Topic: Glasgow curry base sauce

[acrabat]

I am curious about something. I read a lot of members are looking for that 70's/80's taste to their curries but at the same time are concerned about the amount of oil in this base. If I look back at the curries from those decades that we were served in my area, they usually came with a quarter an inch of oil floating on top when you opened the container. BB1's base is way less oily than they used to be here. But I suppose this is the home of deep fried everything. ;D ;D ;D

[Secret Santa]

i just cook the chicken in the big pot of base sauce, no vegetarians to consider in my household

Then you haven't cooked a proper Glasgow (bb1) curry as the spices that the chicken get cooked in are essential to the flavour of the finished curry.

[beachbum]

I am curious about something. I read a lot of members are looking for that 70's/80's taste to their curries but at the same time are concerned about the amount of oil in this base. If I look back at the curries from those decades that we were served in my area, they usually came with a quarter an inch of oil floating on top when you opened the container. BB1's base is way less oily than they used to be here. But I suppose this is the home of deep fried everything. ;D ;D ;D

I remember exactly the same thing with the curries in Cardiff in the 1970s. Remember that in those days vegetable oil was not common at home, most cooking was done with lard, dripping or butter or something like "Fairy" a block of white fatty stuff if I remember rightly - in fact veg oil never appeared in our own kitchen until about 1980 and was regarded as being a bit "posh food".
So my overwhelming memory of 1970s curries - and this was before take aways had been invented - was being served a metal dish of mysterious morsels swimming in pools of lovely golden oil that we would soak up with our paratha or rice. Yum.

Edit: Off topic, as an example of the culture, I grew up in Council Flats in Newcastle and Mam had a bottle of olive oil in the bathroom medicine cabinet for earwax I suppose. When I was 7 I drank it - tasted quite nice IIRC - and Mam rushed me off to the doctors in a panic  ;D

[Secret Santa]

BB1's base is way less oily than they used to be here.

The problem is that the oil (and there's lots of it) does not separate from the curry (or at least it didn't for me). So you can't spoon it off if you don't want to eat it, unlike almost any other curry method I've used.

[Peripatetic Phil]

I read a lot of members are looking for that 70's/80's taste to their curries but at the same time are concerned about the amount of oil in this base. If I look back at the curries from those decades that we were served in my area, they usually came with a quarter an inch of oil floating on top when you opened the container.

That rang a bell. Not in a container, but in a giant stainless steel tub, the sort of thing in which 976bar now serves the Royal Holloway masses.  This was in a very ordinary Indian restaurant close to Warren Street station which catered primarily for people from the sub-continent and very poor UCL students.  There was a good quarter of an inch of oil on top of each bain marie, maybe even a third.  Still tasted wonderful !

** Phil.

[Cory Ander]

The smell was really quite nice

To be honest, at this stage, it reminded me of the smell of boiled onions on a hotdog stand.

I was measuring the oil and adding from a jug
I got to a full litre and thought "no"
I couldn't add any more
It was quite clear, this would be too much

It is unfortunate, to say the least, that having been so insistent on not deviating from the original amounts, that BB1 has subsequently said that 2 litres is too much oil (by almost a factor of 2!).

You can definitely taste the coriander and turmeric
I could also taste the coconut

I couldn't really detect any of these (apart from some greasiness imparted from the coconut block)

It reminded me slightly of the Taz base

Probably because it is made with the same intent...add lots of oil to the base and don't use any in the final cooking.

Unfortunately there is no way I could  cook with this amount of oil in the base
I've thrown nearly all of it away and froze just a litre

I threw about 8 litres of it away (after boiling it and recovering as much spice infused oil from it as possible) and froze the remaining 3 litres for further work

But there is promise in the flavour

I agree.  There is a nice background depth and flavour to it (that warrants further investigation).  It is also very sweet (due in large part, no doubt, to the sugar added)

I just don't know how to modify it

I found that by using no oil in the cooking and no salt (but otherwise making a curry as you are probably more familiar with) that it produced a very palatable vindaloo (please refer to my previous post).

But I must add, it is very mooreish and well worth trying something so different

Indeed.  But is it really much different than most other bases, apart from the large amount of oil and little amount of water in it?  If anything, I would say that is is quite underspiced compared to many other curry bases on this forum?

PS:  When I made the chicken vindaloo, I sieved the precooked chicken to remove the surplus oil from that.  I think that helped reduce the "greasiness"

Thanks for your review Haldi 

[Cory Ander]

Or I did get the base sauce at my mother in law's house in Newbury when my wife turned up and am posting stuff using my iPhone and my data allowance?

Please forgive my scepticism, MWN, but when you post, on the other forum, that you are about to try this base, for the very first time, yesterday, and then exult in your excellent results, you compound my scepticism.

And if BB1 and SJ66 are not one in the same person (plus one or two others too), or are at least very closely related, I'll eat my hat.

Please do not bother to read or respond to this post if you do not share my scepticism.

[Micky Tikka]

The base thickens 

[Cory Ander]

To all those (and there seem to be a fair few) who criticise other members who seek to clarify amounts of ingredients in a recipe:

Are you better off or worse off (i.e. more likely to reproduce the intended result or less likely to reproduce the intended result?) if you know the size of a "chef's spoon"?

Are you better off or worse off (i.e. more likely to reproduce the intended result or less likely to reproduce the intended result?) if you know whether the "chef's spoon" is level, rounded or heaped?

Are you better off or worse off (i.e. more likely to reproduce the intended result or less likely to reproduce the intended result?) if you know that the weight of onions is before peeling rather than after peeling?

Are you better off or worse off (i.e. more likely to reproduce the intended result or less likely to reproduce the intended result?) if you know that it should really be 1.25 litres of oil rather than 2 litres?

Anyone who thinks they are better off not knowing these things is seriously misguided, in my opinion. 

Period.

PS:  I admit I am a little bit miffed, with all the liberal defence of not practically defining quantities, to find out that I have spent the best part of 2 days (not to mention the expense) in making 11 litres of curry base when the recipe is (grossly) incorrectly defined.

[Martinwhynot]

Or I did get the base sauce at my mother in law's house in Newbury when my wife turned up and am posting stuff using my iPhone and my data allowance?

Please forgive my scepticism, MWN, but when you post, on the other forum, that you are about to try this base, for the very first time, yesterday, and then exult in your excellent results, you compound my scepticism.

And if BB1 and SJ66 are not one in the same person (plus one or two others too), or are at least very closely related, I'll eat my hat.

Please do not bother to read or respond to this post if you do not share my scepticism.

CA, just a small point...
How could I respond if I did NOT read it, lol.
I'll think you'll find I did NOT state on the other forum that I was trying the base for the first time, I said I was new to it and consider this still to be the case even now; I want to try more dishes with the base (as I have it anyway!) before concluding what I'd use it for.
I'm not really bothered what others think abiut the base but I genuinely like it and think it is similar to ones tried in Scotland. I have got 'uppity' when others who dismissed it without trying it or got personal.

The other 2 people you talk about are both quite happy on the other forum now, much less infighting, the recipe is there for all to try and like or dislike. If they are one and the same they are using 2 different email addresses and writing styles. I'd never been so suspicious about all of that, really, as its always been about the curry for me, not how many are pushing it, etc.

Just a consideration though: I have typically looked at both forums from time to time. A 'Scottish' curry doesn't come up to try that often. My spurts of posts do seem to be around such events(Panpot and all that). Maybe there's a link and the reason for the spike in enthusiasm? So it's a pity that when those who normally read here as a guest finally get to try something they are interested in and let others know how good it is they would apper to come from nowhere, etc. except they didn't..always been ther and were posting before some of the people her found the site!

Just a thought.

Martin