1,
I have bought some Cholesterol free Sunflower oil, I didn't know such oil exists until now. Seeing I am on medication re Cholesterol this is just what I'm after... Why is not all oil made this way, does anybody on here use it, and if not why not?
Seeing the base I'm using at the minute is high in oil (dare I say it Julians) would this be a healthier option.
Why is not all oil Cholesterol free if this stuff is so bad for us?

2,
I have come across some Curry powder/Garam masala.
Now what I should use this as... IE in place of my Rajah mild madras or when I'm making a mix should I use it as a Garam masala, and to make things even more confusing am I right in thinking a curry powder is just a garam masala in the first place.

I have asked these questions in a previous post but only Aussie Mick gave me any feedback and that was to say on the brand I have in question he is not sure.
The brand is JB and can be seen here?


It's a shame I don't know how to put this to use as it seems to be a premium quality.
Unfortunately I do not have enough experience to even recommend/ not recommend this masala I should imagine it's going to be trial and error for a while.

Hi TT

1. I think of this as a nothing more than a marketing tool as all vegetable oils are cholesterol free. Only animal oils/fats contain cholesterol. What the cholesterol free vegetable oils can still contain is a reasonable amount of saturated fats (the bad stuff) so you should check on the label for this too.

2. That's definitely a garam masala and should not be used in place of a generic curry powder. Curry powder is not GM and vice versa. For BIR dishes it can be left out altogether or added in small quantities. The technique of adding GM at the end of cooking is very much authentic Indian and doesn't (shouldn't!) have a place in BIR style recipes.

A garam masala is always a blend of mostly 'woody' spices whereas a curry powder is mostly a  blend of seeds.

Now that's what i call answered SS.

To the left is The JB brand, very rich dark red brown and pungent, and to the right is the stock Rajah brand, very pale in comparison.

I will leave my verdict on this after I have used it for a month or so, seeing I am trying to many things out at the moment I am still on a learning curve to a degree.
Shame about the cooking oil... I did suspect there was more than meets the eye on this.

To my knowledge, the spice mix Garam Masala is mainly used to "top things off" or give things a finishing touch so to say, whereas a rather generic "Madras blend" is more comparable to Restaurant type Masala (the "Spice Mixes" on this site).

So, they are in fact two entirely different spice mixes that might compliment each other (use very little Garam Masala).

Hi TT,

I guess Secret Santa has summed it up in one really, with the exception of Garam Masala, which is used in Bir's as a final sprinkling on things like CTM, but it is just a small finger thumb pinch of the dust...

The product you have is certainly Garam Masala and shouldn't be confused with Curry Powder.

Like you, I have a cholesterol problem, well not so much now as I am down to between 5 & 5.5. I tend to use pure Rapeseed oil which has no additives and apparently is better for you than olive oil. I would never use olive oil in a curry because it has such a strong taste compared to Rapeseed Oil. I would avoid the cheaper oils which could contain additives, but you really need to read the ingredients when buying.

With regards to bases, I use Taz's quite a lot (amongst others), which has a high oil content, but when making the final curry, I only use max 1 tbsp of oil to get things going and then let the oil in the base do the rest during the cooking process....

Hope this helps

I seem to have gone full circle...
Whilst going off topic on another of my own posts today I referred myself back here.
I babysat a base for as good as 3 hours today inclusive of prep time peeling approx 4kilos of onions and added the aforementioned Garam masala.
Something was nagging in the back of my mind but I still went ahead with the addition instead of the Rajah curry powder.
To cut a long story short I have chucked the lot down the sink.

The best way I am looking at it is that at least I am beginning to tell a worthy base against a ruined one, when I started I would of probably swore blind it was the best base in the world and I would not better it! 

It was not the base at fault but definitely the Garam of which has also been binned.
Thanks for your advice lad's, lesson learnt.