Topic: Who believes there is a secret ingredient to the curry base?

[Ashes]

Tell you what Mark, give me your great cooker and il give you my Curry Secret for free 

[pete]

Hi Pete, do you mean you used raw chicken and some chicken jelly? Also where do you stand now on the chicken stock in the base question, do you think the restaurants do this?

I just used raw chicken
The jelly takes so long to make
And yes,I do think some curry houses do this

A pinch of ground coriander and ground cummin near the end
That's new, why did you do it this way?

I have seen this done in two restaurant kitchens
A couple of minutes before the end of cooking, they add half a tespoon of a coriander/cummin mix
You can buy this prepacked
I'm not sure if it's made by Rajah or East End

 it did smell exactly like restaurants produce

Usually i use the balti recipe

The only test for this aroma is to have a bought restaurant curry to compare with
It's very deceptive
It was last week that I realised the "gap" in my results
I had frozen my curries and also a restaurant one
A sniff from each carton crushed me
A massive difference

The balti recipe does the precooked onion and peppers
Some of my most successful curries have been doing this
Did you serve the balti in the balti bowls or just on a plate?

[Ashes]

Hi Pete,
if i remember i think i used frozen chicken breasts partially defrosted and if the base sauce
has been reduced enough so as not to be too wet the chicken cooks well
if the sauce is too wet the chicken boils and becomes stringy.

The spices were roasted and then left to cool (sometimes you can use the fridge)
Then they were ground using a spice grinder for about 1.5 - 2 minutes
so they were like dust almost, im sure this helped to create the nice flavour
I might have added dried methi (not sure on that one).

The curry was really good but there was some left over so it went into the fridge
and the day after the smell hit me, very strong complicated spicey smell that
you get in indian restaurants, also i might have added some black pepper corns
as ive tried to replicate a curry i had a while ago at a restaurant and was
facinated by how they got that black pepper taste ( it worked)

Quote from Kris Dhillion?s Curry Secret  (read somewhere that shes a woman)

Restaurants do not generally use spices in their whole form...
They buy them whole and grind small qualities at a time for the
best flavour.....
An electric coffee grinder is ideal.. it grinds them to the fineness required
for restaurant curries.....
the degree of fineness is not particularly important for home curries
but the restaurant chef is meticulous in this requirement
and will test the spices between forefinger and thumb
being on satified when the mixture is perfectly smooth


Also I like balti bowls and have used them for years and years
but my wife always eats her curries with rice and raita
I always eat mine with nans or chappatis
so we either use plates or those metal trays which are
divided into dishes.

[Owen Money]

I don't believe there is a secret ingredient in BIR curries. I think maybe it's like home-made chips don't taste the same as the ones from the Chippy (or at least mine don't). I've also tried to replicate the flavour and aroma of Char Sui (Cantonese Roast Pork) by trying various recipes - which have all turned out well - but not the same as from the takeaway, there's always "something" lacking.
Maybe it is Wok Hay as Nessa suggested. So, for me it's back to the drawing board*, I quite enjoy the experimentation and after all,
if we all knew the "secret" there wouldn't be any need for a wonderful website like this one. I'd just like to thank all those people who post their recipes and suggestions so freely for us all to try.
Cheers, Owen.

* Or should that be back to the Takeaway:-)

[pete]

I just made a curry base but halved the quantities that I usually make
One important thing became apparent
It lacked the depth of flavour and aroma that the full version has
That really makes me wonder again about how scalable these recipes are
The amounts we work in, need to be so precise
There is almost a zero margin of error
Half a teaspoon of spice, in our curry gravies, can make or break it
I am still trying to recreate two brilliant curries I made last year
Consistancy is so very hard

[woodpecker21]

hi guys & girls

rang for takeaway @ Rajver on thursday night and asked to see my vindaloo being cooked ( i last saw my vind being cooked in the same kitchen by a different chef in april which i posted )(although i had no one say they followed the recipes posted....but that another bitter story ) anyway back to thursday night i was told to arrive about 8 o'clock. i was invited into the kitchen and sat on a small stool whilst ....... (sorry guys/ girls that's another posting.) but my reason for posting is that i tasted the base sauce..... i said i tasted the base sauce well it was a bit on the bland side and the funny thing it reminded me of do you know ? you'll never guess.... Kris Dhillons minus the gingery undertone that i found with her sauce. so i do not believe i have said before there is no secret ingredient in the curry base. anyway for the story of my visit to rajver, the techinque, and the recipe for a stonking good hot vindaloo please watch for new posts soon. i will also tell you what i did lastnight with 1/2 microwave tub of watered down Rajver onion gravy(posted). to coin a phrase "oh..... my..... god.....!


regards

gary

[Ashes]

lol great post..
every day in every way we?re getting a little bit closer ;D

[George]

Gary

Thanks for reporting your base sauce tasting. I think this is one of the most persuasive accounts at this forum so far, in that I assume you tasted the base sauce for your curry, and presumably for other customers curries, whilst you were there, with no scope for any cover-up, substitution or anything. It also fits my gut feel that the base sauce must be fairly bland to go with everything from a korma to a phall. Base sauce chapter closed, I would say. Let's move on...

Regards
George

[blade1212]

Gary, have you  had a chance to write up that vindaloo recipe ... sounds interesting

[pete]

Yes Gary Woodpecker,
                               Please write this up as I, and many others, are very keen to read it
I am in the stages of getting the bits and bobs, to make a curry tonight.
I am trying to match what I make,to a bought one
I am using the Kris Dhillon base (made with extra oil which I scoop off for frying with)
I couldn't resist a taste of my base and the takeaway curry
I can definitely say, that Kris's base, is part of the flavour and smell of the bought curry
So I have really gone round in a full circle