Indian curry gravy, hotel style. This is something new. But something old. Probably really old. And the start of something new. And wonderful. For me. And hopefully for you.
If you like big, bold curries. If you want curries with a lush sauce that makes your mouth dance. Then this might just be the thing you didn’t know you were looking for.
I didn’t know I was looking for it. Until I found out about it. Then I knew I had to have it. And I can’t believe how good it is.
Not your everyday restaurant style curry gravy
This is not how they make curries in restaurants outside India. This is how they do it in India. And it’s incredible.
Want to make curries like you get at your local takeaway? Like they do at every day Indian restaurants around the world.? Then there are many, many recipes on glebekitchen. I call those restaurant style.
This is something different. My guess is this is how they do it at posh restaurants. The best of the best.
I’m just getting started with this. And I’m truly excited. Inspired even. On a mission. This needs to be a thing. My thing. Your thing.
What’s old is new
I have a theory. It’s just a theory. So if you’re going to shoot me down be nice. Or don’t. I can take it. But do try to be constructive at least.
I think this is how it’s been done in India for a million years. Well, maybe not a million. But a very, very long time. It’s closer to traditional technique. But adapted for restaurant style cooking.
Indian restaurant style cooking has it’s roots in the UK. At least the style I write about. Indians came to the UK working on ships back in the day.
Apparently they weren’t fans of life on the open sea. Because once they got to the UK they decided to stay rather than face the voyage home.
They needed work. And a lot of them wound up working in restaurants. Those sailors turned cooks became the architects of what is now mainstream Indian restaurant cooking in the UK.
Mainstream has it’s roots in hotel style
The sailors started with what they knew. That’s only natural. And I’m guessing what they knew was curry gravy – hotel style.
As with all things, it evolved. The thick curry gravy became a thinner version. What’s now called base gravy. They dropped the deep browning of the onions. Because it was easier. Simpler. Less work. And it worked well. Everybody loved it.
It became mainstream. Global. People worked in Indian restaurants in the UK. They migrated around the world. And they took the technique with them. Everywhere.
Except for the mothership. They stuck to their roots. Kept the faith. And somehow nobody is blogging about it. Nothing on YouTube. In English anyway.
Until now. I’m picking up the torch. Because I believe. And like any zealot, I’m hoping I can convince you.
This is curry gravy for bold curries
The nice thing about UK style Indian restaurant cooking is there’s only one curry base. It’s bland by design. One size fits all.
I’m a huge proponent of that. I like to let my curries speak for themselves. One base. Many curries. Easy. Simple. Just like those cooks in the UK figured out..
And I love what you can do with those techniques. Don’t get me wrong. It’s amazing. Seriously amazing. This intro to Indian restaurant curries is a great place to start.
But if you want to take it to the next level? Want to follow me down the rabbit hole? This is how. Curry gravy built for specific curries. Genius.
Not quite bespoke. But not off the rack either. The right tool for the job. How can that not make things better?
This is the bold version. It’s for madras. Garlic chilli chicken. Jalfrezi. Ceylon. For the curries where flavours are applied with a sledge hammer.
It is not for chicken tikka masala. Or korma. Or butter chicken. It is not delicate. That’s a different curry gravy. I’ll get to that. I’m just starting with the version that goes with my favourite curries.
This is a game changer
This is a whole different approach. And right now I’m think I’m probably the only one talking about it. So you are probably thinking this is crazy.
And it is crazy. Crazy good. If you want to push it. If you want to take it to the next level. Then think about trying this. It’s a whole new way of making restaurant style curries.
Except that it’s about as old as the hills. Doesn’t matter though. What matters is this curry gravy makes amazing curries. I’m not saying this way is better. But I am thinking it…
Indian curry gravy – hotel style
Ingredients
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 3 lbs onions chopped – use a food processor
- 2 lbs fresh tomatoes chopped (or substitute plain canned tomatoes)
- 5 green cardamom pods
- 10 black peppercorns
- 3 cloves
- 1 tej patta Indian bay leaf (optional)
- 2 inch cinnamon stick or cassia bark
- 1/4 cup garlic ginger paste
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp kashmiri chili powder
- 1 tbsp cumin powder
- 2 tbsp coriander powder
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 4 green chilies seeded
- handful of cilantro
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- You need a lot of chopped onions for this. Do yourself a favour and use a food processor if you have one. Peel and half the onions. Cut each half into six pieces. Fill your food processor about 2/3 full and pulse around 5-8 times. You should have diced onions. Repeat until you have chopped all the onions.
- As long as your food processor is out use it to chop the tomatoes (if using fresh). Easy.
- Heat the oil in a pot large enough to hold all the ingredients.
- Add the oil and heat over medium heat.
- Once the oil starts to shimmer add the cardamom, black peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon and optional Indian bay leaf.
- Let the spices bubble for about 20 seconds and then add the onions.
- This takes some time and attention. Cook the onions over medium heat. Stir every minute of so. You want them brown. Nice and brown. Not tan. Brown. Think French onion soup. This is going to take you around 30-40 minutes and maybe more. But you are doing it once. For 8 restaurant portions of curry. So it's under 5 minutes a curry. Totally worth it.
- While the onions cook do the rest of your prep. Make sure the tomatoes are chopped. Cut your green chilies in half and seed them (use a spoon).
- Add the turmeric, cumin, coriander and kashmiri chili powder in a bowl. Add about a 1/2 cup of water and stir to make a slurry. You may need to add a bit more water. Doesn't matter.
- Once the onions are this nice creamy brown mess add the garlic ginger paste. Stir to combine and continue to cook for about two minutes.
- Add the powdered spice slurry and the salt. Cook another 3 minutes.
- Add the chopped tomatoes, green chilies and cilantro. Simmer until the tomatoes are broken down. This takes about 10 minutes. The oil may have separated at this point. If it did, do NOT remove it. It's pure flavour.
- Add a cup of water. Puree the hotel style curry gravy, whole spices and all. Yes. Whole spices get pureed. Use a blender. If it's too thick to puree add a bit more water.
- You should now have about 8 cups of magic curry gravy to use in all sorts of curries.
Hi romain looking forward to trying this ,can you tell me how many tinned tomato’s I can use in place of fresh thanks ,look forward to trying your recipes 😋
Two pounds. Which is 32 oz. I’m going to do my next batch with 1 800ml can of tomatoes to see how it goes. Seems a bit of a waste opening a second can for 4 oz of tomatoes…
Hi Romain, have you got an hotel style curry gravy recipe for milder curries?
Sort of. I just published a makhani gravy recipe. I will be using it, in conjunction with this hotel onion gravy to make some of the milder dishes (butter chicken, tikka masala etc).
Just made a batch of this and it’s EXTRAORDINARY all on its own. The commenter above said his wife was licking the pots and I’ve just done exactly that.
I ended up with seven cups exactly. I cooked the onions down really well and I used a 32 oz can of peeled plum tomatoes. Maybe I didn’t cook down the tomatoes enough, but I’m not complaining. The gravy tastes amazing, all seven cups of it.
Going to try the Ceylon curry now, once I’ve made a batch of Sri Lankan curry powder.
Haha. I am delighted you made something that made you like the pot! Fresh Sri Lankan curry powder will be awesome I bet.
Hi.I’ve made this before and it was AMAZING but I can’t for the life of me remember if the weight of onions (3lb) was before or after peeling. Same with the ginger/garlic paste. Is the 6oz before or after peeling? Thanks!
Glad you liked it. Weights are after peeling.
Hi Romain,
Livo from Oz here. I’ve been doing some Hotel style recently and something sprang to mind. On the BIR site there is a group of threads called Aussie IR lessons by a member, Masala Mark, from back in 2010. I made the 3 gravies but unfortunately there was never a full set of recipes posted. It was very good but a bit of a false start.
There is plenty of information about making the full range of hotel gravies but virtually nothing about using them to make dishes. Are you planning to do anything with the other gravies? I just made a crazy good Shahi Chicken Korma from white gravy.
Hi Livo,
I have a red (makhani) gravy coming next week. White gravy is tough for me though as I have a cashew allergy. I’ll work on one based on different nuts so I can test.
I will also be combining gravies in recipes.
A Cashew allergy is nearly as bad as an allergy to crustaceans. My son is allergic to prawn, crab and lobster. Ouch. I see you now have a Makhani gravy up. I’ll take a look and compare to my favourite.
Hi Romain, I made the chicken tikka jalfrezi last week but added around 1 and 3/4 cups of the gravy as didn’t think would be enough sauce. Is that the reason it came out too rich and salty? We like a bit more sauce with it. How can I do that without diluting the flavour?
I haven’t made this with almost double the gravy so I really don’t know what went wrong. The gravy is quite thick to allow for dilution from raw chicken and can be diluted with unsalted chicken stock or water to your desired consistency. I’ve thinned it quite a bit and found the flavours to be well balanced. Maybe try one cup of gravy next time and add a bit more chicken stock?
One thing I have noticed is that bouillon cubes are quite popular in the UK (much more so than Canada). When I say chicken stock I mean liquid chicken stock. Bouillon cubes are mostly salt…
Hi Romain,
You have literally transformed my curry cooking skills and methods. You’ve removed all the frivolous aspects of cooking great curries, making them quick and simple without compromising the authenticity. Your bases are nothing less than a stroke of genius. Please could you do some makhani recipes as I always fail to achieve a good base (red) to this?
I’m delighted you are enjoying the recipes!
You have amazing timing BTW. I took the pictures for the hotel makhani gravy post yesterday and I am doing a butter chicken photoshoot with it tonight. Coming soon!
Thank you so much for your recipes Romain. I’ve only done 2 x ‘restaurant style’ and I’m totally hooked already! Can’t wait to try this ‘hotel style’. Gemma Uk
My pleasure! I’m delighted to hear that you are having fun here:-)
Thanks Romain. Great website. So happy to have discovered this. Finished 1st batch of curry base and blown away by the curries I made. Just m finished 1st batch of this base and I think it will make the overall process quicker and easier. Very excited to get started on the actual curries.
Took me over an hour to Brown the onions too, so will increase heat and use wider pan next time. Bit confused as I only got 4 cups from the recipe??
Thanks. I have only had one other person ever say they got significantly less than 8 cups and it turned out they measured incorrectly. 2 lbs of tomatoes is about 4 cups alone so I’m at a bit of a loss as to how that happened. Maybe a whole lot of evaporation? If you really only have 4 cups I’d dilute it up to 8 cups.
Hi,
I made your hotel Base along with the Bagara Baingan curry. I was extremely pleased with the result. Once question however, I made the garlic and ginger paste and the base sauce calls for 1/4 cup. I don’t use ‘cups’ as measurements so converted this to grams (rather than ml) which landed at 32grams of paste. Is this about right?
Glad you enjoyed it. A cup is 237ml and I would say garlic ginger paste probably has a similar density (roughly) to water. 1/4 cup would be 59ml so 59 grams. Another way to do it is 4 tbsp to a 1/4 cup. As this isn’t baking the error bars are pretty big so I’m sure the end result wasn’t too far off.
Thank you very much for your prompt response.
Hi Richard, if you are UK, do you have any cup-and-saucer type cups? That’s the size. It’s 8 fl oz. You could pick one up in a charity shop. I have an old one that I keep in the rice cupboard for measuring. Easy enough to measure 1/4 cup too.
Brilliant result with this gravy today. Didn’t bother with the food processor as it was only six large onions. They browned beautifully in about the suggested 40 minutes – lots of fond formed through the process requiring the very regular advised stirring to avoid any burning. Gorgeous, thick, and incredibly flavoursome result. I’ve used 1/4 of it tonight with fantastic results, and so have 3/4 left and now in the freezer – which I reckon is better than having money in the bank. Don’t reckon it’ll last long though – I have about as much self discipline as a first-time quilting smoker at the end of day one.
It’s hard to resist a good curry. I’m in the same boat. Glad you liked it.
Hi Romain
If you are going to puree the whole spices at the end of cooking, would it be possible to dry fry them whole, then grind and add them at the start. It would avoid the risk of getting gritty pieces in the gravy?
I have never tried that. I would think that would be exactly the same as added powdered spices up front. A spice grinder will result in considerably finer grind so I think the flavour profile would change as well – but as I said I have not tried it. I have a well used 30 year old blender who’s blades have never been sharpened and have no problem with grit.
There are over 100 comments on this recipe. Lots of chat on Facebook. Nobody is complaining about grit. I think you will be OK!
May I ask why the restaurant style recipes and the hotel recipes are not interchangeable?
The reason I ask is because the restuarant style Jalfrezi and hotel Jalfrezi recipes are identical, except for the omission of tomato paste in the hotel recipe.
Can it not be used with other restaurant style recipes and simply omit the tomato paste due to the tomatoes in the hotel gravy?
I understand that some recipes will not be interchangeable, but surely several them of them can be.
For example, is it not possible to make a tikka masala using the hotel gravy?
You are right – tomato adjustments and underlying spice levels are quite similar generally for the big curries so the ingredient list is the not going to vary a lot between a restaurant jalfrezi and a hotel jalfrezi.
The techniques involved are the key difference. Fry the base vs not fry the gravy. Quantity of gravy called for. Cooking the chicken in the dish directly etc. The hotel gravy has the Maillard flavours built in. You have to fry the restaurant curry base to get that.
For milder curries you could use the hotel gravy if like big, bold tastes like I do. A tikka masala , for example, might or might not work for you. Depends if you are into mild and nuanced or sledgehammer flavours.
Love your recipes,can any of them be converted to Instant Pot.
Regards EddiE
Thank you. I’m not an Instant Pot kind of cook though I’m afraid.
hello again,
never mind i found the salt in the recipe …i must be blind ….just finished and its truly magic gravy…thank you…do you have any possible recipes for shrimp?
I don’t have any explicitly shrimp recipes although I keep meaning to get around to it.
In the meantime I think the hotel style achari, hariyali and maybe the chettinad curries would work nicely. Just slip them in for the last few minutes and simmer until they are barely done. They will keep cooking while you serve. Nothing sadder than overdone shrimp…
Hello,
first time making the gravy…just wondering…where does the salt go…in with the onion to start the caramelizing process? or where? just add it in with the slurry?
thanks
Cheryl
Hi Romain
Used this with restaurant style Jalfrezi, absolutely stunning, the wife and I agreed best curry we have ever had.
Thank you for your amazing recipes.
Just made my third batch!!
Dave
Awesome to hear. You are very welcome.