Interesting point that MA, if u cooked the restaurant base with little noticeable.

Dont get me wrong , you could tell the difference just not as much as you would think. Maybe it is more down to the technique and recipe for the curry than it is the base?

I sometimes wonder why people get so hung up on bases....add a little this....a little that....maybe a parsnip....boil it for an hour....three hours....oops! don't forget half a carrot..... A base is a base; and should provide texture and a background flavour. No more and no less. Lots of onions and some light spicing is the trick.

As Andrew says, most of the flavour in a finished curry will come from the final spicing, and reduction, in my humble opinion.

Well put there Garp I think that's exactly it, it's all in the cooking, but without doubt we also need a good base to start with.

Quote from: Garp on August 31, 2014, 09:07 PM
I sometimes wonder why people get so hung up on bases....add a little this....a little that....maybe a parsnip....boil it for an hour....three hours....oops! don't forget half a carrot..... A base is a base; and should provide texture and a background flavour. No more and no less. Lots of onions and some light spicing is the trick.

As Andrew says, most of the flavour in a finished curry will come from the final spicing, and reduction, in my humble opinion.

And obviously, not forgetting the most important of all, the technique of pulling it all together.  Without this, you have just another home made curry  :-X

Quote from: curryhell on August 31, 2014, 09:21 PM
And obviously, not forgetting the most important of all, the technique of pulling it all together.  Without this, you have just another home made curry  :-X

I thought that's what I'd said

Quite fancy a nice Chicken Madras right about now

Quote from: Garp on August 31, 2014, 09:07 PM
I sometimes wonder why people get so hung up on bases....add a little this....a little that....maybe a parsnip....boil it for an hour....three hours....oops! don't forget half a carrot..... A base is a base; and should provide texture and a background flavour. No more and no less. Lots of onions and some light spicing is the trick.

All good up to to this point Garp

Quote
As Andrew says, most of the flavour in a finished curry will come from the final spicing, and reduction, in my humble opinion.

There loads of ways of doing this which is why every restaurant tastes different & it's not all on here.
But the gravy makes it different from cookbook curries & is crucial regardless of ingredients in terms of ingredients.
jb again reported
On his  latest base being unusable if it's not cooked correctly

Regards
Elw

Gravy makes a difference.

Some recipes I've tried (posted here and elsewhere), just taste gopping and that almost always carries over into the final dish.
Starting with a poor one is not going to make the task of producing a great curry any easier.

I now have a base recipe that works incredibly well for me, but that's after several years of experimenting and discovering what works and what to avoid.

Quote from: Dajoca on September 01, 2014, 12:19 PM
Gravy makes a difference.

Some recipes I've tried (posted here and elsewhere), just taste gopping ...

I'm sorry, they taste /what/ ??!
** Phil.