New Year Resolutions 2012

[Razor]

Wayne,

I can totally understand that and can't disagree in any way whatsoever.  The first mouthful is the thing that you/we spend all day in the kitchen for ;D

I'm ok when I'm using 'constant' ingredients such as the same batch of base, spice mix and so on but I'm always wary on a new batch or a new tin of tom paste, where variables can be introduced, if you catch mi drift?

Ray

[JerryM]

much appreciate the thoughts. i'm pretty sure consequently that my effort should continue as planned delving deeper into the ashoka mains.

for what it's worth have added my thoughts on the ideas raised:

1) frozen base - i've never done and have no plans (my local BIR cooks fresh)

2) fresh spices - yes but not a step difference

3) base spice - there must be 2 approaches in the trade - heavy and light. it accounts for the discrepancies in spicing at dish frying ie large and small amounts of mix powder ie tbsps c/w tsps.

a few yes yes yes for sure:
4) ladle reduction
5) use std base and ingredients until same result everytime
6) balance of base ingredient and impact of change
7) need to know what flavour ingredients impart

8 ) ?he makes the gravy and the final dishes, he tastes it, and he knows what is missing or needed to fix it?  = "taste as good as if made in the restaurant". i'm certainly 100% on the 1st statement and can go along with the "=" to an extent.

for me there's a sort of related question i often ask myself. i know the likes of CTM "cream/sugar" dishes are cooked slow boat in BIR but find a personal reluctance and always hot fry. avoiding "heat drop" and "pan of flames" are the 2 things i have most on my mind when cooking.

[ELW]

3) base spice - there must be 2 approaches in the trade - heavy and light. it accounts for the discrepancies in spicing at dish frying ie large and small amounts of mix powder ie tbsps c/w tsps.

Definately, I learned how to cook spices from the low spiced KD1 base. Far more to do at the cooking stage using that base, if you want a decent curry ( I deliberately burned the spices to train myself to pick up 'burned' when it happened  )

I'm concentrating  solely on the base now & adjusting the final taste, to something that I want to taste in the final dish. I can taste coconut if used , whereas some people can only smell it. If i don't like something in the base, I won't like it in the final dish.

I'm now looking at:

Stock in the base, fresh or otherwise. I'v never beeen in a bir kitchen, but i'm almost sure it features in Glsgow bir's. I can pick out alot of ingredients in a bir dish, but not the one that provides the 'zing'(it's very stock like)

Finding out the difference in flavour of the catering curry powders(10KG), as there are brands & blends in the c&c's, which have no retail ranges

Testing one of my local bir's home cooked(desi) equivalents(bhoona/karahi), if there is no base used, to compare

I'm pretty close to square 1 now!  ;D

Regards
ELW

[spiceyokooko]

3) base spice - there must be 2 approaches in the trade - heavy and light. it accounts for the discrepancies in spicing at dish frying ie large and small amounts of mix powder ie tbsps c/w tsps.

This is something I've been pondering for a while now.

I'm going to try an oil-less and spice-less base gravy to test out a few theories I've got with regards to base gravy spicing. I want to remove the spicing from the base and put it back in when 1/ pre-cooking the meat and 2/ cooking the finished dish so I have total control over exactly what and how much spicing goes into the finished dish.

The results could be quite interesting.

[JerryM]

spiceyokooko,

will be keen to know how you get on.

i think the spicing is even more complicated that anyone would naturally think - ie a head line figure is no good. although this is what i work on (the amount of spice in relation to the onions) i think some spice can almost be ignored whilst others are quite critical. for example i think turmeric, paprika and chilli can be excluded. i think whole spice can also be excluded. this for me leaves coriander and cumin as the key differentiators.

it's an area we've not really worked on enough.

i think say dipuraja's base is light spice - my headline is 1.6% (30ml in 1000g onion). the saffron is heavy 4.6% (110 ml in 1250g onion). the only BIR base i've tasted was heavy but looking at a lot of BIR (open kitchen serving counter) most looks very light spice.

all interesting stuff

on the oil i feel it's simple. the minimum being around 7% (based on onion volume or as example 100ml in 800g onion).