Cooking Indian Food with Curry Lounge

Having opened the first Curry Lounge in Nottingham over two years ago, the restaurant has become a highly popular venue with diners visiting from all over the country since its famous appearance on Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares series in 2007.

Being one of the UK's most talked about Indian restaurants, the Curry Lounge has now become a Toptable diner's favourite - voted by the Toptable Top 100 Dining Awards 2009 as one of the top 10 restaurants in the UK that offers the best value meals.

Promising traditional, home-cooked Indian and Punjabi cuisine freshly cooked to order, here, Raz, owner of the Curry Lounge, explains how he and his chefs achieve that much sought-after authentic taste, so that readers can try cooking their favourite dishes at home.

Recognising authentic dishes

When we take a look at Western versions of Indian dishes, they seem to be very different. Originally, this most likely started in the days of the Raj when travellers returned from India and missed the food. Curries were thus developed to suit milder Western palates, and over the last 50 years, Indian cuisine has become more readily available.

It won't surprise you that well-known dishes that Brits expect to see on an Indian menu, have actually been invented for the Western market. However, some dishes on restaurant menus may have been reduced in spice, heat and flavour, and may not even be cooked like an authentic curry.

Keen restaurant visitors can recognise authentic dishes by the flavours that are present. Often, spices are not tempered enough, but the smell of an authentic curry should be deeper and livelier. On average, a home-cooked curry will have in excess of 14 herbs and spices! Milder curries should not just consist of cream or yoghurt, but have plenty of flavour without the heat.

Bright red, orange and even yellow curries are not always real as some restaurants and ready-meal suppliers simply add food colouring or pre-made paste! All curries have a stock-base of onion, so varying the content and cooking times will give you a different coloured curry. Using fresh red peppers in the sauce will give a natural red colour rather than using artificial colours.

Creating a good curry

Making an authentic home-cooked curry is really down to preparation and the use of quality produce. Time spent marinating (for at least 24 hours), tempering different spices and using slow-cooking methods really help the aromas and natural flavours of the ingredients deepen.

Curry leaves, bay leaves and papaya can naturally start the meat tendering process, whilst black cardamon, saffron, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace and star anise are all excellent ingredients to achieve that fantastic aromatic flavour and smell.

Sourcing such ingredients can be easily found locally if you want to cook at home. We tend to use organic spices such as turmeric from Pakistan, pepper from Egypt, peppercorns from Goa, chilli powder from Kashmir for example - all available in the area if you're willing to explore.

A Western curry can be made in 30 minutes, but a traditional curry sauce can take up to two hours, with another few hours cooking the meat at a lower temperature. Basically, the longer you cook a curry, the better it will taste!

Regional cookery makes a difference

Our inspiration and influences at the Curry Lounge are largely based on the North Indian regional dishes from Pakistan and Kashmir, with input from chef icons Alfred Prasad and Gordon Ramsay, who helped our cookery brigade start to shape the authentic menus into what they are today. With a little help from my Mum along the way. Gordon Ramsay may have a mouth but my Mum is very scary too!

The main thing that differentiates our menu is that we don't just stick to one region. We take the best dishes that you would find in many eateries across India, Pakistan and Kashmir to give our customers exposure to dishes that they may know by name, but definitely not know by taste. The menu changes with the seasons and have weekend specials to give you a one off dish or two to try.

Most importantly, all of our food is freshly prepared to order using free-range meat, nut and allergy friendly products and lighter cooking oils for a more healthy balanced meal. Each dish has its own taste and is not made from one vat of stock sauce!

We provide customers a wider understanding that Indian and Punjabi food does not just consist of Vindaloo, Balti or Dopiaza. For example, everybody knows the not-so-traditional Chicken Tikka Masala dish, but our version consists of onions, tomatoes and a secret blend of aromatic spices, which is richer in taste, not as sweet and definitely has no sultanas! Probably, one of our best selling dishes.