Topic: My attempt at documenting my best madras so far

[sp]

To start with take...


• 4x cherry tomatoes
• 1x tbsp tomato puree
• 2x tsp garlic & ginger puree
• 2x tbsp banjarra onion paste (or 1x small finely diced onion)
• 0.5x tsp methi leaves

Add a 30ml chefs spoon (or 2x tablespoons) worth of "seasoned" oil to a pan, and fry all of the above ingredients for a minute or two under a medium-high heat (number 6 on my halogen hob - maximum is 9).  I prepare my tomato and garlic/ginger puree ahead of time and freeze it in ice cube trays, by the time these ice cubes have melted I continue with the next stage.

Then, I add the following:

• 1x tbsp "ifindforu" mix powder (but using unbranded garam masala from the spiceworks on ebay, and rajah hot madras curry powder
• 2x ground-up star anise
• 1x tbsp hot chilli powder
• 0.25x tsp smoked paprika

Mix all these together in the pan to make a thick paste and continue to fry for a minute or so, adding a little bit of base gravy to stop the mixture sticking too much to the bottom of the aluminium pan.  Then, add the following:

• 1x tbsp jaggery goor
• 1x tsp mr naga chilli pickle
• 1x tsp mango chutney
• 1x tsp pataks balti paste

Add the pre-cooked meat or vegetables (beef in my case), and the rest of the base gravy (I freeze my base in 650ml tubs, using the c2go bangladeshi base for this - you may not need the star anise or jaggery in this recipe if you're using a base which already includes those two ingredients such as the c2go indian base)

I then let it fry (still under the same heat) until it reduces and thickens, small crater like holes appearing all over the gravy.  Then it's off with the heat, leave for a minute while organising other items like naan and pakora, then serve.

It should taste quite sweet, with a strong hint of licqourice and a nice warming glow as an aftertaste.

Best I've made so far anyway, very pleased

 

[RubyDoo]

Are you adding all the 650 ml of base? If so would I be right in assuming this is a 2 x portion recipe? Sounds nice.

[sp]

Are you adding all the 650 ml of base? If so would I be right in assuming this is a 2 x portion recipe? Sounds nice.

yes, sorry I should have made that clearer - this is for one portion of curry using half a 650ml tub of base.  The rest of the ingredients are in the quantities listed.

[curryhell]

Glad to hear you're having success on your madras journey sp.  I plan to continue my "easy madras" mission (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,8786.0.html) by replacing the onion by using both the onion from ifindforu's pre-cooked chicken recipe and the spiced oil.  I'm hoping for a step change here and an improvement on what i consider to be a simple but very tasty madras recipe

[George]

1x tbsp tomato puree
2x tsp garlic & ginger puree
2x tbsp banjarra onion paste (or 1x small finely diced onion)
0.5x tsp methi leaves

Are all your spoon measures level, rounded, heaped or what?

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that, unless otherwise stated, most people mean 'heaped' (as seen in most videos) so one of their tsp is about the same as one of my tbls. I know you mention 30ml of oil but oil can't be heaped, so most people's recipes would incorporate that anomaly.

Also, you state "2x tbsp banjarra onion paste (or 1x small finely diced onion)" but these would give completely different results wouldn't they? I like CA's approach of mentioning options but saying it's at your own risk, probably untried and implying the end result might taste like waste water. Which do you use, leading to your comment of 'best so far'?

[sp]

Hi George, sorry should have stated that they're all heaped, apart from the oil as you rightly point out

[sp]

Some possible amendments:

I've never been too convinced about the banjarra onion paste but just using it up since there's so many ice cube trays full of the damn stuff in my freezer and i didn't have any fresh onions to hand.

I'm going to try leaving out the pataks balti paste next time to see if it makes any difference to the final dish, the only paste I use on a regular basis is the kashmiri masala by rajah for my pilau rice.

Following my ranting about mr naga chilli pickle i'm just using it up (to my taste it works better as an accompaniment to pakoras etc when mixed with lidls "tamango" sauce with a dash of lemon juice rather than in curries)

I think the star anise and (suprisingly) the jaggery gives it that real aniseed/licqourice type taste I was after so they're definately keepers.

The ifindforu mix powder i refer to is just his ratios of turmeric/curry powder/cumin/paprika/coriander/chilli powder/garam masala and not his specific mix powder with the jalpur gm.

[sp]

The two times I've made banjarra onion paste (following different recipes from the UC book and the CBM book) they've both come out the same after blending - a bright orange very smooth liquid which looks like angel delight, tastes of onions and is very oily.  I froze this in tablespoon portions in a series of ice cube trays.  As it's just blended caramelised onions with oil I find this is interchangeable with a fresh diced onion fried until soft and translucent.  Following some rave reviews of banjarra on here I'm either doing it completely wrong or it's just not got the wow factor I was anticipating.  I won't bother again with it, for my recipe above stick to the fresh onion to give a closer result to what I made if that helps.

[Stephen Lindsay]

Are all your spoon measures level, rounded, heaped or what?

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that, unless otherwise stated, most people mean 'heaped' (as seen in most videos) so one of their tsp is about the same as one of my tbls.

Why assume it's heaped George?

if it's heaped it's not actually a tsp it's more than a tsp
my heaped tsp might be 1 1/2 tsp - your2 might be a 2 tsp or even a tbsp so it's inconsistent
if it's heaped it's not a precise measurement
if it's heaped the recipe should say so, otherwise a tsp is a tsp
it's a bit like saying a pint of beer is a pint and a quarter - pubs would soon be diddling themselves using that method of measurement

[George]

Why assume it's heaped George?

To compensate for others' way of working and documenting their recipes in practice. Blame them - not me. I always thought 1 tsp meant 5ml because almost all recipe books confirm that sppon measures mean level. But it''s very rare you see that in videos, I've noticed, so no wonder people can get very different results.

If you'd made SP's Madras before my question you'd have used 5ml for 1tsp would you? When it appears SP meant nearer 15ml. Go figure! You'd get very different results.