Tell me the curry secret!!?

[MermaidTears]

To ask if anyone out there knows the secret. Or has a husband who works in an Indian restaurant and knows?

We have a curry every single Saturday night, our long running tradition.
We just worked out we spend around 1300 a year on takeaways! 25 every Saturday (roughly)

I have tried every single recipe, every book, every supermarket Fakeaway they never taste like the restaurant ones!

We have been to Goa and the food was heavenly.
There must be a secret ingredient that I don't know? Anyone out there know?

We need to cut back our finances, and tbh what we spend on takeaways could pay for half towards our trip to Goa

Just thought of something else - for chicken tikka, the best spice mix I've found is made by Tongmaster and available from Amazon. You don't need to add yoghurt or anything, just rub the mix into chicken pieces, leave for about 5 mins (it's actually called '5 minute marinade') then bake in the hottest oven you can get until cooked through - all the better if little black bits appear on the edges. Eat as it is, or use it to make the chicken tikka version of any of the Curry Barling Mad etc. recipes (which I still maintain are the closest you're going to get to British Indian Restaurant food - which mostly has Bangladeshi, rather than Indian, roots).

My dh is pakistani and he's taught me to cook amazing curry's. We use lots of ghee, fresh spices and we always fry onions first and then add tomatos and spices to make a nice thick masala before adding meat or veg.

I bought a book a few years back from Amazon called 'the takeaway secret'. It's the best recipe book I've ever bought!
The guy who wrote it spent hours working in the recipes and had managed to recreate many different takeaways. I've tried many of the recipes with great success. Only one I wasn't too impressed with was the doner kebab meat but I tweaked the recipe and it's brilliant. Chicken Korma, tikka masala, sweet and sour, dhansak, cAmericanoronation chicken, spiced onions takeaways - they're all there!

www.amazon.co.uk/Takeaway-Secret-cook-favourite-fast-food/dp/0716022354

Jo pratts bbc food korma is amazing (can't link it sorry)

Also the Indian housewives cookbook couple of quid on Amazon has some great basic recipes

I found a recipe online for a curry that said to use one tin of coconut milk and one tin of tomatoes and that makes a really good curry base. I tend to make it to have with the kids so don't go over board with the spices. Not sure it tastes like takeaway but a good start for a tasty curry.

Have a look at the various curry mixes on Bit Spicy's website we have been using them for years, each packet is enough for a 4 person curry in good portions, just add the meat and extras, make up the basic "secret sauce" in the recipe and perfect Indian, Far Eastern and even a Chinese Curry. We spent a lot of our life in the far east and these are as good as or sometimes even better than some restaurant quality ones. The Kashmiri lamb curry is my favourite but the Sri Lankan chicken and green goan are scrumptious too and lots of super recipes on their site too. www.bitspicy.com

The trick is to mix enough spices for about 12 curries, once you know the ratios, through trial and error you have a lovely matured stock.
I make loads now as my dh follows AIP it's bloody hard finding food he can eat.

Use 'fresh' spices, they go off after a while and can go off on a supermarket shelf. Go to an Indian supermarket to buy them, for really fresh grind your own.

If you are using older spices then use more, the flavour can be very different.

Use some spices whole, a whole cardamon pod will transform rice (and tea if you split it with your thumb nail).

Use ghee.

Start by frying the spices in the ghee before you add anything else, even onion.

Use creamed coconut - yes it looks like a bar of soap but you can add wafer thin slices to adjust flavour.

Well there are curries that don't use ghee at all - mustard oil only and also no onions (yoghurt only). These are from northern mountain regions of india - onions do t grow got miles from there - so an authentic Roganjosh should have no ghee/onion/garlic at all
Madhur Jaffrey and Rick Stein have done pretty authentic recipes. His are better for south and West Indian stuff whilst gets are good for vegetarian North Indian stuff.

Hi all, I'm from India and have always hated the takeaways here. I'm very health conscious and always find them too oily. Also, I'm not able to digest deep fried stuff.

I cook all the food from scratch and make my own coriander and garam masala powder. I've a great recipe for butter chicken (though it doesn't need lots of butter) that my husband said was 'restaurant quality'. I think the problem is we get bogged down by the details, measurements etc. Indian cooking is very much about experimenting.

Would you be happy to share your butter chicken recipe kala? It's my husband's favourite and his birthday is coming up.

here is my recipe, hope someone actually tries it

I don't know much about the measurements, I just always use my gut feeling

-Soak cashews in water for few hours (unsoaked will also do)
-Chop few tomatoes (3-4)
-Cut onions into half, put cashews and onions into blender, make smooth taste

-Now, heat oil/ghee/butter in a pan, low to medium heat
-add cumin, big cardamom and 2-3 bay leaves
-now add chopped tomatoes
-let tomatoes sweat, when they are soft, try to mash with a wooden cooking spoon (might take 4-5 tomatoes)
-now add cashew-onion paste from the blender, rinse container with water so you can get everything left there

-now you add starting spices, salt, turmeric (1/4 small spoon), chill powder (1/4), coriander powder (2-3 spoon), chana masala (1)(you can buy MDH brand online, any other masala powder like butter chicken will also do)
*in this step, you have to use some discretion on how much to add, depending on how many people you are cooking for
-now, mix everything and keep it on low heat while you wait for mixture to cook- you will know it is when the mixture starts sticking to the bottom of the pan and you see small drops of oil on the top of gravy
-now add chicken (can also use turkey) chunks and pieces, add some water since gravy might be too thick
-coat all the chicken pieces with gravy , lower the heat, ,put the lid on and relax, check every 10 minutes
-somewhere in between, add finely chopped garlic (most recipes say add ginger and garlic paste in the beginning, but I don't like to overcook garlic as it loses all healthy qualities, so almost uncooked is good for me)
-chunks will be done in 20 minutes, the ones with bones will take longer

• now when it's cooked, I add home-made garam masala powder and some MDH garam masala, coriander leaves, ginger shreds

*May be I should start a blog with videos
*I can later explain how to make coriander and garam masala powder at home, its very easy, need to do it once every 2-3 months

That's fab-thank you so much kala. I love the idea of ground up cashews in the sauce. I'll let you know how I get on.

@PurpleDaisies - I just did

• its chilly powder, typo -feel free to ask me any questions, I'm really enjoying this

I also want to say that the food sold at Indian restaurants/takeaways in UK and other countries is completely different from what we eat at home. For instance, we never eat naan at home, never. It's not healthy as it's basically white flour and also we don't have tandoors at home to make it. Indian food has a bad reputation but is actually quite healthy or at least what I make is

The one I make normally isn't really a curry and goes well in a wrap with rice. It's Tara or taka talk and a bit like a Pakistani stir fry. I normally use onions, mushrooms, chilli, spinach and paneer cheese, then for ease just one small spoonful of curry paste. Then add cooked rice (sometimes use bag rice)

You can have it as a side as well.

Correction: tawa or taka tak

oh God what's wrong with me , it's chilli powder, not chilly autocorrect sucks

@PurpleDaisies
I've tried yogurt for the sauce but in my experience, it always separates and doesn't seem as creamy. Also, I want to incorporate cashews and other nuts and seeds in my diet, so it works for me. For vegetarian recipes, we can add paneer cubes, peas and/or even other vegetables to this sauce, works perfectly.

This recipe is a bit sweet as cashews are naturally sweet. Later, I can post a recipe for spicy gravies.

Oops, I meant 4-5 minutes, not tomatoes when sweating them , sorry, was in a hurry.

Second the earlier recommendation for this Muslim girl bakes. Step by step recipes with photos and easy to find ingredients. It's my go to for any time I cook a curry!

kala I'm a veggie dhansak kinda girl. Any ideas? Also was hoping to make samosas, but cheat and use the ready to roll filo.

This thread is terrible, I am so so hungry for curry and it over 30 degrees outside!

Another recommendation here for the blog "this Muslim girl bakes" and also "Fatima cooks" made some AMAZING stuff from those two.