We'd advise assembling your own curry powders to use in your curry recipes if it is practical. This is exactly how authentic Indian chefs do it. Here's a great secret to getting nice tasting curry. Don't overcook your garlic. At high temperatures, you should be frying garlic paste for no longer than a minute.

I have had the same attitude/discovery regarding other tomato based dishes. use the same base for a cacciatore or a cioppino or a mexican fricasee. To make your curry taste like a takeaway, you will need to adopt a 'BIR' cooking style. This stands for 'British Indian Restaurant'. BIR style generally consists of frying a spice mix in oil specific to a curry, adding meat, then adding base gravy to finish the dish and make it saucy.If you have made onion bhajis, be sure to save the oil that you fried them in. This stuff is like liquid gold when it comes to making a good curry. The oil gets infused with a smoky onion flavour that will take a curry to the next level.

Stuart, thankyou so much. I opted to keep cornflour out and let it reduce and it was fine once blended. Made your vindaloo recipe (without the chilli as I’m a wimp!) and it was probably one of the best currys ive ever had! Hi, thanks for the recipe. I really think it’s worth specifying fenugreek leaves in the ingredients as I made this using ground seeds and only discovered it should have been leaves when casually browsing the comments. Thanks for the recipe. Mine was a tiny bit bitter but I just used dried fenugreek from Asda so not sure whether it was leaves or seeds. Might that be the problem. I’m still going to use it to make a Korma though. It looks very authentic so far.

Simmer for about 15 minutes. As you do this, a froth will rise to the top. This is okay. No need to skim.

hi stuart what type of coconut do you use in the korma desicated or ground ? this seems like a better gravy or easier than i have been making the celery is important too my brother made a large pot just now but he thought bell pepper was scoth bonnet lol looking forward to a firey korma bless him 🙂 korma ,,,base gravy ground almond ,ground coconut ? sugar and cream ,,,what cream do you use cheers rich Just made this last night for future endeavors. My onion-loving wife was drooling over the 8 onions (we used sweet variety) when I was cooking them. Great taste, even by itself. BTW, I assumed you wanted the onions translucent when you said “cooked”. Pre-cooking meat also adds lots of flavours. The meats used in your favourite takeaway curry isn't just simply fried. They tend to be poached in a spicy broth until tender. This makes them really juicy and also infuses them with subtle Indian flavours.Curries cooked in Indian takeaways are cooked in a style that is much more similar to stir fry than a stew (in fact, Jalfrezi literally translates to hot-fry). The key to this is to cook over a really high temperature. If you haven't seen this technique before, I've got you covered. Here's my complete guide to using tomato puree in BIR cooking. 5. Use Your Own Spice Blends Once the veggies have softened, blend well until very smooth. I like to use a hand held blender for this. Can the base sauce be frozen? Almost twenty years ago, at the risk of upsetting my contemporaries, I chose to reveal all in my first book, The Curry Secret - Indian Restaurant Cookery at Home. Many difficulties stand in the way of anyone trying to explore the secrets of Indian restaurant cooking. People buy an Indian cookbook but find that the traditional recipes and methods can be disappointing when they produce a home-cooked taste and not the distinct flavour of restaurant curries. This is not really surprising as the art of restaurant cooking is a very closely kept secret, next to impossible to uncover.

Whilst reading the book you feel that the information just flies by and can often be left wondering "is that it?" when you are confronted with just how relatively easy it can be to produce such food. Of course, many dishes are not a five minute preparation and cook process, but with careful planning and consideration you could have a restaurant quality dish at home in less time than it may take to go out to a takeaway restaurant and return home.Stuart – the BIR gravy is absolutely great. I tried it and my friends thought they were eating a takeaway. I have the second batch simmering now which I keep in the freezer. Saved me a load of money! How much do I owe you? Over a half a million copies of The Curry Secret have been sold since its first publication in 1989 – now, reflecting the great variety of exciting new Indian dishes available in Indian restaurants today, comes this fabulous new follow-up cookbook from Kris Dhillon. A top chef guards his trade secrets closely, knowing that he may become dispensable should the proprietor acquire his skills. A proprietor who is also the chef aims to satisfy his customers, but also keeps his knowledge close to his heart. There is no magic when it comes to making a curry taste sweeter. A teaspoon of sugar will work wonders, but you could also consider adding honey. As with my above suggestion, mango chutney also works really well. Place the ginger and garlic with a drop of the water in a blender and pulverize to a smooth paste. Set aside.