Curry Recipes Online
Curry Base Recipes => Curry Base Chat => Topic started by: PhilUK on March 09, 2011, 12:59 PM
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I keep wondering why base sauces have to have so much liquid in them-I realise that in a BIR environment, they have the luxury of having a big pot of the stuff on the stove top, and of course they have the turnover so they don't have to freeze the stuff like most of us mere mortals do.
My thinking is that a base sauce for domestic use could be made with a much reduced quantity of water in. This as I see it would the following benefit of taking up far less storage space in freezer.
All you would have to do is thin the base to required thickness using either hot water, or better still veg/chicken stock-In fact a lot of base sauces have quite a thin consistency which has to be reduced in many cases by simmering at the cooking stage-with a thicker base you wouldn't need to reduce.
you could theoretically make a base sauce paste?
Any thoughts on this folks?
Phil
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I think Razor did a post on something similar?
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hi,
Can't see why not, food for thought.
Bon idea
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Here's Ray's thread.
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=5189.0 (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=5189.0)
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Hi Phil,
Here in Australia it is very different, I've been in two restaurants, still in one of them and had a couple of chefs out to my place for some lessons.
None of them use gravies the consistency I see in the vids/recipes on the site. And none of them use just one gravy to make all their dishes either. This could be due to these being restaurants where you dine in and have a small takeaway market compared to pure takeaways perhaps in the UK. Our curry market here is nothing like the UK.
All of them use very thick pastes which water is then added to at the dish making stage. This provides a concentrate gravy/gravies which take less room in the fridge, and for us at home in the freezer.
Stock is not added per se, however the pre-cooked meat(chicken/lamb/beef) when added does have some of the cooking liquid with it, so there is some additional flavor that comes through from that being added.
And being a smaller quantity when defrosting and having less water amount in it, does unfreeze a lot quicker.
Regards,
Mark
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well thanks guys- question answered,looks like the concentrated base has already been done by razor-who seems to have a good reputation on here!
So thats me sorted, slow cooked concentrated base next time-cant wait!
Phil
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Also in Australia, when you mention an Indian Takeaway it's commonly associated with Indian Takeaways found in the food courts of shopping malls. Never had a good curry from a shopping mall. Appears as though it's just huge batches of different curries cooked the traditional way and stored in the fridge. When the shop opens each morning they grab it out of the fridge, microwave it then pour into a large stainless steel dish at the shop front.
Doesn't look the best during lunch time rush when they run out of a particular curry and someone comes out from the kitchen with a just microwaved plastic bucket full of curry and pours it out into the container in the shop front.
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Hi PhilUK,
looks like the concentrated base has already been done by razor-who seems to have a good reputation on here!
Lol, maybe Phil, but only one here ;D ;D ;D
Good luck though, I'd be very interested to know how you get on. It's a little trickier to cook the concentrated base but not too difficult. I think it also makes it a little sweeter too, which for me is a good thing.
Keep us posted Phil, and photo's would be great too.
Ray :)
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None of them use gravies the consistency I see in the vids/recipes on the site. And none of them use just one gravy to make all their dishes either. This could be due to these being restaurants where you dine in and have a small takeaway market compared to pure takeaways perhaps in the UK. Our curry market here is nothing like the UK.
How do you feel the quality compares between the UK and Australia?
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Unfortunately I can't comment on something I haven't tried, not having been to the UK for more then a flight change through Heathrow.
What I have attempted to make from various site recipes and vids is very different to what is served here in Australia.
I can however cook the dishes from the restaurant at home and have it come out the same as in the restaurant. For me, I don't need to try anything else now, very similar to the member who went to the Ashoka and got their recipes and spent time in the kitchen, for him he found what he was after and able to recreate.
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I've had both curries from UK and curry from Oz. I can say they are wildly different Oz curry is what we in the UK would think of as "authentic Indian". Nothing like BIR at all. For obvious reasons (being a Pom) I much prefer BIR.
There're loads of beef curries here too; not a common feature of BIR at all.
A vindaloo here is about just short of madras strength.
Most places seem to use chicken thigh and not breast meat.
Rice is completely different; I couldn't recognise which bowl contained pilau rice...
Lots of fish curries and starters here.
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My experience of Oz take-away was dissapointing to say the least. I spend a few months each year just outside Perth with family and have tried a few. The first thing i noticed was the strange assortment of veg they put in. most BIR's i have had in Leeds tend to be chuncks of meat, onion and gravy with the odd addition or peppers or tomato's depending on where i go, (normaly only have balti or madras) in Oz, anything goes so it would seem, i've had lamb tikka madras with sweetcorn and cubes of potato, the sauces seem to be much thinner and the rice is like non i've tried before. this extends to chinese too, had roast duck with lemon and egg fried rice, the duck dish had lettuce, not chinese but regular iceberg and other veg which appeared to include diced swede and parsnip.
I decided to treat the family to a taste of home with Darth's BIR madras clone which itself caused problems with finding ingredients, who'd have thought methi would be so hard to find? trips to cole's, woolworths and a few local asian stores were fruitless so i ended up have some posted out. secondly the cost of making the base is crazy at the moment. $3 for a few sprigs of corriander, $28per Kg for garlic!! with spices and veg the base cost aroun ?20 to make so i can understand the average price of ?19 for a takeaway but and extra $5 for rice is rude!
Back to the original post, poor aussies are missing out on good currys
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I've had curry in many Australian cities, and a few UK places. They're different, and what you prefer would likely depend on where you're from and what you're used to. I like both styles, and have had good and bad meals in both countries. Sydney for example, has never won me over with their curry, yet I've had great curry in both Melbourne and Brisbane. Gaylord in Soho (London) was great, as was one of the places I went to in Leeds. Brick lane however, has held mixed results for me, with 2 good meals and 1 bad so far. Chutney Mary's in Chelsea was a highlight, as was a place in West Drayton, near Heathrow airport. The main difference can be found right here on this site, in the different base sauces. BIR curries use a soupy base and the final dishes tend more towards a sweeter, less spicy flavour. AIR curries use a concentrated base mix with more spices and onions, and the final dishes reflect that. As I've said elsewhere on this forum, the Vindaloo is a perfect example of the differences between the two. BIR Vindaloo is a hotter version of a Madras, and may only have a small amount of vinegar for the tartness. AIR Vindaloo is very tangy, and as Masala Mark has noted, AIR's use a concentrated base plus Vindaloo paste to give it that flavour.
Both different, and if cooked well, both great IMHO..