SnS, i totally agree. bir chefs all have there own unique recipies for making a base. Thats what makes this site quite tough, because we often get fragments of info from different bir chefs. Luckily with the ashoka we have nearly got the whole set of recipies. If panpot is lucky enough to get the madras recipe we will be sorted !

I'm not sure about potatoes costing less than onions, but can see why they could add bulk (potato also used as a thickener in other types of cooking, e.g. soups). I'm wondering about what the minimum ingredients would be for a decent base, with the flavours being added to individual curries at the cooking / assembling stage. I like the idea of maybe experimenting with a base that has only onions, garlic, ginger and water.

What do you think?

Quote from: Stephen Lindsay on December 30, 2008, 01:57 PM
I'm wondering about what the minimum ingredients would be for a decent base, with the flavours being added to individual curries at the cooking / assembling stage. I like the idea of maybe experimenting with a base that has only onions, garlic, ginger and water.

What do you think?

I've often thought about doing that as well but have never got round to it, it would certainly allow for a wider range of final dishes, if you do try it let us know how it goes.

Quote from: Stephen Lindsay on December 30, 2008, 01:57 PM
I'm not sure about potatoes costing less than onions, but can see why they could add bulk (potato also used as a thickener in other types of cooking, e.g. soups). I'm wondering about what the minimum ingredients would be for a decent base, with the flavours being added to individual curries at the cooking / assembling stage. I like the idea of maybe experimenting with a base that has only onions, garlic, ginger and water.

What do you think?

I think you'd want spices in there. A strong spice flavour is difficult to obtain (i find) and it seems to me that is why spices are used at every stage (base, precooked meat, onion paste, finished dish). I see the fact that spices, onions, garlic, ginger and tomatoes are cooked in mulitiple different ways as being important to the depth of flavour.
The ashoka banjura was important in realizing this, as well as using both tomato puree, fresh tomatoes and ketchup in one dish.