Chillichap's Recipe - How to Cook Good Quality Curries in 20 Minutes BIR Style (British Indian Restaurant)

Hello!

Let me start by saying I have thirty-five years of experience of trying to cook restaurant-quality Indian food. I say trying, because getting to the point where you can replicate the well-known British Indian Restaurant (B.I.R) dishes that you know and love is a labour of love. Sure, I've made great curries over the years, but things didn't really take off for me until I relaxed and understood the true marriage of garlic, ginger, herbs, and spices. I was also very fortunate to have a best friend who ran an Indian restaurant (which was actually Bangladeshi) and I think his wife eventually took pity on me and my culinary endeavors. She showed me the way with a dhal recipe-which was a secret family recipe (which is in my blog). In hindsight, it all seemed so simple. But cooking really great Indian food is like the golfer's elusive swing. You have to practice and practice until everything becomes second nature. Then you become master of the spices and not the other way around. You know you've cracked it, when you walk into the kitchen and it smells like your favoutire Indian restaurant. You breathe in deeply, savouring the sweet savoury smell of success. What more can you ask in life?

Staple Ingredients

These have to be present in your food cupboard/fridge to stand a chance of making a half-decent curry. 

Onions - these need to be fried until they turn a lovely golden brown

Garlic (I use paste) - I always put twice the garlic to ginger in my curries. If I use fresh garlic, I crush it and finely chop-it takes a little longer to cook out the sharpness and sourness.  

Ginger (I use paste) - paste saves a lot of time and effort. If I use fresh ginger, I peel and grate it.

Hot Chilli Powder - If you don't like the heat, use less powder

Turmeric - has to be fried first to release all of it's lovely flavors and properties

Hot curry powder - read reviews, take your time and find a brand you like. My favourite is Bolst's Hot curry powder. I choose hot, because you end up needing less curry powder in dishes.

Patak's Tandoori paste - I know, it's a surprise, but I've watched enough YouTube videos to see this pop up in recipes time after time. It's a secret ingredient.

Mr Naga Chilli sauce - As above. Half a teaspoon for Madras strength, a full teaspoon for vindaloo (which means I'll probably use two lol)

Creamed coconut - shaved in near the end of cooking - I sometimes use a cheese grater to do this

Whole spices - green cardamoms, cloves, star anise (my favourite), cinnamon stick

Oil-I use coconut oil but ghee is popular

Fresh coriander - I always have a bunch of this - I like putting finely chopped stalks in my sauces

Making a Basic Curry in a wok/heavy pan

Order of cooking                                

Oil till hot

Onions until brown

Add meat, two teaspoons garlic, one teaspoon ginger, one heaped teaspoon Patak's Tandoori paste, one teaspoon of each of the ground spices, and half a teaspoon of the whole spices stir-fried for 1 minute until the meat changes colour. I used to always seal any meat I cooked before putting the spices in the pan, but now, I cook them both shortly after browning the onions-this allows the spices and flavour to get into the meat more and is a game changer.

Add whole green chillis (tops removed) - I score these to release the flavour into the sauce as it cooks. Add more for more heat. I remove these at the end for those people who don't like too much heat, but they have a beautiful sweet pungency.

Tomatoes stirred into mixture. If using tinned, I prefer plum tomatoes, as they are richer in flavour than chopped. You may need to break these down. If using fresh tomatoes, I add these in quarter chunks. If you're looking for more of a tomato flavour, add a tablespoon of tomato puree.

Mr Naga Sauce - half a teaspoon for a nice Madras heat flavour, one whole teaspoon for Vindaloo. There are beautiful flavours in this sauce, but you don't need a lot of it!

Half your coriander finely chopped-this adds a beautiful aromatic pungency

Add a pint of stock  (chicken, lamb, veg -you choose) stirred into the mixture (put enough to make a nice sauce, but too much will make it runny, but you can simmer this down). Simmer until the meat is cooked. Some meat requires marinating first to tenderise it. I often use yoghurt, ginger and garlic paste, turmeric and chilli powder.

Simmer with a lid, stirring occasionally. If the mixture looks too watery, remove the lid for a while and let the sauce reduce. Don't forget to scrape around the edges, as this is where the flavour gathers-this makes a massive difference. If your sauce is still too watery, shake some gravy granules over your sauce to thicken, but do this gradually and sparingly as you don't want to end up with a gloopy mixture.

Add reamed coconut shaved and stir in towards the end. 

20 mins on, the sauce will have reduced and a good sign is that the oil has started to float to the top. Don't forget to keep stirring throughout and not let the food catch on the bottom of the pan, as this will ruin the flavour. Take the biggest piece of meat, wipe away the sauce, and chop it in half to see if it's cooked.

You may want to remove the whole spices (this is easiest achieved near the end of cooking as they mostly float to the top) or at least warn whomever you're serving the dish to that they're there as they can taste bitter and occasionally present a problem to teeth! Serve with freshly chopped coriander and freshly cooked rice-I cook mine while my curry is cooking.

Conclusion

Making good curries is an art, which the more you practice, the better you get (like most things in life). The key factor is not to be afraid and relax. Cooking is meant to be fun and enjoyable. You can experiment with the spices and gradually add or take away spices to find out what you like. In my experience, it's really hard to find a recipe for a curry and produce what it looks like in the accompanying picture. The main thing to remember is to fry your onions, then your spices to release the flavour. Don't let anything burn. If you can, make a batch of my tarka dhal recipe (found in my blog). Adding a couple of tablespoons of the latter, will transform your curries and make them richer and the sauces thicker (like a dhansak). Adding spices later is problematic as they often don't get a chance to cook through.

Thanks for reading

Matt AKA Chillichap