British Indian Restaurants

[merrybaker]

Hello, I’ve eaten food from many British Indian restaurants and takeaways, and I always wonder what gives their curries that special taste that isn’t found in American restaurant curries. The closest I’ve come is Kris Dhillon’s curry sauce base seasoned differently for each curry, but there’s still something missing. This is driving me crazy!

Does anyone have an answer, or at least a clue? Is chicken stock added to either the curry base sauce or to the actual curries? Is oil skimmed off the curries and added back to the base sauce? Is monosodium glutamate added? If the oil in the pan catches on fire -- does that add that special flavor? Is the base sauce left out to ferment? Is there something else I haven’t thought of? Something complex -- something simple?

Has anyone else noticed this? I’d appreciate any info or ideas. I’ll still go to restaurants and takeaways when I’m in Britain, but I really miss that taste when I’m at home.

-Mary

[Sleepy_Dragon]

I've yet to visit the UK, but can suggest a book that might shed light on the matter:

The Modern Indian Restaurant Cookbook, by Pat Chapman.

He documented the inner workings of a slew of British "curry houses", and his book sheds light on the recipes for the base sauces, stocks and masalas, along with restaurant style dishes.

Pat

Edited April 11, 2005 by Sleepy_Dragon (log)

[Grub]

I don't have any answers on that one, but just want to say that I completely agree... Indian restaurants in Britain (and Ireland) have a taste that I've never managed to find in any Indian restaurant in the US. I'm just SO glad to hear someone else express this opinion, because I had started to suspect that I was just imagining this.

The sad bit about this is that I've tried to cook Indian foods from books that I'd consider both low-end, pop-culture genre, and high-end authentic stuff, and I've come to realize that the British variety of Indian curries aren't necessarily authentic Indian food (rather obvious in retrospect, I guess).

[merrybaker]

Grub, I had the same experience with cookbooks. I realized I don't want authentic -- I want restaurant-tasting dishes!

Sleepy_Dragon, thanks, I'll look into that book. I have another Pat Chapman book, and some of the recipes are okay, and some aren't. They involve so much prep work, making all kinds of spice mixes, and then mixing the mixes. I can't believe the restaurants do all that.

-Mary

[SuzySushi]

Let me start out by saying that I don't remember ever eating curry on my trips to the UK (although I had to try the "haggis pakoras" in a trendy pub in Glasgow, Scotland)... but a similar question I've often answered for readers of a newsletter I do is "What gives Chinese foods that 'Chinese restaurant taste'?"

My answer to the latter question is: it's the temperature of the wok (restaurant stoves heat MUCH hotter than those in typical home kitchens) plus the type of oil used (peanut). The closest way to replicate that flavor at home, I've found, is to stir-fry some scallion greens till almost burnt while stir-frying the garlic & ginger. Another "secret ingredient" in Chinese restaurant food is a dash of oyster sauce, even in dishes that are not described as being sauced with oyster sauce.

The temperature & type of oil used may have a lot to do with the "Indian restaurant taste" you're seeking.

[merrybaker]

The closest way to replicate that flavor at home, I've found, is to stir-fry some scallion greens till almost burnt while stir-frying the garlic & ginger.

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I always save the scallion greens to use as garnish on Chinese dishes. Your way sounds more flavorful. Thanks!

[jackal10]

Extensively discussed in http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=65832

Conclusion its the onion based basic sauce, and maybe fenugreek.

Incidently fenugreek (Methi) is pharmacologically active, and in large quantities stimulates lactation

[merrybaker]

Extensively discussed in http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=65832

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Thanks jackal10. I started that thread, too, because I didn't know if most people read both forums. I guess you do!

[touaregsand]

I've had a lot of Indian food in LA and a little bit in London. I didn't notice a special "British flavor."

The one Indian cookbook I have recommends onion based sauces. I don't have the book anymore. But I have vivid memories of cooking down loads of onions when I was cooking from the book years ago.

[merrybaker]

But I have vivid memories of cooking down loads of onions when I was cooking from the book years ago.

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In this topic Jackal10 posted a recipe for an oniony curry base that sounds like the one you remember.

[Jay Francis]

Years ago in an issue of The Curry Club magazine, Pat Chapman et al concluded that Indian restaurants prepare food on the assembly line and start with a large kettle of boiled onions, water and oil, that is then pureed to have a ready to use base for all British style curries.