JerryM ,
With all the effort you have put into trying to find that elusive 5% I really don't think you should go without your BIR Curry  If you  cut down on the stuff you know is bad for you Chl problem could you not just have a BIR Curry at the weekend ?
My BMI is 33  according to the charts but we eat healthily with plenty of salads and veg through the week and save the Curry for our Saturday treat , the last time I had my
Cholesterol checked it was around 5 which I think is about average it's just that I don't exercise enough  If you fancy an Indian in the week why not try an Authentic Recipe creating the sauce as you go you could get to like it !
Remember , some of the longest living people come from India so it cant be all bad 

Quote from: JerryM on May 03, 2010, 09:43 AM
i was real taken aback by how no oil and no salt in the base did not make a huge -ve in the taste.

It's been debated many times over the years as to why there is oil in the base and indeed if there is how much to use.

I still can't find a reasonable argument for it being in there unless:

1. The base requires frying at the early stages or:
2. The oil is going to be reclaimed throughout the night to fry the curries with

Other than that I can't see why it shouldn't be left out all together, which is what you seem to have found.

Quote from: Secret Santa on May 03, 2010, 01:59 PM

Quote from: JerryM on May 03, 2010, 09:43 AM
i was real taken aback by how no oil and no salt in the base did not make a huge -ve in the taste.

It's been debated many times over the years as to why there is oil in the base and indeed if there is how much to use.

I still can't find a reasonable argument for it being in there unless:

1. The base requires frying at the early stages or:
2. The oil is going to be reclaimed throughout the night to fry the curries with

Other than that I can't see why it shouldn't be left out all together, which is what you seem to have found.

Good Point SS 

Quote from: Gezh on May 03, 2010, 10:50 AM
And Jerry, I would say it's the rest of your diet that's the problem. Cut out the pizzas, fry ups etc.

Gezh,

appreciate your thoughts - for peace of mind for u all - it may help to know that i've actually got everything i eat itemised and analysed. might be classed as sad but it's more like creative accountancy where i offset the bad with the good.

what i'd failed to do was to keep it up to date not realising the small gradual changes in diet were having a big effect (eggs, sausage, fry ups & cheese).

Axe u're making me worse lol - must have a good scan through u're link - just up my street.


as Secret Santa puts it

my focus is to push the boundary of the BIR as far to the healthy boundary as i can without loosing it's identity too much. i don't see me abandoning the BIR take - just want another option for mid week.

in short i took the oil & salt out of the base and expected the result to be naff - it wasn't. in fact the base tasted very good (on par with what i normally produce) - real took me by surprise.

i now intend to work on the frying side using Dipuraja's "all in" method. it's "who knows" territory for me but i feel it's work a try.

emin-j - for sure not going to be abandoning the BIR. my regular TA is still top of the bill and weekends for cooking as u say remain sacrosanct too.

Quote from: JerryM on May 04, 2010, 06:53 PM

my focus is to push the boundary of the BIR as far to the healthy boundary as i can without loosing it's identity too much. i don't see me abandoning the BIR take - just want another option for mid week.

Jerry,

Please keep us updated, I'm really interested to hear what you find

CM

i was thinking of the "healthy curry" next steps whilst very much enjoying this weeks TA.

it's funny how taking a different slant begs different questions. 2 things were clear.

the plain curry sauce starter had been cooked by Dipuraja's method. oil on the surface was hardly detectable although it was clear that oil was on the inside of the aluminium container.  this confirming that low oil dish frying is not out of the question in terms of delivering decent taste.

the main dish had oil on the surface and had been cooked by the hot method. on a side by side comparison of the sauce it was clear that the difference in taste is more than down to the oil alone.  this got me thinking of Axe's information on adding fried garlic to the tom puree to form a paste - has anyone tried it yet. i ask as i see it potentially as low fat method of adding in extra taste to compensate for a reduction in oil overall.

Wondered if this site would interest you Jerry

http://www.tinydeol.com/

Stephen,

appreciate the thought and the site is encouraging that the goal maybe achievable for the option of decent but healthy curry.

my makeup is that i love the enjoyment of producing good food for yourself. it broke my heart recently to follow Dippies lead and buy the pataks stuff.

the healthy curry to be honest is not that important to me - moderation i've found works well and i'm happy to balance the curry without sacrifice with rest of my diet. saying that if i can eat more curry without detriment to health then why not.

i made the 2nd batch of Healthy base last night (no oil, no salt). it was a disaster. as soon as it started cooking i could tell the smell was wrong.

it reiterates just how fine the line of failure is.

i felt i'd stuck to the batch 1 recipe but obviously hadn't. i had upped the batch size to enable base for 3 off curries.

back to the drawing board. i will cook with it just to be sure but i'm making a new batch tonight as there needs to be consistency in the approach.

what is clear is the small batch size brings about the use of very small amounts of spice which makes measurement difficult and far more critical in terms of getting the balance right.

the only good thing is that i can use the naff 3 off base portions to try out the cooking stage without worry of chucking it down the sink.

ps these asian bay are quite strong and i think part of what caused the poor result. i also blended before putting on the heat and forgot to leave the lid off. so it's important to retrace my steps to work out what went so badly wrong.

At the weekend, I found a recipe in a low fat cookbook for a chicken korma which starts off by dry frying onions in a non stick frying pan. I tried this approach by dry frying onions for a cottage pie. I used an old (now) semi-stick frying pan because I didn't want to risk damaging a newer non-stick pan. It didn't work well. The onions started sticking so I transferred them to the oven to dry roast. They looked OK after roasting but the taste of the cottage pie, with minced meat, was quite different to normal, so it doesn't bode well for any other use of onions, as in a curry.