Quote from: Razor on May 16, 2010, 10:23 PM
Hi Dirk,

How does the colour compare with my madras that I put a link up for, a couple of comments up?

Ray

It's much darker than that. It goes a deep brown colour.

Thanks for the advice. My spice mix is an orangey colour and quite heavy on the turmeric. The consistency is fine too as I only cook for a few minutes after the last ingredients are in. The darkening definetely happens when I add the tomato paste (which i dilute down to a consistency a bit thinner than ketchup).

Maybe I will try the tomato paste first method to see if it helps.

Hello all.

My curries seem to be very dark in colour. I use CA's base recipe and I follow main dish recipes to the letter on here. My base isn't dark at all. The colour seems to change when I add the tomato puree after frying the spices, it immediatley goes very dark. It doesn't taste burnt, in fact it tastes pretty good but I'd really like to have the colour that a lot of the pics on here show, and of course from the takeaway!

Any advice would be great!

Ok. I know I'm a newbie here but I've been a keen recipe follower for a while. I use UB's base and CA's recipes. Tonight I carried out the utimate test, I made a chicken madras and ordered a chicken madras. My missus was in on the test too. Tne dishes looked almost identical but the most notable taste differences were a definite tea / leafy taste which my other half describes as fenugreek after getting her to sniff a variety of ingredients. The other taste which I found stood out was a definite taste of black pepper and a bitter tase of something else. Can anyone explain further?

The consistency of the sauce is very watery on top with the mashed/blended onion at the bottom. It doesn't seem to mix very well. I always use enough water to cover all the ingredients in th pot.

I've actually thrown the blender away now so I can't post any pics. I have made a couple of curries with the base and they are very bitty but taste fine. I'm absolutely stumped with this. I'm following recipes from this site and have done everything that people are suggesting (apart from chopping the onions first so far) but all i get is an onion mash rather than a sauce. I'm going to try another batch with a jug blender and I'll let you know how I get on.

Quote from: PaulP on December 09, 2009, 09:58 PM

You do have to move the blender around the pot as well. Are you sure you're not getting stuff stuck to the bottom of the pot?

As others have said an upright jug blender will do the job fine - just messy and more washing up to do.

No, nothing is sticking and I've used three different hand blenders. I must say that I have made a few smooth bases before but most are lumpy. I have never changed the recipe / method which is why I asked if the type of onion makes a difference. I'll keep trying!

I'm not expecting it to be that smooth but most of the time if i put a spoon to the bottom of the pan I can lift out a mashed up onion gloop while the top will be very watery. It doesn't mix together. I think I will try a jug blender and chopping the onions to see if it helps. But for now I've got 15 portions of lumpy sauce!

I will defienitely chop the onions next time. I've just had a look a  few base recipes and some do say to quarter or even half them. Do most people blend before adding it to the spiced hot oil in a sepearate stock pot?

The recipe I use is actually from this website. I appreciate that people know what they are doing on here so I have not modified anything from that recipe. I don't remember who posted the recipe but I do remember that it was someone who got the recipe first hand from someone that worked in a BIR. Just to clarify, what exactly have I modified?