Thought I would try the Zaal Base today,like the idea of the whole spices plus wanted to give the veg ghee a go to see if it made any noticeable difference 

3 kg Onions plus green pepper,carrot,potato,garlic/ginger,salt,2ltrs of water.



Whole Spices,decided to put the lot in with the veg and blend in ( not a good idea  )



Ready to boil up -



Veg Ghee,blended Tomato (passata),spice mix,chili,turmeric and garlic and ginger



Base after 1hour 15mins.



Base after blending and sieving to remove all the black bits from the whole spices  ::)wont do that again !



Base after adding Veg Ghee etc. ( looking better  )



Finished Base after final simmer,oil just appearing on top.



Finished Madras Curry - very nice  ;D



The base is sweeter than any previous base I have made and I think I overdid the cardamom a bit as the aroma was cardamom at every stage  the finished dish had a definite cardamom edge to it which I don't mind but the wife thought it was a little too much,next time I'll use a little less also I will probably put the whole spices in the pot for the final simmer and then put the base through a strainer to remove them.
All in all a very nice base,the curry, very nice and as good as any BIR around here other than the slightly ott cardamom  ::)very smooth almost as good as my best effort a few weeks ago and a base I will use again.
There was nothing obvious in the base from the veg ghee,whether the cardamom had anything to do with that I don't know  I did add quite a lot of water at various stages of cooking the base probably another 2ltrs and the finish amount of base was 5.5 ltrs could be watered down probably at least to 6 ltrs no prob.

Enjoyed this post emin-j and the pics, especially the last one ;D .  You obviously decided to add the whole spices to the base rather than  use the infusion method as does Az.  Very brave man!!!  You obviously learned from this :  So have I at your expense .  I think the important thing here is getting the ratio of whole spices correct and in balance.  When we were preparing the garam masala at Zaal's, Az checked the spicing and said there was too much cardamon and proceded to add more asian bay and cassia to balance the mix.  Maybe a good way forward with this would be to use the infusion method which can be easily corrected and adjusted on the stove before adding to the base. Once you've achieved the right balance and taste you can  then look at the make up of the masala in terms of numbers or weight.  Just my thoughts.  Glad you were happy with the results though inspite of the cardamon flavour wanting to be centre stage of the piece ;D  Maybe when you next use the base you can add a bit more cassia and asian bay to correct

Hi emin-j
Good post and good of you to highlight your honest mistake.

You were very lucky that you used cinnamon instead of cassia bark, as you
would have really ruined your base once you started blending it.

If you like the whole masala flavours, you could get a spice ball infuser or put
the whole masala in a sock or muslin cloth bag, - easy to fish out at the end.

Or you could just infuse your oil before you start, I show this method in my latest
quick base recipe

Tej Patta and Cinnamon are both sweet flavours, which will transfer greatly to
your finished base. Less is good 

Your finished meal looks very tempting

Good report emin-j, thanks for posting
cheers Chewy

Thank's Guys, yes will use my spice ball next time  : thinking about this base this morning and reckon it was missing a little something (and too much of another  :) and remembered my best effort included star anice so put a couple in 500ml of water (in my spice ball   ;D) and boiled for about 15 mins then added the flavoured water to the base,the base now tastes bloody lovely  with the cardamom now taking a back seat and just a hint of aniseed,this now tastes more like a curry !
Also when I added the flavoured water I reheated the base to stir it all in and forgot that I had left it on (minimum setting on hob), an hour or so later realised and when I looked under the lid the top of the base was completely covered with oil  whether this has improved the base I don't know but cant wait to make my next curry 

Good correction and useful memory lapse ;D  Wonder if there'll be yet another curry cooked with again this evening, purely for experimental purposes, of course

Just as an update to this thread,my Wife didn't finish all her madras on Saturday (which was very nice  made with this base) and left 1/3 of a curry in the fridge,tonight she reheated the curry and had a few chips with it  :
she said '' taste this'' and offered me a chip covered in the curry sauce ...well  it was fabulous ! and as good as any BIR curry I've had,the star anise I added to dull down the ott cardamom flavour was just in the background with an overall delicious flavour  I know this has been mentioned before but does leaving curry or even curry base ' standing' for any length of time get you closer to that magic BIR flavour because this certainly did !Do BIR's not use their base gravy's immediately after cooking and store in the fridge to allow the spices to infuse,I don't know 

There indeed seems to be a bit of milage in this spice infusion / whole spice use in the base gravy, although one or two individuals have dismissed it.  Given your results emin-j it suggests this improves flavours when allowed to stand for a while.  I also wonder if this improvement occurs as a result of adding the gravy left from todays service to the batch to be made tomorrow or, as you suggest, the storage of it until the next day?  I can't see a restaurant throwing gravy away at the end of the night somehow, can you??  There are many threads on here that support the idea a base should mature before being used and not used "fresh".  I think there is some work to be done in this area and more will be gained through this than pursuing the spiced oil trail.

Totally agree CH,It's a shame that we freeze base as this may put a stop to this spice infusion,I don't know  the curry was noticeably hotter than when made on Saturday. Obviously completed curry's arnt made and stored in a BIR so that only really leaves the base gravy,I might try getting the base out of the freezer on Thursday and store in the fridge until the Saturday and see if that makes any difference 

ChewyTikka wrote:

"You were very lucky that you used cinnamon instead of cassia bark, as you
would have really ruined your base once you started blending it"

Chewy - could you explain please? I thought they were almost interchangeable.

Thanks.

Hi Dajoca
This was a great post from emin-j, learning as he went, about whole spices
i.e. less is best and not to blend them into the base as their only for flavour, not an ingredient.

Cassia Bark is much harder/stronger as its the outer bark of the tree and will break up if you try to blend in the base, but not fully.
So no matter how much you blend, your base will darken to the wrong colour (like Mud) and be full of black specks of Cassia.

I know this, as I did it myself in error, many moons ago and I remember, continuing to blend once I hit the Cassia,
thinking It would be O.K. as I would finish it off and catch all the Cassia by putting it through my food mill.

It didn't and the whole lot was tipped down the loo. 

Gutted to say the least.
cheers Chewy