Cooking a curry - how difficult is it?

[Psycho Sonny]

Thanks for the tips. I took the seed out the chillies, but played it safe this time as I can sometimes cry like a little girl with too much spice which ruins the taste. Will defos use 4-5 next time and will try the other additions.

It's all your fault I cooked this tonight, I was going to have a healthy smoothy

i notices you used ginger powder instead of real ginger

if you wanna speed it up next time add, ginger, garlic and onions into a blender or food processor, blend them up, you will get a very thick almost pastey substance, this will be your base or torka as its known, the fresh ginger should improve the flavour, or the mor etraditional way is to finely chop all of those three ingredients so that they almost melt when they are fried, if you cut the ginger too big , you may not like the taste, so i suggest the blender

 

[neologan]

this is it: http://www.tandoorinights.co.uk/index.php

you can tell me your initial thoughts if you want. its the best in my area, so its my only option unless i go for a night out in london.

 

[neologan]

Ads, can you write down this recipe with your added changes from sonny step by step, it looked very nice and i'd like to make it don't miss out a thing!

and then if sonny could refine it fully, we could have a winner here for a quick tasty curry.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

as for changing things within the restaurant

i changed the tennants on tap to cobra on tap about 8 months ago, i had 2 regular customers come in, see that we no longer had tennants on tap and i explained to them why we had changed, they both ordered water and as soon as my back was turned they both legged it out the door, imagine going to an indian restaurant and leaving when we no longer stocked probably the worst lager in the world

honestly now who prefers tennents over, Kingfisher or Cobra

i also have a selection of bottled lagers

ive never tasted a better drink than cobra with lime syrup - pure heaven on a hot day or with my meal after working

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Ads, can you write down this recipe with your added changes from sonny step by step, it looked very nice and i'd like to make it don't miss out a thing!

you can experiment yourself - there is no exact science to it, my chef makes the same traditional curries slightly different each time, but that looks like a nice dish, i prefer my onions more finely chopped though, others prefer them bigger, when i order a chinese (very rare - maybe once in a blue moon) i prefer them to chop up their onions finer because they use chunky onions in their dishes

 

[neologan]

i experiment a lot as i'm still trying to refine my own curry recipe, but i'd like to work off this base recipe and adapt it after trying it out to see how it compares.

like you, i like my onions finely chopped and soft in a curry.

 

[neologan]

as for changing things within the restaurant

i changed the tennants on tap to cobra on tap about 8 months ago, i had 2 regular customers come in, see that we no longer had tennants on tap and i explained to them why we had changed, they both ordered water and as soon as my back was turned they both legged it out the door, imagine going to an indian restaurant and leaving when we no longer stocked probably the worst lager in the world

honestly now who prefers tennents over, Kingfisher or Cobra

i also have a selection of bottled lagers

ive never tasted a better drink than cobra with lime syrup - pure heaven on a hot day or with my meal after working

sounds like you have an extremely tough crowd there. Cobra is a very nice beer with spicey food, and on tap i bets its lovely.

 

[icey_haj]

Sooooooo much flavour and soooo OMNOMNOM. Not as spicy as I would have liked with 2 large chillies, but the flavours were amazing. What a curry 1111

I have the same bowl as you . Also please explain why whenever people have "english curry" they also have rice with it?

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Ads, can you write down this recipe with your added changes from sonny step by step, it looked very nice and i'd like to make it don't miss out a thing!

and then if sonny could refine it fully, we could have a winner here for a quick tasty curry.

after seeing his pics, im gonna take my camera into the restaurant on friday - hopefully there will be enough staff on and the chef isnt too busy, and ill be able to take some pics, step by step of the staff curry, thats only if im not too busy mind, i do have work to do when im there, i just hope i remember to charge the camera as well, its a fairly decent camera - so i hope all the steam in the kitchen doesnt mess it up and the pictures come out fine

also another thing is the heat - if your near the tandoor oven im talking about an oven which is open top at 300 degrees celsius

standind beside it is extremely hot and it singes all the hair of your arms when using the oven, i can only stand beside it for 5-10 seconds before i have to move - this is with industrial fans on top too to suck away the heat and pump fresh air in, you can just imagine how hot the thing is, with 2 fryers right beside it and then 2 full cookers and another oven

 

[pitchfork]

If your local Indian restaurant sells anything like the curry's you get in Jars at Tesco I'd refuse to pay!

I don't cook my curry out of jars *NO PERSONAL ATTACKS*. Those tesco things are disgusting.

I make my currys from scratch. They aren't totally authentic, they're english adapted currys, not as hot, quicker to make, same sort of thing you'd get from a restaurant.
I wouldn't want my pub snack to be boiling away for hours, but I can make a curry for mates quicker than it'd be delivered.

 

[Arjun806]

We always have rice with curry.. hardly ever have a curry without rice lol. It's always plain rice as well.

 

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Ads, can you write down this recipe with your added changes from sonny step by step, it looked very nice and i'd like to make it don't miss out a thing!

taken from deluxe 1 and edited:

Ingredients:

SOME CHIKEN
3 tablespoons vegetable oil / olive oil
1 medium onion - finely chopped
4 cloves garlic - peeled and sliced, and chopped
2 green chillies [use at least 4/5] - de-seeded and veined then chopped


half teaspoon turmeric powder
half teaspoon coriander powder
crushed black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
half teaspoon paprika powder
1/2 can chopped tomatoes [DONT USE THESE 11111]
1 tomato [found it after adding the chopped ones from tin]
Salt
crushed black pepper


1. heat oil in pan till steamy, added chopped onion, garlic and chillies, fry for 2mins then put in bowl.
2. Crush the black pepper and spices [buy the proper spices, i jsut threw together the powderd stuff I had].
3. Fry them in a pan for 1-2mins, then throw in chopped chicken and coat in the spices, cook for 5mins.
4. Add in the onion, chillie, garlic mix, then tomatoes and 100ml water and fry for 30mins until it reduces to a more sticky ketchu consistency.
5. Chuck in some corriander leaves finely chopped near serving time.

ENJOY

With mine I randomly did it tonight, so try to get spices from a proper indian shop. hey will sell you a massive bag and not a silly pot like a supermarket.

that curry is full of flavours, but would benefit from more chillies, plus the chopped tin tomatoes did ruin the flavour a little by detracting from the spices.

Then look at psychos recommendations and try them. It really is easy and tastes amazing, and isn't as unhealthy as you think if you use fresh ingredients.

 

[Deluxe1]

Ive got some dried naga morich chillies to put in mine so should be hot as hell.

 

[tripitaka]

I usually add a touch of turmeric to my rice whilst its cooking to give it a diff colour.

I normally fry up some onion with some mustard seeds and ground cumin, and perhaps a few whole cumin seeds.
Then add the rice, coat in the oil before adding just the right amount of water, a little turmeric, and leaving to gently boil WITHOUT stirring.

Seems to taste OK.

 

[icey_haj]

We always have rice with curry.. hardly ever have a curry without rice lol. It's always plain rice as well.

Do you eat curry everyday? Or most days?

 

[tripitaka]

I like a nice paratha these days.

I tried making Naans once, but didn't come out so good. Think it needs a hotter oven really.

 

[icey_haj]

I like a nice paratha these days.

I tried making Naans once, but didn't come out so good. Think it needs a hotter oven really.

I think you need to invest in a traditional tandoor

 

[PaulStat]

Brown rice is the best , here's what I do for rice

1. Measure out your rice and leave in cold water for a few hours
2. Come back pour of the water and refill/pour water off the rice until the water is a clear colour, this removes most of the starch and stops it being all 'gunky' after it's cooked.
3. Pour some vegetable oil into a pan and heat
4. When hot add the rice, 1 chopped onion + few chopped button mushrooms.
5. Add a teaspoon or two of garam masala and stir into the mix, fry this for a few minutes until the onions turn a nice golden colour.
6. Add the rice mixture to a saucepan of boiling water and boil for 30 mins

Fin

 

[tripitaka]

I think you need to invest in a traditional tandoor

You know what?

I would LOVE a proper pizza oven. That would probably do the job.

Unfortunately I'm renting at the moment, so not really an option.

 

[Haircut]

I like a nice paratha these days.

I tried making Naans once, but didn't come out so good. Think it needs a hotter oven really.

According to Heston Blumenthal the best way to replicate a tandoor at home is to get two pizza stones and put them in a V shape in your oven so that you have two 45 degree surfaces.
Then turn the oven up as hot as it will go and leave for half an hour or so.
You can cook your naan on the angled pizza stone then.

I tried it once and it came out better than my homemade naans have done before, but still not quite as good as one from a restaurant.

I would also love a proper pizza oven though