Base Essentials

[emin-j]

Hi all,

I just got to thinking about what the minimum ingredients could be to make a really good Curry Base.

I watched the web cam of the East Indian T/A and they were just starting to make a Base , the Chef put some Cooking Oil in the pan to start and then what looked like Garlic ( fresh ) ,Green Cardamoms , Bay Leaves , Turmeric , Chili Powder then Salt ? he then gently fried this and then topped the pan up with chopped Red Onions and water , he then placed the lid on and left it on the heat occasionally stirring.
To be honest I didn't watch all night and maybe he added some other veg later but I dont think so , also I recently watched Britain's Best Dish where an Indian lady made a very tasty Chicken curry ( according to the experts ) with a very simple Base Sauce ,
http://www.itv.com/lifestyle/food/britainsbestdish/recipes2009/greenchickencurry/default.html

Also the Base they made at the T/A whose kitchen I spent some time in was very basic ( I think similar to the Rajver Base from memory ) then I look at the base I made last night , ingredients - Onions, Carrots , Pepper , Potato , fresh Toms , Tinned Toms , Garlic , Ginger , Fresh Coriander , then all the Spices phew !
Don't get me wrong this base makes lovely Curries but so does my favourite T/A and I don't reckon they go to that type of expense with their base .
So has anyone had close to BIR results with a really basic Base Sauce , and can we work out what the ' essential ingredients ' are required , I'll start with Onions  but Red or White 

[JerryM]

quite an easy one for me. it'll be real interesting what other's think though.

my essentials in order are: brown onion, carrot, coriander, whole spice, marg, garlic

spice - very simple: coriander, turmeric, fennel

the only think i can't make my mind up on is ginger. if it is in i think only a v.small proportion.

[chriswg]

The only thing I'd add to that list is green pepper. It seems to be fairly universal across all bases (although I guess that doesn't make it essential, just very common).

You could always try just boiling up some onions and oil in a basic spice mix (3 parts ground coriander, 2 parts turmeric 1 part cumin powder) and blending them. Thats about as basic as possible. It would be interesting to hear the results. You might find the sweetness of the carrots and bitter taste of the green pepper make a big difference to the result or it might be hard to tell. With a hot curry I imagine you wont notice any difference. You'd need to do a side by side comparison using your usual base.

[JerryM]

i might just make CA's CRO2 development base next. much has changed in terms of the jigsaw for me since i last made it so the final curry would be very interesting.

the base is very basic yet produces a real surprise in terms of quality of base.

i have the original recipe as : 30ml oil, 200g onion, 2.5ml garlic, 1.25 ml ginger, tom paste 10ml, 1.25ml salt, 5ml curry powder, 500 water. finished volume 500ml.

i am pretty sure we double the ingredients to make a 400g onion batch. i later doubled it again settling on an 800g std batch aiming to get 6 portions.

[emin-j]

i might just make CA's CRO2 development base next. much has changed in terms of the jigsaw for me since i last made it so the final curry would be very interesting.

the base is very basic yet produces a real surprise in terms of quality of base.

i have the original recipe as : 30ml oil, 200g onion, 2.5ml garlic, 1.25 ml ginger, tom paste 10ml, 1.25ml salt, 5ml curry powder, 500 water. finished volume 500ml.

i am pretty sure we double the ingredients to make a 400g onion batch. i later doubled it again settling on an 800g std batch aiming to get 6 portions.

That's interesting JerryM , not much in the way of ingredients there ! Just what a BIR would use probably .

[JerryM]

emin-j,

the trouble is from this basic it's very difficult to settle on a final recipe (there are so many legs that could be followed). i had 6 variations before switching to the mytake version.

i think this recipe was about the best of the original: 300ml oil (150 reclaim), 800g onion, 35g garlic, tom paste 60ml, 5ml salt, paprika 7.5ml, turmeric 7.5ml, 300 water, whole spice. finished volume 1650ml.