Chinese Curry Sauce Like you get from the Take Away - 3
Chinese Curry Sauce Like you get from the Take Away - 3
Ton Hong via Paul Cimatti
This recipe has been sent by the site user Paul Cimatti. The recipe is from a chef named Ton Hong, who used to work at a Chinese restaurant called 'Hong Shing', in Llandudno.
According to Paul, they used to serve the best Chinese curry sauce in town. The quantity given here will make an awful lot of curry sauce. So, either freeze the extra or divide the quantity of all ingredients by 5. I have worked out the quantities for 50 gm. flour, see in brackets.
Ingredients
1 lb. (500 gm) plain flour. (50 gm)
1 lb. (500 gm) lard or other cooking oil (50 gm)
1/2-3/4 lb (500 to 750 gm) good quality curry powder e.g. Bolsts/Rajah/Vencat/Madras/Natco etc. (50-75 gm)
1 small onion, coarsely chopped (70 gm.)
15-20 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed (2 cloves)
Rind of 1 lemon (1/4 tsp.)
Rind of 1 orange (1/2 tsp.)
1 banana, chopped 1/10th of a banana or a few slices)
10 star anise segmented (1)
5 to 10 plump chillies cut into 1/2 inch pieces (1)
5 Green Cardamom pods cracked (1)
10 Cloves (1)
2-5 tsp. black peppercorns (4-5 peppercorns)
Chilli powder for heat, depends on your preference. (1/4 tsp. or less)
To prepare sauce:
A little sugar (very small amount). Adjust to taste ( A pinch)
1-2 tsp. light Soy sauce, to taste (1/4 tsp.)
1/4 tsp. Mono-sodium glutamate (A pinch of)
Salt to taste
Instructions
Melt the lard and add the flour and curry powder. Stir well. Turn the heat very very low.
Add all the other ingredients and stir well.
Keep the heat very low and continue stirring every 10-15 minutes, for 8 -10 hours, until the Chinese curry powder is dry and has lightened in colour. The smell is fantastic.
Store in an air tight tin and use within two to three weeks.
To use the powder you will need to experiment; add about four ounces powder to 2 pints of water and bring to boil. Add sugar (very small amount), soy sauce, mono-sodium glutamate and salt.
Sieve and pour over cooked meat (Roast chicken, or strips of stir fried beef or pork) and briefly fried onions. Try using rich meat stock instead of water.
Notes
Note from Paul: Proportions vary, that is why no Chinese curry tastes exactly the same. So don't be afraid to experiment. I think that a lot of restaurants use the Massaman or similar curry pastes but they are not as good as the home made version.
I have frozen it and it seems to keep OK.
When I have made this paste in the past, I had it on a very, very low gas and I was told to cook it for 8 to 10 hours. When Ton made it, he made it using 3 lbs. of plain flour and 3 lbs. of lard. He stressed that it had to be cooked on the lowest possible gas setting. If I remember correctly last time I made it, I decided it was ready after only 6 or 7 hours, it is something you learn, but with such a large volume of paste it takes a long time to dry out the fruit peel which is necessary if the paste is to keep. I suppose the paste could be made in smaller volumes and the drying process would be shorter.
