Anyone use Curry Sauce? As in, the type you'd get in a fast food joint?

kirk.

Any idea what's wrong with my curry sauce

I'm using curry paste, tin plum tomatoes an onion and fresh cream

It's too sour . I add salt pepper ginger garlic herbs cumin

Sugar_Rush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121540937#Comment_121540937

I used to try making original curry sauce for chips.

For some reason it just doesn't have the same comfort level as premade powder.

That "original" chipper feel to it.

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121540937#Comment_121540937

Could be the tinned tomatoes. Grated fresh tomatoes (on the vine, or plum, not the "salad" ones) does make a difference. Try cooking it low and slow too. You can always add a bit of sugar.

Also, some curry pastes I find a bit bitter, Especially Patak's.

Garibaldi?

Mayflower, Bensons or Goldfish(on the shelf in Tescos or online). I think Goldfish is the best.

Sugar_Rush

Been using the Japanese style without MSG.

For whatever reason it seems to dry up much quicker than regular curry sauce.

It also doesn't taste as good.

.....

When making curry sauce, how much powder to liquid does one use?

And how long does it take for the sauce to thicken up?

Normally a full five minutes or more like corn flower which is basically instant?

........

I normally get a Chinese take out from that open street fryer on Amiens St in Dublin, the place beside Subway, across from Connolly station.

Would that food typically have MSG added?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121540937#Comment_121540937

Prob your tomatoes are shite. Cheap ones are awful acidic and bitter.

Try adding sugar.

or your over/under cooking the paste.

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121526583#Comment_121526583

The only correct answer.

Most Chinese takeaways in Dublin use Goldfish as their main base for their curry sauce, adding other elements as they see fit......e.g. Fragrant River in the North Strand is famous in the area for their curry but it's Goldfish paste plus a load of ginger and garlic mixed in.

Tesco have started selling it recently but Asian supermarkets normally have it cheaper if there's one near you.

McDonnells is crap. Try this and you'll never go back.

There are three or four varieties but there's very, very little between the spicy one, the madras one or the Chinese one. Stay away from the Japanese katsu one though.

Sugar_Rush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121629571#Comment_121629571

Stay away from the Japanese katsu one though.

Why?

I've been using the McDonnells version of this and am not impressed (no MSG though).

.......

Also, this is Curry sauce for chips, right?

Not an actual stir fry or something.

Is Goldfish good for that purpose?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121630849#Comment_121630849

any decent Chinese place does not use curry powder for one thing.

and certainly none of the ones posted here. In fact it’s scarcely likely you’d ever get your hands on catering versions of sauces, they don’t often sell to the public.

They probably use a paste and if it’s a bit more “fancy” they’d make their own.

Sugar_Rush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121630959#Comment_121630959

So this "Goldfish" curry sauce gets your vote then?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121631028#Comment_121631028

meh, I’d just make my own curry paste it’s very easy to do and you can adjust it to suit yourself but if you do not want to then I suppose the above would be worth trying.

I think it’s worth bearing in mind most chippers (not Chinese) use either McDonnels or blenders curry sauce. Thats my experience anyway.

The important thing to bear in mind is how they prepare the sauce may not be so straightforward as mixing water & powder.

For example I can think of a place that cooks off some onions in butter then adds the powder, cooks that for a short while, adds water, blends onions into sauce. Comes out lovely.

Also, try focus less on the brand they’re using and taste the flavours. Close your eyes and eat some sauce and just think to yourself what can you taste there?

If your response is “curry”, then slap yourself on the wrist and do it again. 🤣

Also I’m not joking if you taste curry sauce from your local that you like cold it can help you taste it better.

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121630849#Comment_121630849

It's just not very nice. Katsu curry is basically just sauce with no veg, so if that isn't great then there's no hiding/masking it.

The other Chinese sauces they do are for all things that you'd have curry sauce with. You can have it on chips or make a full blown curry with it. I make one once a week. It's genuinely amazing with everything. A forkful added to a pot of koka noodles to thicken the sauce is just......*chefs kiss*

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121630959#Comment_121630959

Goldfish is a paste, not a a powder. I asked a local takeaway what sauce they used and they told me that this is what they all use. I've been in too many takeaways to count since then where I've spotted a tub or two on the shelf in the background. You can also taste it in certain places when you get used to it.

Honestly, give it a go.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633098#Comment_121633098

Yea I know it is. I am just saying to make it clear as I see sugar rush and some others have suggested various curry powders (mcdonnels etc), but I think you need to look past the brand.

As you said yourself most places are adding a bit of this and that it’s not just paste/powder + water 🤣

Also OP could try half water half stock in his curry efforts. Might improve the flavour and bring them closer to the “takeaway” taste they are looking for.

the beer revolu

"I normally get a Chinese take out from that open street fryer on Amiens St in Dublin, the place beside Subway, across from Connolly station.

Would that food typically have MSG added?"

@Sugar_Rush if you normally get it from there and don't have headaches or palpitations, then it tells you one of two things:

A. They don't use msg

B. They do use msg, suggesting that it isn't msg that gives you these symptoms.

Dial Hard

I watched a BBC documentary a few years back that found that most people who are sensitive to MSG are just as reactive to naturally-occuring glutamate too. So it's not necessarily a case of MSG being this terrible evil of an ingredient just because it's artificial. The study they looked at also found a large amount of confirmation bias in participants, iirc. People expect to feel bad after eating MSG so they're hyper-aware of how they feel afterwards whereas they mightn't make the link to (or even notice) feeling a bit headachy or whatever after eating something that's naturally high in glutamate.

Sugar_Rush

Well that Japanese style sauce is awful, puts me off curry sauce.

https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/en-IE/products/263414246

The Goldfish brand also contains MSG.

Anyone been to that Chinese by Connolly Station? Probability it adds MSG to its dishes?

I've been eating them since covid lockdowns. They don't have that shotgun taste that MSG foods normally have.

But Chinese takeouts are notorious for loading sauces with MSG?

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121635516#Comment_121635516

Possibly, ask the next time.

Rows Grower

Where is the handiest place to buy MSG?

I've never seen it any of the main supermarkets.

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121635803#Comment_121635803

I used to get it on Amazon but they won't ship it since brexit, try the asian shops.

Amazon Germany deliver here but the postage is a bit much. https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0050O7N4C?tag=haggle-web-de-21&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1&language=en_GB

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121635803#Comment_121635803

I get mine from a local Chinese store in Cork City. Cheap as chips. Try an Asian store if you don't have a nearby Chinese one.

Rows Grower

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121635824#Comment_121635824

Took a chance with this one, 5 x 200g packs delivered for 16.49 all in.

https://www.asiamarket.ie/ajinomoto-monosodium-glutamate-msg-200g.html

It might just be the fine tuning in a homemade chinese.

Yeah Right

That Knorr stuff in the yellow container is pretty much salt and MSG mixed together. Aromat or whatever it's called

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121635516#Comment_121635516

I wouldn't be trusting any of those buffet style places, not when there's plenty of deadly Asian restaurants within walking distance. M&L beside BK and the pro cathedral, the Korean place in the Shakespeare, any number of places on Parnell St..... You're really spoiled for choice in D1.

That place looks like a kip.

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121635881#Comment_121635881

Great! (1 kg should last you a while! 😁)

MSG works together with salt, rather than being a substitute for it, so use both. A small touch of Chinese five spice gives that certain something too.

Rows Grower

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121635989#Comment_121635989

On the ball, didn't see your first post until now.

I'll give a couple of satchets away to foodie buddies to try, will deffo try what you said.

It's an ingredient I've always wanted to use, I can do a handy fakeaway chinese or KFC but there's always that addictive chemical bang missing.

the beer revolu

A little off topic but I think msg could be an amazing ingredient in a cocktail rim salt! Msg, salt and a little cirtic acid rim for a margarita, anyone?

Sugar_Rush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121635980#Comment_121635980

True but it's

1) super cheap

2) super quick.

I doubt me asking them if they use MSG is going provide the elucidation I require.

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121636435#Comment_121636435

Particularly as it could be an ingredient in products they use rather than an ingredient they use by itself.

Dave_The_Sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121635881#Comment_121635881

AsiaMarket.ie has always been reliable for me. Occasionally missing some out of stock items, but delivery is solid and fast. As igC said, 1kg, you're set for a good long while.

Great in fried rice, if you're into that. I add it to a LOT of things mind you.