Curry Recipes Online
Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: ligs on July 13, 2012, 01:15 PM
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hi this is my first time talking on this or any other web site,however i am desperate i have been cooking curry for the best part of 20 years and i am very close to the real bir thing.but there is something missing, i have tried several base sauces and cooked many different currys, for some reason they all have the same distinctive smell and that smell can be picked up in the taste aswell.This is not that smell that you get from your takeaway it is something else. I cooked some base sauce and it is still there. I bought some base sauce from my takeaway and cooked a curry and it is still there what can it be?any help would be greatly apreciated as i dont know what to do next
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Ligs, did you identify if the 'smell' existed in the TA's base before you cooked your curry? If it wasn't then you'll need to look at the components you are using in your cooking methods, to identify it.
PS Welcome to CR0
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Thanks for the reply and welcome axe. No that base only smelt strongly of chichen stock. I had some people smelling it one being a chief but not a curry chief,he said that it could be a commercial stock. was it sabotaged. It reminded me of when I was a kid and mum would cook sunday roast with chicken,you know that jelly that comes from under the skin that.my components for my usual bench mark dopiaza are: chiefs spoon hot oil,teaspoon g&g not my own dilpassand brand,tbsp tom puree 50.50 water tsp methi leaves,flat tbspmix powder(4 trs mild madras curry powder,3 turmeric,3 paprica,3coriander,3 cumin and1east end garam massala).half tsp chilli powder pinch salt cook to a paste. Add pre cooked green pepper and onion.Ladle of base sauce and reduce in alluminium pan.Add fresh corriander(this is frozen as i buy it from rusholm manchester half an hour away ),green chillies from frozen for the same reason ladel base sauce, pre cooked chicken,fresh tomato,base cause reduce fresh corriander.when I cook ctm the smell is not there because the coconut, almond and massala sauce take over mmm,this is really nice
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So if the TA's base didn't have that smell then it has to be something your using in your cooking. Given that you say both your base and and curry as cooked with the TA base, both had this taste, I would look at what ingredients you are using in both your base and your cooking, such G&G Paste, Spices etc.
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Hi Ligs,
I think the only way your going to identify this smell is by eliminating one component at a time and seeing if it disappears.
What oil do you use? Could this be a common denominator? What brand of spices do you use? Are there any spices you may have which may be past their sell or use by date?.... etc etc...
Oh, by the way welcome to the forum :)
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thanks for the welcome 976bar. I use veg oil rapeseed i think, ive got TRS mild madras curry powder other spices are east end and natco just checked my garam massala out of date!it smells good but way out of date other spices in jars so not sure ihave fresh bags of everything so will have a clear out. just made fresh g&g and making a simple base sauce as we speak. common denominators are oil,g&g,mix powder,fresh corriander andsalt, it is low salt.do you know of julian @ curry2go i visited him last week and had a 2 hour conversation he is a realy nice guy, i bought his book and he is going to start master classes,he said if i cant get to the bottom of it he will watch me to try to find out what is wrong
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thanks for the welcome 976bar. I use veg oil rapeseed i think, ive got TRS mild madras curry powder other spices are east end and natco just checked my garam massala out of date!it smells good but way out of date other spices in jars so not sure ihave fresh bags of everything so will have a clear out. just made fresh g&g and making a simple base sauce as we speak. common denominators are oil,g&g,mix powder,fresh corriander andsalt, it is low salt.do you know of julian @ curry2go i visited him last week and had a 2 hour conversation he is a realy nice guy, i bought his book and he is going to start master classes,he said if i cant get to the bottom of it he will watch me to try to find out what is wrong
Hi Ligs,
Yes I am well aware of Julian, but that is for another subject....
It seems you are on the right track and what you have said above, nothing seems to jump out and bite me, so I think it will be a question of having a clear out, making sure your spices are up to date and stored in a cool dark location and not subject to bright sunlight which can taint them, then choose a simple dish like a madras to make which has few spices really compared to a lot of more complex dishes and eliminating one thing at a time. You could make a small batch of madras's with probably around 2 lots of base so you won't be wasting too much, don't add any meat, just make the sauce one at a time and taste.
I also wouldn't do these all at once as we are all aware of our senses being marred while cooking a dish, so just spread it out over a few days and I am sure you will find the problem.
If you need any further help either contact myself or any member on the forum who will be only too happy to help for free :)
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Good advice, just checked the base sauce recipies i have made,and the ingredients in the curry,this narrows down to:g&g,oil,mix powder,fresh corriander andsalt.looking at that i would say g&g and my mix powder most probable causes.thanks for the logical thinking
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Hi Ligs and welcome to the forum. Before i add my two penneth to what Axe and 976 have said can you just confirm that you ended up with this smell when you used your own base AND when you used the purchased TA base??
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yes the end result was the same.since speaking to those guys i have cleared out my curry cupboard of all out of date and unsure spices. made a simple base sauce, my own g&g then a jalfrezi sauce and a madras sauce not BIR standard but that smell has gone.I feel that i can now go forwards and not backwards.I dont think that my wife and kids could take any more sniffing. this has been and still is a life long obsession and passion,will i ever get there.if you can help please do.thank you for the welcome curryhell! sometimes thats where im at
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Hi Ligs,
I'm glad you got it sorted. Can you say which component ultimately, was the cause of the problem?
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Hi Ligs,
I'm glad your heading in the right direction again :)
Next will be to post some of your recipes with pictures :)
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Hi, it was either the g&g or mix powder not had time to narrow any further yet but will soon, and let you know.I will post some recipies soon. Here is a quick one for okra:chef spoon oil, 2 cloves of garlic chopped fry, add 1/2 chopped onion fry, large handful okra chopped in to inch pieces fry,1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp mango powder(amchoor) pinch of chilli powder, stir fry for 5 mins done. the wife loves okra and she enjoyed this
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Hi,
I tried making a BIR base the other day and I had to throw it, the smell was bl**dy awful.
This is what I did Oil in pot, heat add 1 kg onion, fry for 20mins or so to soften, add half green capsicum, one carrot and then hot water to cover. I let that boil away for a good two hours, the onions were sliced and it had 2 tsp salt in it.
Now while it was cooking it smelt pretty good, like a savory soup of sorts.
I then blended it, and that's when it went awful, the smell is not nice and very distinctive. I've had it happen before and I think why I stopped trying to make BIR and stayed with AIR cooking.
The plan was to then do the Zaal thing and fry the spices with and add it in. I had hoped that by doing this and adding the smell would be gone, but it was there as well.
I know some have described a soapy smell/taste as mentioned in KD's book and another Brisbane forum member has mentioned that underlying smell/taste as well.
Is that normal, or should it taste good as it is, I know it's not a curry as yet, but a vegie soup tastes better then the blended sh*te I'd made!
Got me stumped as to what to do different though as it was just veg. I even kept the ginger and garlic out of that stage to do like Zaal as I thought that might have been what caused me grief in earlier attempts.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The AIR cooking style is so much easier then this, but every British person I know raves about BIR food that I am kept interested in trying.
Cheers,
Mark
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Hi Mark
The base is the foundation of the curry and therefore should taste and smell like a very weak version of a curry. The Taz base is a good starting point as it is very forgiving, the Kushi base is also good and lends itself well to the Kushi spice mix with its Balti origins.
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NO spice in the pot.Can only think you may have burnt the onions at the frying stage, put all veg in at the same time and fry on very low gas. also dont add salt until spice stage.hope this helps
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OR
Don't bother frying the onions, just put everything in a pot and boil up as per CA or Chewy's base gravys. I've cooked both quite a few times, and they always smell good (to me anyway) and produce excellent BIR curries.
BTW welcome Ligs. I wouldn't even dare to offer advice to you, as I am new to all of this. 8)
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Thanks for the welcome aussie mick. I think that we are all learning, and pulling in the same direction, will we ever get to the end :-\
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Thanks guys, I shall give that a try today. Onions definitely weren't burnt. We fry 10kg onions till caramelized here in the restaurant for our base gravies and the taste is suburb, this is something completely different.
I'll try the boil all method and see how it goes.
Just thought I'd get your ideas as the topic seemed very apt to what I had just experienced.
Thanks again,
Mark
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Hi Masala Mark
I suggest you try a couple of different varieties of onions as that's the only factor I can see in there that would possibly create the smell you are getting. Make small batches so that you don't waste too much if the smell persists.
After all, as you point out, you're making nothing more than a veg soup and there should be no unpleasant smell.
By the way, if you want to know what a really bad smelling base sauce is like, try the Kris Dhillon base (unaltered from her first book). Now that's a bad smelling base for sure!