Something interesting happened tonight. Something which made me think: "I wonder...."

I cooked a Chewytikka king prawn madras and it was highly delicious. The thing which made me sit up and take notice was it had a flavour that I've never tasted in my cooking before, but which I recognise from many a BIR visit. I don't want to get carried away and claim it is "the" flavour,  but it's certainly "a" flavour and bears further investigation.

Now this is a recipe that I've cooked some 15 or so times before and as is my wont I use passata rather than thinned tomato puree. Never one to throw money down the drain I use Asda smart price passata (29p for 500ml, sterling value). Tonight I regarded my week old carton of passata (opened at least last weds) with some suspicion and gave it a cautious sniff. There was definately some chemistry at play as it had a sharp tomato smell far more "acidic" (if that's the right word) than fresh passata. It had clearly matured a little since being opened.  The legend on the side of the carton said "use within 2 days of opening" 

Obviously I binned it. Well, no in fact I didn't. Lacking a new carton of passata to replace it with and reasoning that frying it at high temps would kill any nastiness I carried on and cooked with it and the resulting curry was delicious and had this taste of which I speak!

Now I don't claim that BIRs use passata so please don't misunderstand me, but we know they use thinned tomato pur

There is definitely something old, in good curries
It gives an unexplained flavour
I have noticed this on many occasions, but can't pin it down
I feel like cooking part of a curry, a week before eating it

most ingredients in a busy take away are made up put in the fridge taken out left on the side during cooking hours put back in the fridge then topped up on the side put back in the fridge etc

ie tomato paste - watered down left out whilst cooking put in the fridge after use - then a new batch is mixed up tipped in on the old stirred around used put in the fridge

How long they do this for is up to the level of very dark dried tomato paste that starts to appear on the top of the container that hasnt been wiped off - 

best, Rich

Quote from: natterjak on March 28, 2012, 08:59 PM
Something interesting happened tonight. Something which made me think: "I wonder...."

Great post with many valid points! I trust, like you do, that boiling suspect foods must kill off any dangerous bacteria, even if the taste has changed - for the better in your case, by the sound of it.

I guess the acid test is whether you can produce a similar result if you re-run the exercise. Keep us posted.

I'm glad you've brought this up nj, I'm still not sure what goes on in the pan at the initial stages of a curry regarding the ingredients, let alone any science behind it.    I know it's about smoothing the harsh edges of the ingredients, but which ones are most important?

8 Ingredients

Oil/salt/Garlic/spice/ tomato paste/base gravy/methiGinger being optional call it 7)

No tomato paste used in the Kushi recipe's( anyone else have views on Kushi)

If so it could be 6 ingredients:

I once swapped mix powder for Natco Garam Masala, & produced the taste. I also recently flambed the pan by accident, complete with Homer Simpson shriek & turned out a horrible raw tasting curry. Assuming everything is cooked(harder than I thought)I think the cooling process on different foods is where the taste comes from, rather than the age. I produced a decent tasting curry, tasted in the pan(rawness gone), serving it only 5 mins later it had changed into a magical bir dish. It's very odd. I'm not sure we could find too many people who can explain this to us, it looks to me like purely a by product of hot & fast cooking.

I'd love to hear from anyone who can produce the bir taste on that low long sunday fry up heat, I've found it impossible so far. Or from anyone who can produce the goods without tomato paste?

I know it's been mentioned upteen times, but I think the cooking of the garlic is more important than I 1st thought.
I'm on 99% now, the missing 1% being the cooking formula/rules to provide some kind of consistency. Let's try & rule in or out the slow & low method, there's no better place than cr0 to do it 
Regards
ELW

PS. I use Salkim Tom paste or White Tower, which tastes far less harsh to me than the Italian stuff from Asda & nothing like the tube concentrate 

Just a point on the Kushi recipes - although no tom puree is used the tomato comes from the pre-cooked meat or veg.

I've got the book and only made it all once but the way the jigsaw pieces fit together is impressive. Just a pity about the piece of mace that I felt dominated the base and the curries somewhat.

Cheers,

Paul

Quote from: PaulP on March 29, 2012, 08:14 PM
Just a point on the Kushi recipes - although no tom puree is used the tomato comes from the pre-cooked meat or veg.

I've got the book and only made it all once but the way the jigsaw pieces fit together is impressive. Just a pity about the piece of mace that I felt dominated the base and the curries somewhat.

Cheers,

Paul

Agreed about the Mace, I've ruined many a dinner with that & Rosemary. I make spiced water separately now(cbm stock) & add to taste, whatever that means. The Kushi base tastes excellent on it's own & it's normally what I make now as it's clear in my head. When I "bhagar the gravy" with the tomatos, I use the high heat method as per starting a dish, but can't produce the "taste" on a larger scale. The flavour may disappear into the onion mixture? I'm not sure, after all it's the same ingredients? I'm still not sure which ingredient/s when their back is "broken" are crucial to producing the taste except ginger which is definitely optional

Regards
ELW

It would certainly be ironic if our efforts to reproduce a BIR taste at home were being stymied by using "too fresh" ingredients, but I really think there's something in this. My original "aged passata" ran out 2 nights after my first post in this thread so I opened another carton and left it in the fridge a week before I started to use it. Now I'm nearing the end of that passata which has been open nearly 3 weeks ("use within 4 days of opening") and my curries have that hard to describe deliciousness. Not a sour flavour so much as "mouth feel", something approaching the effect of MSG.

I hope I'm not imagining this, would be cool if someone else could try letting some dilute Tom puree or passata grow some little friendly bacteria in the fridge for a couple of weeks then cook with it and let me have your view?