curry

[oldbanger]

Does anyone have any decent recipes for making traditional/restaurant style curries from scratch?

I've already ried the chicken balti and basic sauce recipes from the curry pages web site and wasn't 100% convinced.

[Plotloss]

www.curryfrenzy.com

[Rollin]

Have you tried the lamb curry from Rick Steins food heroes program?

Very nice.

http://www.arax15.dsl.pipex.com/

[Swilly]

Buy this book young skywalker and turn to the darkside !!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Madhur-Jaffreys-Ultimate-C...

[spikeyhead]

There's only one way to get the sauce right.

Fry onions in ghee for four hours.

The meat and spices are down to personal taste.

[Repuker]

spikeyhead said:

There's only one way to get the sauce right.

Fry onions in ghee for four hours.

Grow hair into a beautiful greasy mullet.

Have a broad smile that is innocently disarming and yet feintly unnerving at the same time

Be called Habib.

Stay in the roof of your own house and be very glad to be paid £1.10 per hour.

Do not like shoes.

Have some green chillies stuck behind your ear, like a builder's pen.

Believe vainly in the goodwill of your fellow man.

Cry at cash machines, hoping to one day see your child again.

Love the sight of snow from behind your window. Not to go outside. Oh no.

[Mobile Chicane]

Aye:

Ingredients (makes a curry for 4 with meat / vegetables added)

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 large onions, halved and roughly sliced
Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
4 whole green chillies, or more to taste, finely sliced (Indian ‘finger’ chillies are best, but Thai will do)
8 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 400g tins of tomatoes
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground fenugreek
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
pinch of ground garam masala


Method

Take a heavy based saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. A Le Creuset casserole dish is perfect.
Fry the onion in the oil and butter until translucent, stirring frequently.
Add the ginger, chillies and garlic, and cook for a minute or two longer, still stirring.
Add the tomatoes and stir.
Liquidise the mixture to a fine puree (a hand blender is perfect for this).
Add the cumin, fenugreek, turmeric, cayenne pepper and salt.
Bring to a gentle simmer and simmer with the lid on, on a very low heat for 30 minutes (or in the oven at 150C). Check it occasionally and stir.
The sauce is cooked when the oil rises to the top.
Freeze in batches and add any meat or vegetables later.
Add the pinch of garam masala at the end of cooking the final dish.


NB:

Don’t be tempted to add any extra water - it doesn’t need it.
Don’t be tempted to fry the spices in with the onions, garlic and ginger – they’ll go bitter.
The above quantities will make a curry for 4, but you can double or halve the quantities provided the proportions stay the same.

[leggly]

try the facebook bangladeshi recipie exchange

[Carpie]

Plotloss said:

www.curryfrenzy.com

I was inspired to have a go at cooking, not having really ever done it before, so I made the chicken tikka massala on that site tonight, was very good! Although it wasn't like any tikka masalla I have had.

I couldn't find any ginger puree or creamed coconut in Tesco, so I put in some ginger spice and some coconut milk for the tastes, and then put in some creamed mushrooms to provide the missing bulk. Didn't bother cooking the chicken tikka style either just lobbed it in raw.

Good fun this cooking lark is.

[smiller]

The following is a precis of a "madras" plated up by mrs m a couple of weeks ago. No recipe to work from, she did it from scratch:

2 onions diced
2-3 cloves of garlic (chopped or crushed)
1 inch of fresh ginger grated
400g of meat (lamb / beef / chicken - we had beef)
3 tablespoons of tomato puree
Half teaspoon of cumin
Half teaspoon of coriander
Two fresh chillis (add the seeds of you like spice - we do)
2 heaped teaspoons of garam masala
2 teaspoons of concentrated beef stock (OXO liquid in a bottle)
Half - three quarters of a pint of water
A good tablespoon of creme fraiche
Salt, pepper, and a pinch brown sugar
Fresh coriander

Sweat onions; add garlic & ginger and cook for another minute or so; add meat and fry until brown; add spices (not the chillis) and fry for another 30 seconds; add tomato puree and give a good stir; add enough of the water to make a thick sauce; add beef stock concentrate and chillis, sugar, salt and pepper; leave to simmer for 30 minutes on a low heat; before serving add the creme fraiche and coriander.

Mrs M states that she uses the "some" cooking technique; "some" of this and "some" of that and "about" that much etc etc.

[prand]

From my experimentation, here's what I have developed as a main base to any curry:

Onions (1-2)
Root ginger (about the size of your thumb)
Garlic - 2-3 cloves (same amount roughly as ginger)

Fry all slowly in oil until very soft (4 hours would be good but not really necessary, just make sure it's all nice and soft).

During this frying process I add some turmeric, coriander, cardamom and cumin seeds.

I then buzz this through a blender with a bit of water to make a nice paste.

Then I put some more oil in a pan and fry this mixture till it starts to colour then in go tinned toms, lentils, veggies, meat, coconut, further spices (like Garam Masala), coriander, slices of onion, tamarind etc to make up the curry I'm after.

Job done!

[Polarbert]

Does anyone know how to make the mint yoghurt sauce you get from takeaways and restaurants? Yellow in colour usually. Usually quite runny as well.

[prand]

That yellow stuff is a total sweetened, over-coloured bdisation of what should be straighforward yoghurt and fresh mint mixed together (perhaps mixed with a touch of garlic & cumin/spices).

I make the crap version like so (to go with my home-made onion bhajis):

Some natural youghurt (200ml?)
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric (makes it yellow)
Teaspoon of honey
Teaspoon of chopped dried mint leaves
Add water bit by bit till you get the nice runny consistuency you want

You could also get away with just stirring in some sweetened mint sauce which will pretty much get you the same result, except the result will be green not yellow.

[eightseventhree]

Serves 4

* 1 cup natural yogurt
* 1 teaspoon sugar dissolved in a little warm water
* Quarter teaspoon turmeric
* handful fresh mint leaves finely chopped
* or 1 teaspoon mint from a jar



Method

Add the turmeric to the sweet water and mix well then combine all ingredients together. Serve with poppadoms or tandoori and tikka dishes.

[Bob the Planner]

Made this at the weekend. I've made it a number of times however this weekends version had 5 chillies instead of 2-3. Gave it to a friend who does not like spicy hot food with a tub of yoghurt, rice and marrow curry and it went down very well.

[Alex]

Mobile Chicane said:

Good recipe...

I'd add a big bunch of chopped coriander leaves.

[plasticpig]

All these recipies are missing something. For a curry you need to use curry leaves (or powder if you must).

[bint]

www.spicebox.co.uk

All you need for a good, simple authentic curry.

Oh and a slow cooker helps, but saucepan okay too.

Edited by bint on Tuesday 22 July 15:33

[prand]

Yep - I use them too - keep a bag of currey leaves in the freezer and take a handful out at a time to go in the mix. Same with Fenugreek (methi) leaves too.

I think the answer for a consistent, curry house curry is to develop your "base" curry sauce which in itself is quite bland, and adapt it to whatever you have in the house at any one time, or how the mood takes you.

If I'm putting on a big meal with guests, I'll do one dish with lots of tomato & chilli & curry leaves as a kind of hot masala sauce to go over paneer or fried okra (in the bhaji batter).

I'll do another with added chicken & lentils & tamarind which makes a kind of Dhansak style curry.

I also do a sweeter, Korma/pasanda style adding coconut and cream and some cane sugar. Then I'll cook some veggies (cauliflower, potato, spinach) and add fenugreek leaves & coriander.

Bhajis, yoghurt, poppadams, chappattis, onion & tomato salad & mango Chutney, and my wife's favourite - basmati rice with lemon zest and mustard seeds - and you have a feast!

[Plotloss]

bint said:

www.spicebox.co.uk

All you need for a good, simple authentic curry.

Oh and a slow cooker helps, but saucepan okay too.

Edited by bint on Tuesday 22 July 15:33

Nice little business that, taking cheap spices and selling them at massive margin.