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Author Topic: You beauty! I bought a portion of base!!!  (read 42,880 times)

AI Summary
Bobby shared his experience of purchasing a portion of base sauce from a local curry house, which he initially thought was a finished sauce due to its oily and red appearance. After tasting it, he found it bland and lacking in spices, with a noticeable carrot flavor. The community engaged in a discussion about the differences between homemade bases and those from restaurants, with many expressing a desire to replicate the "old-school" flavors of curries from before the 1990s, suggesting that the quality and methods of BIR (British Indian Restaurant) cooking have changed over the years. There was a general consensus that while Bobby's homemade curry was better than the restaurant's, achieving the elusive "perfect" curry remains a challenge.

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Offline Bobby Bhuna

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You beauty! I bought a portion of base!!!
« on: September 25, 2008, 12:30 AM »
So I had a few tins of Stella tonight and thought I'd go for a wander round my new town. I went to "The Curry House" and tried to buuy a portion of base and they were not happy!!! :-\

So, I moved on to the big restaurant, called "The Eastern Pavilion", Corstorphine, Edinburgh. I was buying a lamb madras and rice and threw in the order for a portion of base. They didn't seem happy, but I played the idiot, acting a little drunk and talking about having a book that talks of "special mahal base" and saying I was going to add nutmeg and cinemon sticks.

They were much happier at this point and suggested I add chilli, spices and green chillies and not to ruin the base with adding the things I'd mentioned.

I got home and looked at the base. It looked too red and I thought they'd fobbed me off with a complete sauce. However, it was base. I've taken photos I'll add tmrw. I can taste certain ingredients I'll talk about more tmrw. The Madras was fairly good. I have a big carton of base, which i'll pop in the fridge. We'll get the most out of this! I'm really happy about this progression! ;D
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Offline joshallen2k

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Re: You beauty! I bought a portion of base!!!
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2008, 12:52 AM »
Great job Bobby!  :o

QuoteI was going to add nutmeg and cinemon sticks

Lol! Quick thinking!

Looking forward to the analysis!!

--- Josh
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Offline JerryM

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Re: You beauty! I bought a portion of base!!!
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2008, 07:33 AM »
wow - the big city eh - been once but did not have much time to look round - for me it's one of those places that far exceeds your perception.

wow again - the red colour fills my sails again. this yellow stuff takes a bit getting used to but confirmation that "red" exist?s put's my mind to rest (i've found in practise it does not make much difference to the final dish).
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Online Yousef

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Re: You beauty! I bought a portion of base!!!
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2008, 08:08 AM »
Nice one BB, looking forward to a report and the photos.
How much they charge you for a bit of base?

Stew
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Offline Curry King

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Re: You beauty! I bought a portion of base!!!
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2008, 09:53 AM »
Great stuff, can't wait for the break down of what you think is in it, did you ask them about how they make it?
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Offline Bobby Bhuna

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Re: You beauty! I bought a portion of base!!!
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2008, 10:30 AM »
Quote from: Admin on September 25, 2008, 08:08 AM
How much they charge you for a bit of base?

2.75 I think, it was 10.50 all together. A Madras at 5.50, a pilau rice at 2.25 and the base sauce portion. It came in the rice size carton, not the curry sized one.

As I mentioned before, when I opened it I thought it was a finished sauce, really oily, with a deep red layer. Small bits of fresh corriander that looked pretty well cooked (very dark green and limp) very quite noticable.

I gave it a good stir and went to take a spoonful, expecting the hot sharp Madras taste to come through. Then there was nothing. Just a really subtle, bland, not even salted really, thick oily soup. Extremely faint hints of ground cumin and ground coriander came through but this stuff was way less spiced than any base I have made. It didn't taste of curry atall.

What really surprised me was the blatent taste and texture of carrots. I'm not talking about one or two carrots here, I'm thinking an equal ratio of onion to carrot. Onions don't blend to that same creamy uniform texture that carrots do. I can also say with confidence that there are no green/red peppers in this base. There is garlic in it, not too much but I can't notice ginger. There are also tinned tomatoes, I'm quite sure they're not fresh. My god the oil though!!! I think it's about the equivalent of 500ml (maybe more) per 6 onion base.

I will post the pictures later on today and cook a curry with the base tonight.

Cheers,

BB.
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Offline Bobby Bhuna

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Re: You beauty! I bought a portion of base!!!
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2008, 10:35 AM »
Just to clarify, this takeaway in no way wanted to help me good a good curry. Actually, as I've been told elsewhere as well as at this one, when I said I wanted to make a curry like a takeaway they told me "not possible".

They didn't want to sell me base. Only when I made out to be a crap chef, a little more under the infulence than I actually was and spoke nonsense about adding random whole spices to the sauce would they sell me a portion. All they cared about was the fact that I had just ordered a curry and hadn't paid yet, and was quite firm about wanting a base, and appeared to be no threat. They just waned an easy few quid and probably couldn't see the harm in it.

I will not be having good relations with this restaurant - they don't want to talk about making curry.
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Offline Curry King

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Re: You beauty! I bought a portion of base!!!
« Reply #7 on: September 25, 2008, 11:52 AM »
Thats a shame they didn't want to be more open but its the usual response, at least you managed to get some base.
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Offline SnS

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Re: You beauty! I bought a portion of base!!!
« Reply #8 on: September 25, 2008, 12:25 PM »
Quote from: Bobby Bhuna on September 25, 2008, 10:30 AM
My god the oil though!!! I think it's about the equivalent of 500ml (maybe more) per 6 onion base.

Nice bit of research Bobby.
Interesting that they do not appear to recover oil from the base either .... ?  ;)
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Offline Derek Dansak

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Re: You beauty! I bought a portion of base!!!
« Reply #9 on: September 25, 2008, 12:35 PM »
brilliant purchase Bobby. Bet they gave you a strange look ordering that one!  :) The BIR chef i sometimes chat with, said use some ginger in base, but not enough for customer to notice its there. and he said using a few carrots is good, 2-3 big-uns.
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