Curry houses

la gran siete

What i woul like to know is what they use for thickening agent? I make a lot of curries but the sauce is always runny as there is nothing in the recipes that would thicken them. They do not use flour or cornflour but there is something definitely there. any idea?

shahedz

i am bengali so have been taught by my mum how to cook a curry, we literally use 4-5 onions in each dish and you dice the onions really small so when you stew the curry for a few hours the onions literally dissolve in the sauce thickening it up

Harj

So won't hey let Indians in or do Bengali curry places only want Benglai cooks? Anyway, you can't just train someone to make indian food, you really do have to have a feel for it, an understanding, my mum can spend up to two hours on her chicken curry, I will spend about an hour. It's all about the spices and seasoning.

My wife and I cook alot at home, and like most peope and their food from anywhere in the world  but Britain, we both ate and appreciated and understood the 'culture' of the food.  basically , you can't just train someone to make a curry buy saying "after 5 mins put in the ginger, garlic, then stir and wait ten minutes..etc etc" get my drift?

mjn

yoghurt or coconut milk.

overkill

As shahedz says - onions are the key. Fine cut em' using a blender and it thickens the sauce to a degree that cornflour can't. Unless you add tons of it, and that flavours the sauce. Also, if you don't mind the fat content, creamed coconut adds 'body'.

I use the 'best Balti's' cook book for all my curries.

HMHB

You could also use ground almonds as well as the finely minced onions.

Fred Quimby

First their was Vindaloo,then I tried Bindaloo,then Tindaloo  now Im on Phal.   

The curry eating king of the world,and Ive got underpants to prove it.

HMHB

I've also used the orange lentils which almost disappear into the gravy and effectively thicken it. If you're not looking for an "authentic" chicken madras then this is a tasty alternative

stepneg

I make a lot of restaurant style curry's at home, it's more of an obsession than a hobby, try this web site it's a gold mine of curry info:

http://www.cr0.co.uk/

la gran siete

I use one of the Curry club books and Madhur Jafrey but neither mention loads of onions