The Curry Secret : Indian Restaurant Cookery at Home: Amazon.co.uk: Kris Dhillon: Books

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Product Description

Most chefs guard closely the secret of their basic curry sauce, but in this book, Kris Dhillon reveals all, and offers you the opportunity to reproduce that elusive taste, in your own kitchen. Learn how to create chicken, lamb, fish and vegetable curries of mouth-watering quality as well as a wide variety of other Indian dishes.

From the Publisher

This is the curry book with a difference!

It gives the secret of Indian Restaurant Cooking – not the traditional cuisine practised by Indians at home – but the particularly interesting and distinctive variety that is served in Indian restaurants all over the world.

Kris Dhillon writes with the authority of an accomplished Indian restaurateur, with many years experience and thousands of satisfied customers. Most chefs guard closely the secret of their basic curry sauce, but in this book Kris Dhillon reveals all, and offers you the opportunity to reproduce that elusive taste, in your own kitchen.

Learn how to create chicken, lamb, fish and vegetable curries of mouth-watering quality as well as a wide variety of other Indian dishes.

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Customer Reviews

141 Reviews

5 star:		(98)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (141 customer reviews)

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46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cheap and cheerful, but does not give the secret, this review does !, 11 Jun 2008

By	Patrick Collins "pcollins114" (England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Curry Secret: How to Cook Real Indian Restaurant Meals at Home (Paperback)

If you want to get that basic Indian restaurant flavour then this book helps, but only to an extent. There is slightly more to it. You will get the basic texture correct and to some extent the character of restaurant food from the base gravy recipe in this book. But good restaurants do a little more and great restaurants do rather a lot more. In fact it takes many years of training to become a top Indian food chef.

I don't agree that this book truly gives the "curry secret". And I certainly don't think you have to boil all the ingredients as this book suggests. I have had the pleasure of being invited "back stage" at a couple of Indian restaurants and have joined in the cooking. They laughed when I told them about this book !

The real secret is adding a lot of salt to the onions and garlic paste as they fry. Its not really got anything to do with the spices. You must use a lot of oil and garlic - otherwise it won't work. For a curry base for 4 people you would use 4 shredded onions, at least 8 fat cloves of squashed garlic, fresh ginger puree and at least half a tea cup of vegetable oil and then add a good level teaspoon of salt ! Yes - that is a lot of salt I know. What happens here is that the salt draws out the garlic and onion flavours and that "chemistry" is what gives you the restaurant falvour. This takes about 20 minutes on quite a high heat - stir every thirty seconds, then add blended canned tomatoes, some fresh tomatoes, turmeric, methi powder, chilli, cumin, coriander and cardamom.

Stir in half a cup of natural yoghurt and cook vigorously for another 20 minutes stirring almost all the time adding water so the sauce does not burn. 5 minutes before serving add a teaspoon of garam masala and fresh coriander if you have some. For a creamy finish, blend the whole lot and add an inch of coconut block or coconut cream. Add half a can of tomato soup for Tikka Masala sauce - yes that is what the restaurants do ! And add single cream at the end. Trust me this little addition will work.

In summary it's the way that garlic and to a lesser extent the onions, salt and oil cook that gives that Indian restaurant aroma - not so much the spices. Obviously you would not have a curry without the spices, but they are the easy part - in my humble opinion.

One tip, pour off the excess oil or ghee you use for frying the garlic and onions and save it. Do this each time you make a curry and refrigerate the oil. It will keep fine for a few weeks. Or make your curry sauce two to three days (max) in advance and refrigerate. The aging process improves the flavour and gives more of a restaurant aroma.

A word of warning though as others have pointed out - the basic curry gravy as per this book absolutely stinks your house out and takes several days to get rid of ! Do it outside if you must, but as I say it's a red herring - you don't need to boil the onions, garlic and ginger.

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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Delivers, 9 April 2006

By	A. Branco (Bolton, Lancs United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having read some of the other reviews I ordered this book. On the day of delivery I trotted off and bought (what my husband thought) was every spice imaginable. I then commenced with the basic curry sauce. Having got to the boiled onions, garlic and ginger stage it was a weird green colour. Hearing the comment of "Yeauhhhhh what's that"? and "I'm not eating that" from everyone who walked through the kitchen I had my doubts but I carried on. By Friday night the sauce was complete and in the fridge awaiting our home cooked Indian on Saturday Night. I prepared the chicken as stated in the book and made a Chicken Korma for the kids and a Chicken Dhansak for me and hubby. WOW the kids wolfed theirs down and we really really enjoyed our Dhansak. Both currys were worthy of any restaurant or takeaway. Husband has already put in his order for next week. I can't belive how easy each curry was to put together once you have the basic sauce. This book is a must for anyone who has tried and failed in the past to make a good curry at home and if this is the first curry book you buy, you have bought the best and won't need another one.

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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The proverbial Jewel in the Crown, 2 Jan 2002

By A Customer

This book is "The one"! Invest the time to make the base sauce (tip: carefully follow the instuctions about keeping the saucepan lid on! - alternatively leave the kitchen door open as the smell is aweful!) and then use it to make any of the curries you would find in a typical British curry house - with authentic taste, texture and appearance. I have bought many copies of this book for my friends and family and they in turn have bought copies for theirs. You will impress everyone with your curry cooking skills and become a legend in your own lifetime - seriously! This book is easy to follow and the results are awesome... it is the best bargain on the bookshelf - time for me to buy another copy as my current one is stained yellow and brown and has mangled pages from so much use.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars the curry secret
an excellent book brilliant recipes,so easy to follow even for a total beginner like me,Iam looking forward to impressing my friends-Pat Thompson

Published 7 days ago by A. Thompson And Thompson

5.0 out of 5 stars At last
Since I was 15 I have been searching for the perfect restaurant-style curry recipe. Tonight I cooked my first dish from this book and, twenty eight years on, I've found it... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Dr. Mark Brownrigg

5.0 out of 5 stars Really does taste just like the restaurant Indian
I don't usually bother reviewing books on Amazon, but I have made an exception and made the effort with this book. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Bluebutterfly

5.0 out of 5 stars Do not overlook this amazing book
This is it! No other book is needed if you want the take away menu from your own larder. The Tikka Masalla is almost perfect, just the amount of chilli needs a tweak depending on... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Mr. A. Roberts

2.0 out of 5 stars no pictures
I wish there were pictures to see what Im looking for at the supermarket........or at least what the platters are supposed to look like! Read more

Published 2 months ago by Pauldine France

4.0 out of 5 stars The Curry Secret
This book is excellent to make a Curry just like you get at the Takeaway.

Step by step detailed instructions that are easy to follow and the results are amazing... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Mr. P. Jarvis

3.0 out of 5 stars The Curry Secret
I bought this book because my son has a really dogeared one which he uses all the time and he brought it for me to look at. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Mrs. J. Peters

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll never need to get a curry takeaway again!
I bought this book when I was at Uni way back in 1992. Since then, it's been so well used I'm now thinking about replacing my seriously curry-stained book with a new edition... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Helen Bowen

1.0 out of 5 stars the curry secret
It would be ok for someone starting to cook curies.you want a better book try Vivek Singh or Avjum Anand,Cyrus Todiwala , thier books are axcellent

Published 3 months ago by Richard B. Shaw

3.0 out of 5 stars How Much Oil!
Nice book, but i'm not prepared to use that much oil!! I think the key is to read the book and adapt to your own taste (and health consciousness!)

Published 3 months ago by Mr. G. Taylor

› See all 141 customer reviews...

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The Curry Secret : Indian Restaurant Cookery at Home (Paperback)

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