" or TRL (I think) from asian supermarkets near me, is this OK?

4) Any other tips... I've now tried 3 difference bases (Dipuraja, C2G and Taz) and whilst the bases seem "OK" (I don't know how you tell, I followed the methods to the letter) my currys don't taste like a restaurant. I understand it takes time but I've probably done 10-15 currys over a couple of months with little progress seemingly being made.

Cheers!

[goncalo]

Hi Frailty and welcome!

1. Yes, those tubes are fine (though can't vouch for taste/quality) but I heard that the ones that come in small/large tins are/taste better. If you opt for this, then it becomes a lot easier to water it down. Just empty the paste from tin into a container (preferrably an air tight one) and fill the tin with water and empty it in your container.

2. I've used to use taz as my favorite and I noticed that the gravy would be thick by itself, but in a way that wouldn't reduce to a thicker gravy, but instead start to burn/caramelize. I think the reason for those results was adequate watering and blending. Some advice to  improve it: blend it twice, water it 1/2 litre further and sieve it before using.

3. I'm myself wondering the same. As I currently do most of my shopping in cash&carry surfaces, which is where all local restaurants seem to source their ingredients, and I don't find the veggies to be any fresher than, say, LIDL. In fact, I find it's the other way around.

In terms of spices, I think you meant TRS. I've never heard of indus personally, but TRS is fairly known and I've seen the viceroy brasserie use some of TRS products.

4. Try this one. Just be sure to cook the rawness out of those onions. What I generally do is, I use a pressure cooker and have it on the medium flame until it starts to pressure, as soon as the whistle comes up, I lower it to the lowest flame and when the valve goes off, I open the PC and stir things around and then keep the lid half-open (i.e just on top, but not locked) -- if you open early, you may get an explosion of oil/water/veggies -- very dangerous and messy. I had this happen, although only a minor "explosion", sufficient to water the cooker top entirely.

[goncalo]

And by the way, I noticed that my curries improved when I started to get the watering of the paste and base correctly. However, one of the greatest improvements was when I started precooking the chicken. Check this recipe.

[spiceyokooko]

Currently I'm using Taz Base with Taz Mix Powder...

Hello and welcome.

Firstly, the technique of cooking with the Taz base is slightly different to most of the other bases in the sense that this base contains quite a lot of oil with the intention to use this oil to fry the spices in the base by reduction. Rather than start out with oil, fry your g/g paste, tomato puree etc add base and reduce as you would with other bases.

So the first thing you need to check on is that you're cooking with the Taz base in this way. The Taz base is as good as any other and can produce good results but only if you use the correct cooking technique with it.

1) What would a restuarant use for "tomato paste". I've read it's probably just puree mixed with water 50/50, so I've been using Asda/Tesco tomato puree (in a squeezy tube) mixed with water, 1tbsp each. Is this acceptable?

It's hard to answer this question as every restaurant seems to have it's own way of doing things. As a general guide, two to three times dilution for double concentrate tomato puree is about right. 1 tablespoon seems quite high but it depends on what dishes you're cooking, 1 - 2 tsp, diluted by a factor of 2-3 is about right in my opinion for most dishes.

You can also passata (sieved tomatoes) or pureed plum tomatoes in tomato juice as a substitute, some seem to prefer this.

2) How do I achieve real richness of flavour, my partner and I regularly go out for indian meals and agree that my attempts, whilst "taste nice" lack real flavour and richness.

There isn't any one right answer to this as this 'depth of flavour' you refer to can be achieved by a number of elements. Multiple base sauce reductions, addition of marinades/sauces/masala mixes and almost caramelised onions can all add to depth of flavour. you just need to experiment a little and find what adds it for you.

3) How much of a difference does ingredient quality make. I'm realistic in the sense that I doubt all restaurants and takeaways purchase the highest quality ingredients, it's just not economically viable. At the same time I doubt they use crap obviously. I've been purchasing my bags of spices, usually "Indus" or TRL (I think) from asian supermarkets near me, is this OK?

In terms of the flavour you're after I'd say quality doesn't make the slightest bit of difference, spice freshness however is paramount. Most bulk wholesale spice suppliers produce decent products, Rajah, TRS, Natco, Fudco, West end etc all produce decent products.

I suspect your problems are more from technique than ingredient quality.

4) Any other tips... I've now tried 3 difference bases (Dipuraja, C2G and Taz) and whilst the bases seem "OK" (I don't know how you tell, I followed the methods to the letter) my currys don't taste like a restaurant. I understand it takes time but I've probably done 10-15 currys over a couple of months with little progress seemingly being made.

You've just got to practice really and read the forum. All the information you need to produce Indian Restaurant quality dishes is right here on the forum.

[Stephen Lindsay]

Taz base is done in two stages:

Stage 1

heat pan on medium high till hot
200ml base in, it should splutter
add tomato paste, it should splutter
add seasoning and spices, stir in
keep it cooking and reduce right down, and I mean right down till the wayer is evaporated off and you have a thick dry paste
stir periodically and scrape any bits going up the side of your pan back into the base
this is how you get intensity of flavour
reduce till very dry like a thick paste

Stage 2

add pre-cooked chicken
add 200 ml base
reduce till thick
add coriander and serve

[Peripatetic Phil]

heat pan on medium high till hot
200ml base in, it should splutter
add tomato paste, it should splutter

Are you certain of that last statement, Stephen ?  Adding an aqueous puree to 200ml of heated base, even an oil-rich base such as Taz's, seems unlikely to me to result in splutter.  It is not as if the Taz base were purely oleaginous, in which case such spluttering could be expected if it had already reached a high temperature.

** Phil.