Topic: PanPot's Ashoka Curry Base

[Unclebuck]

Original thread here Kindly provided by Panpot

Ingredients:
3 kgs of chopped onions
50 gms Cumin Powder
60 gms  Salt
water to cover the onions
Add 100 gms of Tomato paste
100 gms of the Garlic/Ginger paste
10-20 gms of Chili powder (to taste but he recommended 10 since more can be added when cooking)
15 gms Curry powder
20 gms Turmeric
1 block of Coconut block
250 gms Vegetable margarine (again he uses East End Brand)
250 gms of oil

Method:
Place onions, Cumin Powder, Salt in pot and cover with water and bring to the boil before simmering until onions are soft. make sure the onions don't become dry keep your eye on the water.

Once soft add the remainder of ingredients then blitz with blender and continue to gently simmer for 1 hour

[adriandavidb]

I've just GOT to try this one!!

[joshallen2k]

I'm not sure what vegetable margarine is.

Is it the usual margarine you buy in the supermarket, or something else?

A link would be great.

-- Josh

[Panpot]

Thanks Unclebuck, I appreciate that for many of us some of what I witnessed is new but surely that is why we have always wanted someone to get backstage a d find out what really is going on and if there are secrets we would hopefully find them. The chef felt strongly that both he and I should not waste valuable time and that I should take notes and pay attention. He is a. Award winning highly respected chef with 15 years experience in the top reateraunts in India and many years in working in France furthering his experience. He shared some personal secrets and general ones. I witnessesd everything with regards to the cooking of the base.

The pot was huge and sat on it's own seperate cooker unlike other places where a.smaller pot sits atop the main cooker and he said it was 60 liters. I could see the half of onions simmering in the pot with cumin seeds and it had been gently doing so for 4 hours. He then added the Spices and I witnesssed him open a fresh commercial tub of East End vegatable Margerine not Ghee which as I said is only used for nans I need to go now to catch a taxi
 

[joshallen2k]

Panpot - cumin powder or cumin seeds?
 


Anyone try this base yet?

[Panpot]

Joshallen2k it looked like cumin powder and I assume so because he would always say cumin seed when it was used and just cumin when powder, this is one of the questions I will go back with but I would put my life on it that it was powder. I watched him take a fish slice and dig out of the tub of marg two big scoops about four inch cubed of the stuff and put them in.

I actually didn't taste the base on it's own but did with the uht cream for Korma it was smooth and tasted great but then watched him make the  bhuna and his assistant churn out all kinds of dishes with it. As you would expect they pointed out how the base was the most critical component and they were proud of the versatility of theirs. I watched to and will post photo of of being blitzed with the blender . I will also l
Post a photo of the finished base being used that day with noticably no surface oil. They  did take surface oil off the Bunjarra pot for starting dishes. Given what I have seen elsewhere they didn't use ghee. I will continue to post other recipes on the original thread until Unclebuck advises otherwise. I do hope someone will have a go with this base soon, the earliest I can is next weekend though even then unlikely due to other demands on my time. I see you are in Toronto I was working there last week, it would have been good to have a curry there can you recommend anywhere since I get back from time to time.

[Derek Dansak]

thanks very much panpot. looks great, thanks for making the effort, really appriciated by everyone here at cro. its suprising that no carrot is included in this base, i always thought that was essential for the texture of bir curries. obviously it isn't that important after all.

[Panpot]

Unclebuck, I have just noticed and please forgive me. The recipe should read
 3 kgs of chopped onions
50 gms Cumin Seed,
60 gms  Salt

Place in pot and cover with water and bring to the boil before simmering until onions are soft. make sure the onions don't become dry keep your eye on the water.

Once soft add the remainder of ingredients then blitz with blender and continue to gently simmer for I hour. I hope this makes sense. Do you also want to edit how In have presented the other recipes on the other thread?

I have more to post and will go back for more and maybe the start of this coming week.

[JerryM]

Josh,

in terms of taste seed or powder won't make a huge difference. for a base though it needs to be powder (or ground seed) otherwise the seeds don't blend well and u get a bitty base.

[JerryM]

i've compared the base data with the bases i've made using a "guessed" finished volume of 6L.

it looks very good on paper.

i've made "onion" only base before using CA's development base and it produced a remarkably good result.

the spices are quite low (1.7%) which is encouraging given we're aiming for low spiced dishes.

the "East End vegatable Margerine" is clearly the new feature not seen before.

i can understand the comment on the oil not always rising as the rajver base contains the same coconut block and this always makes oil release more difficult.

the only absence for me personally is the lack of whole spices which i rate highly. clearly they are not essential.