Okay, I've had a couple of experiments with the base now. (On Saturday, I actually had a bought curry from my favourite local takeaway, so my cooking over the past couple of days has had a lot to live up to!)
It might be worth mentioning here that although the base was yellow after pureeing, when I returned it to the pan and cooked on high for 10 minutes and low for 5, it actually turned a caramel brown colour. Of the four or five takeaways I've ordered from over the past couple of years, all but one of them has a finished vindaloo this colour, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. However my favourite takeaway produces a vindaloo that's bright orangy red - really quite vibrant by comparison.
Anyway on Sunday I wanted to add as little to the base as possible, to get the flavour of it. I brought 3/4 of a pint of it to the boil in 1 chef's spoon of oil. Then I added pre-cooked meat, 2 tsp of chilli powder (well, cayenne pepper actually - my local market's spice stall was out of chilli this week) and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. After three or four minutes I reduced it to a simmer and added 1/4 teaspoon of ground dried methi. Four minutes later I turned off the heat, sprinkled fresh coriander and let it stand for five minutes before serving (about the time it takes to drive to my house from my local takeaway!).
And... it was nice. A nice, tasty curry. But no trace of 'that' taste or smell.
So last night I heated a chef's spoon of oil, and added a teaspoon each of very finely chopped onion and green pepper, sizzling on high heat untill the onion started to colour. Then I added a splash of base and evaporated it off. Then I added cayenne (as above), 1/2 teaspoon of asafoetida, salt and a teaspoon of spice mix from this site - the one Pete posted which is all equal measures (can't for the life of me remember which thread it's in but I'll do a search after this).
I stirred this for about 30 seconds and then added the rest of the curry gravy. Then I added 100ml of the Oxo 'Real Stock'. This stuff is really watery, and smells of - er - well, just chicken, really! But I thought I might as well try it. I let this bubble away for 5 minutes, then turned it down to simmer so the oil could separate and be skimmed off. Added coriander, and left it to rest.
This was good - I've had disappointing bought curries that were about as good. And that seems to be where I'm at no matter what I've tried so far.
If anything, it was a little over-rich and over-spiced. And it was brown. Tonight I'm going to do exactly the same but leave out the spice mix and chicken stock - it's clearly nothing like Pete's jelly recipe (and nothing like the stock that produces, I would think). But I'm going to cook it before I go out tonight, and reheat it in a casserole dish when I get home - to make sure my palette's clear before I taste it.
Thanks, Mark, for sharing the base recipe with us. I'm really looking forward to hearing the results from people that are cooking it in bulk, and any more info from the chef himself about recipes. Even if he's right - that we'll never be able to do it at home, no matter what - it's still really interesting and fun to try it anyway. And tasty!
Topic: Talked about base sauce with take away owner and chef (read 144,377 times)