Something I mentioned in SnS's base thread but I thought I would mention here instead of going off topic.

When I buy a TA curry the containers they come in a hold much more than the 250ml base sauce I am using at the moment, they probably contain around 500ml.

The obvious answer is to use more base per portion, however does this mean if I am using a recipe saying 250ml of base and I want it to be 500ml for a bigger portion, I should theoretically double all the spice ingredients to?

Out of interest how much approx are you guys using in your curry's?  Say a Madras for arguments sake?

Cheers

Del

i am using 5 ladels of base per portion. i always stick to this amount, and use 1 rounded tsp of dd spice mix per curry, and 1 tsp of chilly powder per curry. these measurements are spot on every time (for my taste buds!). i use exactly the same measurements for every curry. but vary the amounts of things like garlic, methi, coriander, etc. this way, its easy to build up a picture of what quantities work best for eg a madras v's a jalfrezzi. jalfrezzi has lots more garlic for example. but i still stick to the rule of 5 ladels of base per dish. its quite saucy!  ;D 

i always use 300ml of base to produce 200ml finished curry sauce. this is 2 off ladles for me with each ladle 150 ml.

so if i was making a 400ml finished sauce i would double all the basic ingredients ie oil, tom puree, spice etc. i actually do this when i make CTM - for example i often make a 12 ladle portion which is a x4 the std recipe (fills the wok  ;D).

i think the TA discrepancy comes from the extra "bulk" (none sauce) ingredients ie the chopped onion, chicken, fresh tomato etc - take these out and you're left with very little sauce - well for me anyhow.

the volume is quite a tricky issue though for me as i feel it depends on quite a lot of variables ie how thin the base is, how much evaporation at cooking, the proportion of onion in the base. i find that i have to work backwards and refine each base after making it for the 1st time. i aim for between 60 & 70% bulk veg in the finished base volume. for me it seems important for the base to be thin yet to contain quite a lot of bulk veg at the same time. i know it sounds a bit of a contradiction but the effect is thin base followed by lots of evaporation at cooking stage produces nice curry consistency.

Quote from: JerryM on December 01, 2008, 07:53 PM
i aim for between 60 & 70% bulk veg in the finished base volume.

Hi Jerry

Can you explain exactly what you mean by this please? The reason I ask is that it is normal practise (from watching malik's videos and other real BIR accounts) to fill the pot to just under, or perhaps just over, the level of the 'bulk' ingredients. In other words, you lob all your onions, garlic, ginger, toms, carrots etc. into the pot and then fill with just enough water to cover.

This to me seems to be a 'golden rule' of BIR curry base making. They all seem to do it this way.

So, shouldn't we be doing the same, even on a smaller scale?

Part of getting to BIR at home is matching what they do, down to the last detail (as best we can). 300 ml of base, plus a takeaway size portion of meat, yields a finished curry that fills a takeaway size container.

If it tastes BIR, then you've done SS's 1-4 correctly

If I need to make more, I get two pans going. Keeping the portion size correct I think is important. A lot of recipes scale poorly.