Any tips for making a 'takeaway' style Indian curry?

[DaiseForDaise]

Big curry fans and love a dupiaza or rogan josh from our local but its gone so expensive for our large family.

To my shame my own curries come out of a jar.

I bought a load of spices to have a go myself and it was alright. Nicer than a jar I'd say, but still nothing like a 'proper' curry.

Any proper curry chefs about to give me some pointers please?

I think sadly that a key difference is that restaurant curry has a LOT of ghee and salt in it and home cooked usually doesn’t

Curry pastes I use Pataks) are much better than sauces for replicating a takeaway. I usually mix the paste with yogurt or tinned tomatoes and marinade the meat with it, then fry lots of onions for ages till they start to get black spots, then add the meat and sauce and simmer for at least 3 hours. And it always tastes better if you make the day before and then reheat it.

But Indian food can be and is healthy. The food can be tasty without excess oil or salt. And when cooking at home, one can easily achieve that.

Exactly this. DH's best friend made us the best home cooked curry I've ever had following this technique

Just get some food colouring and high salt flavouring. This is the problem!

100% - her Mowgli cookbook is brilliant.

Get your ingredients from an international supermarket rather than Tesco and make sure you read the recipe all the way through before getting started.

Using Ghee will also help with the flavour - it's easy enough to make your own if you don't want to shell out for a massive tub.

You have to make it the day before you eat it. That’s the key!

I KNOW!

I have been making fabulous fragrant, complex curries from scratch under the tuition of my excellent-cook Tamil Indian MIL for decades, and am about to make home made burfi for the weekend as all the bought stuff is full of palm oil etc.

I am simply giving the OP a factual answer about 'takeaway' curries. On the whole.

Hopefully the OP has been encouraged to make her own - but Madhur Jaffrey recipes (for example) do not taste like takeaways!

A shitload of oil. And pilau rice is really easy and improves the whole meal.

This poster has specifically asked for takeaway-style curries, though.

Home made butter chicken is easier than you might think … use thighs not breast!

just don’t use yoghurt as some recipes claim, use cream and a shit ton of butter.
My tip is to Visit an Asian/ international grocer and get frozen parathas, the ones you heat in a frying pan. They are delicious!

I find ghee makes all the difference. And fresh coriander to finish.

Tesco website chicken dopiaza is fab, tastes authentic and is easy

This recipe by Dipna Anand is amazing
www.jamesmartinchef.co.uk/recipes/makhani-chicken/

https://www.youtube.com/@FoodwithChetna

She was on bake off years ago but now does a food channel with lots of Indian dishes.

Following her has improved my curry.

Agree that more ghee than you think is possible helps, as well as cooking those onions until they are dark (takes ages)

Another vote for The Curry Guy.

It sounds like a faff to make the base sauce, and make your own spice mixes, but it's really straight forward, and it makes loads. I freeze it in suitable amounts. I haven't made any all summer as haven't fancied them in the heat wave, but craving some curries now the weather is cooler and more autumnal.

I love the recipes more than take aways as they have the same amazing taste, but you can make them healthier by not putting as much oil in etc

Another vote for the Curry Guy, who learned to cook curry by watching in Indian restaurants. He has a few books and a website. Making enough base sauce to freeze a few batches is key to cutting down the faff. Also I agree with other posters about the onions needing to be cooked long and slow. I used to work next to an Indian restaurant and the first thing they did at about 3pm every day was cook the onions for about an hour. It smelt amazing!

India Express by Rukmini Iyer has some lovely recipes. Curries often need more salt than you think they ought to, sometimes that's what's missing. And you can slice onions and add a bit of oil and microwave for about 3 min to soften them, really cuts down on the frying time

"Serving curry from a jarrr🎼🎼" comes to mind from an episode of come dine with me

The thing about jars of spices is they are also good for cooking other things as well. Coriander, Cumin, chili powder etc are so versatile for other types of cooking (eg they form part of a really good marinade for sticky ribs, and a part of the spice mix for chicken shaorma). And tumeric can be added to things like rice dishes etc. For curry as others have said cook up a big batch of the base gravy. I like to go further and make a base of the different types of sauce and freeze that. So it's effectively home made instant curry sauce.

Aldi do fabulous jars of curry with spices on top and source below

I use curry paste which makes a much nicer curry than the jar of sauce. I use the bbc easy chicken curry recipe but I put a bit more chicken in it than the recipe suggests, add slightly more paste, a few chilli flakes, and cook it longer/slower. I then add spinach and plenty of fresh coriander (not in the recipe)

https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/pistachio-and-yoghurt-chicken-curry/

Google bbc good food goat curry rav ubhi singh recipe

you Don’t have to use goat i use mutton but you can use any red meat I think.

thank me later