As Im relatively new to curry cooking Ive only used 3 different bases up to now. One recipe I saw on youtube with tons of onions, garlic and ginger, and lots of water, CBMs recipe, and the C2go. So far, I think there is a lot of mileage in Julian's recipe and the techniques and ideas behind it. I liked the idea of using a pressure cooker and opted for a 4 L Prestige high dome, to use for the 3 L C2go recipe. Now what about that "taste", "smell" "aroma", "vinegar"? First time Ive used a pressure cooker so to I was a bit unsure of how much hissing should be going on. The smell of the seasoned oil was very dominant very soon after the heat was turned up and up to pressure. Spent some time hovering around the cooker sniffing away like a demented blood hound. Nothing noticed to start with, i.e. no change in the smell. I figured perhaps it would take longer due to the smaller pressure cooker (12 lb weight thingy). After about 40 mins still no change, so I thought Id let things cool and have a look to see what was happening. The onions were very soft. Lots of sweetness, more than Id experienced before. But I was using Dutch onions for the first time and thought they may be responsible, so I brought everything back up to pressure again. 15 mins later still no change in smell. The kitchen was still full of the seasoned oil smell, which is very nice btw and did smell like a curry house.
Id basically given up on finding the change in aroma and decided to switch off the heat (after popping outside for a breath of fresh air). Thing is, my extraction fan vents outside directly and once out in the fresh air for a couple of minutes I caught the smell from the vent. That was it. Distinct change in aroma! Difficult to describe it. I can see how Julian would use vinegar as a comparison, but it was somehow much deeper, acrid, and almost sulpher-like? Julian also mentions in his book sulphites amongst other being produced/released during cooking of the onions. I quickly ran in and took the pan off the heat. After letting things cool down again the lid came off and I was greeted by an unbelievable rich smell. The onions had darkened significantly. I guess this is just caramelisation (or partial caramelisation). Whilst giving everything a careful mix I found the dark "syrup" like substance at the bottom of the pan Julian refers to, and plenty of it. The taste of this sludgy stuff was clearly the source of the aroma. I havent seen this before using other base recipes/techniques. Has anyone else? Is it complete caramelisation or something else? Is this like the bunjarra? I haven't made any as yet.
Ive definitely produced my best curries so far using this base. Significantly better. But I havent by any means mastered the cooking of the currys themselves, and as curryhell said in an earlier post somewhere " .... a good base in the hands of someone with poor technique will at best product an average home made curry". A way to go for me yet but Ill be sticking with the C2go base. Looked a bit more into the relationship between sulpher-like compounds in food and found that "allyl propyl disulfide" is the principle substance in onion oil, which has a very pungent smell. Commercially made onion oil is apparently extracted from onion cores using a process involving steam. Perhaps this (in sufficient quantity) then is an intrinsic factor, or at least relevant in the BIR taste, specifically the base itself. Presumably oils from the other ingredients will also be produced, which then blend in to produce that elusive aroma found in good BIR? I suppose one argument against this is that bases tend to be fairly bland when diluted, although reduction when making the curry itself I gather is an important stage. Alternatively Im talking complete bollox.
Rob
Topic: Anyone tried Julian's base yet? (read 135,394 times)
