Quote from: haldi on April 11, 2012, 06:57 PM

Is this why you can't make BIR curries at home?

I've never made seasoned oil or bhajis in my life Haldi, but can cook bir at home. Making banjarra paste & borrowing some of the oil to start the dish, would produce better results than seasoned in the base

Personally I'm not a believer that you need spiced oil to make BIR at home, or anywhere else for that matter.
I went through a phase of using the recipe from sced on the rcr forum but after making it a few times I felt it wasn't the right direction for me.

I believe a combination of good mix powder, well cooked at the final stages, a good base recipe and probably the inclusion of some whole spices somewhere in the mix (I'm still undecided on that one) should be enough.

Having said that I might try reclaiming some oil from a base that has had extra oil added before blending.

Cheers,

Paul

Quote from: ELW on April 11, 2012, 06:47 PM
Hi curryhell, I'm pretty much settled now that subtle differences in base gravies are neither here nor there when the strong flavoured ingredients I'll add later will dominate.

Evening ELW.  I share the same opinion as yourself.  Gravies will only make a subtle difference to the overall taste, providing of course they are of a similar good standard.  A naf one will stand out like  a sore thumb

Quote
I read Julians book yesterday, where I'll have to hand it to him regarding the effort he has put into it, I won't make his base gravies as i'm pretty sure they won't tell me anything new.

Totall agree on the amount of work he has put in to the book.  For newcomers to BIR it's better than anything widely available and deserves to be successful.  I had no intention of making any more gravies for a while, but a couple of things he said just made me  want to try it.  Unfortunately, something went wrong.  But as we all know, this does happen occasionally but we curry on regardless :
I took several things from the book as well as recognising little twists i'm already familiar with and quite a bit that is common knowledge among us die hards who've been at this home BIR game for a while.  The one thing i really would like is to have a range with a similar output to a commercial kitchen.  How much easier would it make the job of reproducing BIR at home?  We can and do achieve it but it is a hit and miss affair which isn't helped by our domestic cookers
Then again, it is only a hobby and my living doesn't depend on it so i won't be losing any sleep

Quote from: Whandsy on April 11, 2012, 07:19 PM
I have to say I, for one, am well made up with the results and whilst I feel i was always on the right lines, a few tweaks here and there have made me one happy bunny

Whatever it is you're doing W, keep on doing it mate.  You're obviously happy with the results you're getting and at the end of the day, that is really all that matters.  Singe on (or is it singeing - another debate )
Best of luck

I've botched a few bases, normally scaling down, bhagaring the tomato/garlic/spices & once by cooking the blended mixture in the slow cooker for too long.
When Az from Zaal said that domestic cooker versions may take a bit longer to cook, the cynic in me said no as usual, but logically correct, it would eventually reach the same stage.   

I've changed my approach a little, looking to balance the taste of spice/tomato paste with the sweet onion gravy, or even tip the balance in favour of the gravy. On the tomato side , I may salvage a poor madras at best from it. On the gravy side or if there is a middle, I've got what I've been handing over my hard earned week in/out for decades  ;D
From what I can see, c2g's recipe's call for 1TBLsp MP, which is nearly double what I normally add, leading me to believe that all along it's been a taste I've been trying to get rid ofin my curries, rather than introduce.
Acidic tomato was trumping the garlic/gravy in my failures
Edit-trumping the gravy, banjarra, masala sauce, magic sauce, south indian garlic sauce.....you name it

Regards
ELW