Topic: Base cook doown.

[emin-j]

Had about one and a bit portions of base left in the pressure cooker after knocking up a quick base yesterday and walking down the stairs this morning noticed how the house had the aroma of a takeaway  the Wife also noticed it without me mentioning it and I commented it was the gravy left in the pressure cooker which she then lifted the lid to have a sniff,'' close '' she said '' but not quite the same'' she then went on to say she thought the aroma came from the base being 'fried' when making the main curry so I put half a ladle of base in the pan and cooked it down to near nothing 
The aroma around the house was caramelised onions  with a hint of spices,there was just about a teaspoon of caramelised base left in the pan which I had to taste and  what a flavour ! It was delicious ! Very powerful flavour of fried onions and spices,I'm sure if you could get some of this flavour into your curries it would be a considerable improvement 
Thinking about how curries are usually started with oil then g/g plus spice mix, chili powder and tomato paste I don't know if once you add the first ladle of base you could cook this mixture down to the point of caramelising without burning the mixture 
Hope this might help in some way to get that savoury flavour we're looking for   

PS, you could start your curries with a half ladle of base and cook this down before starting with the oil and this is how our local t/a make their curries with their ' all in one ' base but without the oil.

[Secret Santa]

I think most of us use that technique anyway although not putting the half ladle in before any other ingredients, rather adding a small amount after the initial spices and gg paste has been added. I must try it base first just to see what effect it has.

[Stephen Lindsay]

I think this describes what happens when using the Taz base and method. Worth a try for sure.

[emin-j]

I think most of us use that technique anyway although not putting the half ladle in before any other ingredients, rather adding a small amount after the initial spices and gg paste has been added. I must try it base first just to see what effect it has.

Hi SS, Yes my normal method would be to start with oil,g/g,spices/chili,tomato paste but don't know whether you would be able to cook down the first ladle of base to the point of caramelising without burning the other ingredients 

[Geezah]

You could always reduce down a ladle of base, set aside then add it back later as you would if using a bunjara.

Might be an interesting trial.

[emin-j]

You could always reduce down a ladle of base, set aside then add it back later as you would if using a bunjara.

Might be an interesting trial.

Like your thinking Geezah but there is so little left after the hard fry as most of it is stuck to the side of the pan  at this point it would be a good time to start your curry with the oil etc etc as the tasty residue could be stirred into the curry,just don't see BIR's doing this  could it be the power of BIR burners that do this ? Dunno