Cooking a curry - how difficult is it?

tripitaka said:
Frankly, this makes you sound like a bit of a tool.

Edit:
Perhaps you would like to tell people why they shouldn't try food from other parts of India? What's wrong with it?
I'd be interested to know. I enjoy a lot of South Indian and Sri Lankan food.
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its watery curries, they use a different base, they dont have the same taste, etc

and today most south indian and sri lankan places imitate punjabi restaurants, in fact they even use punjabi words when naming their restaurant to fool people into thinking its the same

im not the only person to have said this in this thread someone else mentioned it too and that person seems to have a lot of experience in the curry world
 
Psycho Sonny said:
its watery curries, they use a different base, they dont have the same taste, etc

and today most south indian and sri lankan places imitate punjabi restaurants, in fact they even use punjabi words when naming their restaurant to fool people into thinking its the same

im not the only person to have said this in this thread someone else mentioned it too and that person seems to have a lot of experience in the curry world
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I find that places round here will quite often have a section of the menu with the usual stuff on it (probably to cater for the English crowd), but they serve plenty of regional dishes too (there is a large South Indian and Sri Lankan population to cater for here) - most of the customers in the places I go are Asian.

Whether these regional dishes are to your taste is a different matter I suppose :)
 
Sometimes you gotta love the "British" curry's just so over the top on spices and flavor :D

I think thats probbably why they are so popular for when you're drunk with your senses dulled.

Still these traditional ones sound nice, know any places round Manchester that are good for them?
 
tripitaka said:
Yep that's right. All the restaurants in Tooting serve the same mass produced rubbish. Obviously you know best, and your restaurant apparently serves the only good curry in the country :rolleyes:
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ive never said my restaurant does, and ive even said i dont agree with most of the stuff served in my restaurant, next time learn to read before writing

i know my stuff when it comes to restaurants and takeaways too

within the next week i will be implementing a new system of cooking the chicken in my restaurant and hopefully it will go well

but all the times ive tried to change something to make it better, people have complained saying they want "crap" buffet style food - obviously this isnt true for everyone but when my staff and myself have had to listen to many complaints when we stopped using food colouring, etc stopped doing a buffet and served fresh food instead

people have gotten used to eating that crap and thats all they want - this means there is only a very small market for proper indian curries and food

ill tell you what i dont agree with - and this goes for 90% of the restaurants in the UK

food colouring - in any food
the use of boiled chicken to make any curry (normally used in chicken korma. bhoona, dopiaza, all the curries with white chicken in it, etc)
the use of the same base for every curry
mass producing anything - everything should be made fresh where appropriate (sometimes you have to mass produce certain items)

the things i do agree with

all tandoori cuisine (bar food colouring, because this is always made fresh)
all nans and chapatis - they are also made fresh
chicken tikka dishes (chicken tikka bhonna, etc because the chicken used isnt boiled)

these lists could go on

like i say i will be implementing a new method for cooking 50% of the curries in my restaurant which the chefs are gonna hate because its gonna be more work for them - but it should improve the taste of these curries by double - i reckon we will be the first restaurant in scotland to implement this method - this is due to my knowledge of workin in and being in several places - where i know the owners
 
As you put it sonny, yeh i suppose "kur-ee" is a better way of saying it. Although it still sounds the same as "curry". I know for a fact that whenever my mom makes kur-ee it takes her close to a whole day to make.
 
icey_haj said:
As you put it sonny, yeh i suppose "kur-ee" is a better way of saying it. Although it still sounds the same as "curry". I know for a fact that whenever my mom makes kur-ee it takes her close to a whole day to make.
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yeah takes my chef about 2-4 hours to make depending on how busy he is and hes using industrial size cookers and machines so in the house it would take double that - and poor mum having to do all that work on her own
 
tripitaka said:
Well that's where you're going wrong - unless you put it in batter and deep fry it the locals will never be happy...
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like i say most of my customers have complained when we have tried to offer them better food, maybe its just scotland? maybe it would work much better in england? probably would since theres a much bigger base of people in england
 
Psycho Sonny said:
like i say most of my customers have complained when we have tried to offer them better food, maybe its just scotland? maybe it would work much better in england? probably would since theres a much bigger base of people in england
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maybe it just tasted bad :p
 
tripitaka said:
Yep that's right. All the restaurants in Tooting serve the same mass produced rubbish. Obviously you know best, and your restaurant apparently serves the only good curry in the country :rolleyes:
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Mirch Massala in Tooting Bec is SO nice. All made fresh i beleive. The place just concentrates on food... you even have to bring your own alcohol etc :p

But the curry there is one of the best i've had.
 
I'm sure his dislike of south indian food is just because of where his family comes from. you will always prefer what youre used to. how many people will swear blind their mum/gran makes the best roast dinner/spag bol or whatever?

Personally though I would generally prefer south indian food compared to the north, but again it may be from spending time with a family in kerala that this just feels "right" to me.
 
heeeed said:
I'm sure his dislike of south indian food is just because of where his family comes from. you will always prefer what youre used to. how many people will swear blind their mum/gran makes the best roast dinner/spag bol or whatever?

Personally though I would generally prefer south indian food compared to the north, but again it may be from spending time with a family in kerala that this just feels "right" to me.
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You can prefer what you're used to without being quite so dismissive of everything else though.
 
I'm going to try this one out tomorrow:

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil or ghee (clarified butter)
1 medium onion - finely chopped
4 cloves garlic - peeled and sliced
1.5 inch piece root ginger - peeled and thinly sliced (it should look about the same volume as the garlic)
(optional) 2 mild fleshy green chillies - de-seeded and veined then chopped
half teaspoon chilli powder
half teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin seed
1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
half teaspoon paprika
5 tablespoons plain passata (smooth, thick, sieved tomatoes, US = purée) or 1 tablespoon concentrated tomato purée (US = paste) mixed with 4 tablespoons water

Method:

Heat the oil in a heavy pan then add the chopped onion and stir for a few minutes with the heat on high.
Add the ginger, garlic and green chilli (if using). Stir for 30 seconds then put the heat down to very low.
Cook for 15 minutes stirring from time to time making sure nothing browns or burns.
Add the chilli, turmeric, cumin, coriander and paprika and cook, still very gently, for a further 5 minutes. Don't burn the spices or the sauce will taste horrid - sprinkle on a few drops of water if you're worried.
Take off the heat and cool a little. Put 4 fl oz cold water in a blender, add the contents of the pan and whizz until very smooth. Add the passata and stir.
Put the puréed mixture back into the pan and cook for 20 - 30 minutes (the longer the better) over very low heat stirring occasionally.
You can add a little hot water if it starts to catch on the pan but the idea is to gently "fry" the sauce which will darken in colour to an orangy brown. The final texture should be something like good tomato ketchup.
 
thank you for the nice recipe!! Now to find a metric converter, you selfish brit with your odd way of measuring things lol!! :p
 
Psycho Sonny said:
SNIP...

also as for attempting to cook one of these yourselves at home, you guys also may not have the correct cooking equipment, the cookers in my kitchen are speccially designed for their needs and to try and cook kur-ee at home would be extremely hard for most of us

you would need a deep fat fryer for a start, which most homes dont have, althought i suppose you could make it without the pakora but it wouldnt taste the same
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I don't know if you're trying to come across as arrogant and intolerant on purpose but having read the whole thread you're cetainly doing a good job.

I appreciate that there are vast numbers of the british public who would turn their nose up at an "authentic" curry in favour of something "mass produced" but more fool them - if chefs can earn good money churning out quick to make "british" curry then who's the idiot? Certainly not the chefs! I'm white and I'm english but having grown up with Indian friends, I have tasted much of the "authentic" cuisine (cooked at home and for special occations) and appreciate the often delicate and complex flavours. However to suggest that no one should attempt to cook a curry at home without the proper equipment is bordering on delusional! Would you suggest that no one play football in the park unless they possess the skills of Cristiano RonaldoI enjoy making a curry....at least trying to make one....but that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate or understand "authentic" cooking. Why are you being so precious about it?

Finally, as other have suggested perhaps the reason your customers complain when you try to change the food is because that's what they expect from your establishment. If you're confident your "authentic" cooking is better, change the menu, sod those who complain, they'll find somewhere else to go and you'll get customers who understand the "authenticity" of your food.............or does it make more sense financially to feed the ignorant masses and that frustrates you? ;)
 
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Deluxe1 said:
I'm going to try this one out tomorrow:

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil or ghee (clarified butter)
1 medium onion - finely chopped
4 cloves garlic - peeled and sliced
1.5 inch piece root ginger - peeled and thinly sliced (it should look about the same volume as the garlic)
(optional) 2 mild fleshy green chillies - de-seeded and veined then chopped
half teaspoon chilli powder
half teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin seed
1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
half teaspoon paprika
5 tablespoons plain passata (smooth, thick, sieved tomatoes, US = purée) or 1 tablespoon concentrated tomato purée (US = paste) mixed with 4 tablespoons water

Method:

Heat the oil in a heavy pan then add the chopped onion and stir for a few minutes with the heat on high.
Add the ginger, garlic and green chilli (if using). Stir for 30 seconds then put the heat down to very low.
Cook for 15 minutes stirring from time to time making sure nothing browns or burns.
Add the chilli, turmeric, cumin, coriander and paprika and cook, still very gently, for a further 5 minutes. Don't burn the spices or the sauce will taste horrid - sprinkle on a few drops of water if you're worried.
Take off the heat and cool a little. Put 4 fl oz cold water in a blender, add the contents of the pan and whizz until very smooth. Add the passata and stir.
Put the puréed mixture back into the pan and cook for 20 - 30 minutes (the longer the better) over very low heat stirring occasionally.
You can add a little hot water if it starts to catch on the pan but the idea is to gently "fry" the sauce which will darken in colour to an orangy brown. The final texture should be something like good tomato ketchup.
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to get a better tase you could use real tomatoes and chop them up, also add some finely chopped up spring onions and fresh coriander near the end, also why de-seed the green chili and then use chilli powder?

keep the seeds in the green chillis and dont use any red chilli powder - it will tase much fresher

also theres a lot of stuff missing - like chicken for a start - some garam masala, salt, haldi, etc
 
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