Topic: Another Demo Bengal Cuisine, Brick Lane

[curryqueen]

This was truly an experience I had been waiting for!? Waiter sat us down with poppdums and pickles and a drink.? Ten minutes later we were presented with our chefs whites and were taken downstairs to the kitchen (smaller than I thought it would have been) but nevertheless everything in place and to hand for creating these wonderful curries.? Again the BIG pot of gravy was standing on top of the cooker blipping away, yellow with a red/orange oil floating on the top of it.?

We were being taught by a chef called John, he was Indian despite the name and a very nice guy!? I think Pete had a different chef and was shown a different gravy to what we were shown.

Here goes!
GRAVY

Onions about 2 pounds
1 carrot
1 med potato
1 green pepper
1 green chilli
1 dessertspoon ginger/garlic paste
1/4 pt vegetable oil
2 dessertspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 dessertspoon tomato paste
1/4 pt water
1/4 pt veg ghee

Put all the ingredients above into a pot except curry powder.? Cook until onions, carrots, potato are soft and then add curry powder and cook for another 20 minutes.? Blitz.? ?Put back on heat a simmer for another hour, when the oil will rise to surface.? I was told that if you want more oil so that you can take it off, then put extra in at the beginning.? I would also like to add at this stage that during our demonstration, the chef used the oil from the top of gravy ( he had scooped it out and was using it from a different pot.)? Chef also told us that they do freeze gravy, so that if they run short they only have to dethaw it.? But in general they make it daily.? Right, recipe for prawn vindaloo coming up!

Prawn Vindaloo.

3 tabs oil from top of gravy into a hot pan.? Add half teaspoon chopped garlic and sizzle 20 seconds, then add half teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon tomato paste, 1 dessertspoon curry powder, 3 teaspoons chilli powder and cook on for another 20 to 30 seconds.? At this point add 1 ladle gravy and cook down. Add prawns and another half ladle gravy and cook down to consistency required.? Sprinkle with fresh coriander and voila, you have a vindaloo in about 4 minutes.

Again chefs answer to "what spices are in your spice mix" he replied, "just go into shop and buy curry powder from shelf".? Restaurant light and bright with a contemporary feel.? We were welcomed with open hands.? Chef said that if I need to know anything at all about the lesson to email him and he would get right back. They were all very helpful.

This is one for you all to try over the Easter Hols and I hope you enjoy!

I feel that the missing element from the gravy is the green pepper.? Take a good long smell once you have made it and you'll see.

[grimmo]

excellent stuff. I shall give this a go at the weekend!

did you make the gravy at the lesson or use the pre-made stuff? I'm wondering if cooking for the times given will give that special flavour?

cheers

[curryqueen]

I can't see myself that different times will produce different tastes/flavours or smells.  Yes I did use the gravy already made there and I am quite certain that the pepper gives some extra aroma to the gravy.  It is the ingredients that go into the gravy/curry that determine the flavours I am sure

[pete]

Well done Curryqueen.
Definitely a recipe I shall use.
It's a totally magical experience being there, isn't it?
I'm so glad that you had the curry gravy demonstration too.
I wondered about the pot of oil they used.
He never said to me that it was scooped from the top of the gravy.
Mind you, the chap I had, wasn't too good with his English.
Brilliant.
Thank you.

[George]

We were being taught by a chef called John, he was Indian despite the name and a very nice guy!  I think Pete had a different chef and was shown a different gravy to what we were shown.

Many thanks for reporting on your visit. Re. the gravy / base sauce, the one thing I would expect from a restaurant would be consistency. My own taste supports that from place to place, year to year, even decade to decade.

Pray tell me how they could get any consistency if the base sauce in a single restaurant differs from chef to chef, depending on who makes it that day.

Conspiracy theory: John has one 'private' recipe and that's what you were told about. Pete's chef has a different 'private recipe' and that's what he was told about. And the restaurant's own base sauce remains a secret.

[ghanna]

dear George
you are 100% right about what you said
if another member go there and asked about the curry gravy they will show him a totally different gravy  not like the one they showed to Pete or to the Curry queen.
believe me they will never show the origanal with that very  very nice missing taste.i have my own experience with chefs and their trade secret recipes.
thanks
ghanna

[pete]

GRAVY

Onions about 2 pounds
1 carrot
1 med potato
1 green pepper
1 green chilli
1 dessertspoon ginger/garlic paste
1/4 pt vegetable oil
2 dessertspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 dessertspoon tomato paste
1/4 pt water
1/4 pt veg ghee

Put all the ingredients above into a pot except curry powder.? Cook until onions, carrots, potato are soft and then add curry powder and cook for another 20 minutes.? Blitz.? ?Put back on heat a simmer for another hour, when the oil will rise to surface.? I was told that if you want more oil so that you can take it off, then put extra in at the beginning.? I would also like to add at this stage that during our demonstration, the chef used the oil from the top of gravy ( he had scooped it out and was using it from a different pot.)? Chef also told us that they do freeze gravy, so that if they run short they only have to dethaw it.? But in general they make it daily.? Right, recipe for prawn vindaloo coming up!

It's not that different.
The initial ingredients are the same
Onions,carrots,potato,chilli,garlic ginger puree and green pepper
It does wander off after that though
No almonds , coconut, kashmiri masala, condensed milk

Here is the one I was shown again:-

The Onion Gravy

Ingredients:-

2 large onions sliced
1 green pepper sliced
1 medium potato sliced
3 tablespoons Garlic ginger puree
1 carrot unpeeled chopped
1 cup of vegetable oil
? cup vegetable ghee
1 desertspoon salt
2 desertspoon turmeric
2 desertspoon of Pataks Kashmiri Masala
2 green chillies chopped
2 whole tomatoes from a can
Water equal to half the volume of the above
i.e. if the above comes to half way up the pot, then add a quarter of a pot of water

Boil the above for only ten minutes.
This is until you can see the sliced onion wilting
Now add:-

2 desertspoons of curry powder (rajah)
2 desertspoons of ground almonds
2 desertspoons of coconut powder
2 tablespoons of condensed milk

Cook another five minutes and then blend
The mixture is bright yellow
Add enough hot water to make it very runny
About half it?s volume again
This doesn?t look like your finished oily curry gravy but I was told with more oil, and longer cooking, it would.
As far as the chef was concerned, we had what we wanted.

Perhaps only certain ingredients are vital to create the flavour.
The rest you can just fill in with what is available

[curryqueen]

Dear Grimmo,

Have had demo from another Indian chef and the gravy from Bengal is almost the same.  What they are up to between the 2 chefs I don't know!  When I made Pete's base and used it i found it to be too rich with condensed milk, coconut milk etc.  Try the basic gravy ( which is what they use in restaurant kitchens - low cost which is onions, carrots, pots etc and then you will smell the missing ingredient that is in there!  It is the green peppers I am almost sure.  The gravy from the other chef, used when cooking a curry was spot on too - no mistake!

[Yellow Fingers]

Two questions to the brick lane demo attendees:

Did you actually get to taste compare the base sauce that was in the big pot that they had made and would be used for their own restaurant curries against that which you made yourself?

If I read the posts correctly, no one seems to have done this and it is the most obvious thing to do to get an answer to the secret ingredient question.

Did the recipes you made while at the demo genuinely have the unmistakable missing flavour/aroma/depth that you would recognise in any takeaway bought curry?

I'm firmly of the opinion that their and every other curry house's base sauce contains something which they are not including in their demo, and the "it will get better the longer you cook it" explanation is their way of avoiding the issue. If longer cooking were the answer then Pete, bless him, would have the most flavoursome restaurant like curries in the universe.

And this brings me to conclude, assuming that the above is correct, that the brick lane demos are a waste of money unless you are a complete novice to the art. You are basically getting fleeced as they are not actually demonstrating the real deal.

Those of you that have posted your experiences have done a great job and I don't mean any offence by the foregoing, but until someone stumbles on the ingredient(s) they are leaving out of their base sauce then this is just a circular argument which will just run and run.

The real test would be to cook the same dish at the demo, once with their base sauce and then with the fresh made demo base sauce! I predict one would taste like takeaway curry and the other, well...

[adamski]

Hmmm.

Just thought Id give this one a try, green peppers, carrots, potato, sounds more like a vegetable stew. Hey thats just what it smells
like.

So now I have a large saucepan of thinish yellow liquid.

I changed the recipe by browning the garlic and ginger paste in some of the oil before adding everything else. Also added more water as it looked much to dry and thick.

Still it doesn't smell or look as good as the Gravy posted by Pete, which is about as near to the take-away taste I've got so far.

Infact this one looks like it could never work, maybe that is the missing alchemy.

So my tea tonight (missus is going out so no complaints) will be a prawn vindaloo, think I'll throw in some potato to add a bit of interest.

Fingers crossed.