Why so much oil?

[Malc.]

Why is there so much oil in the base gravy?

It's a very good question.

In my opinion it's because oil is the primary flavour carrier for spice essential oils to dissolve into. Not much point putting spices into a base sauce if there's no carrier for them or anything for them to dissolve into.

This is why (in my opinion) BIR style curry nearly always uses a lot of oil and why the resultant takeaway dishes are often swimming in it.

BIR style cookery and dishes aren't exactly the the most healthy out there. But it's because of all that oil the dishes taste so yummy!

Rubbish

Are you saying Chris, that curry is healthy? I mean a basic curry I worked out to be about 1200 calories without rice or any other side!

[Peripatetic Phil]

Are you saying Chris, that curry is healthy? I mean a basic curry I worked out to be about 1200 calories without rice or any other side!

But 1200 calories is not the same as unhealthy, is it Malc ?  I'm sure many meals contain more than 1200 calories (certainly those that I eat !), but if they contain a well-balanced mixture of naturally-occurring proteins, carbohydrates, fats, nutrients, etc., then their calorie content alone would not make them unhealthy ...

** Phil.

[Malc.]

Are you saying Chris, that curry is healthy? I mean a basic curry I worked out to be about 1200 calories without rice or any other side!

But 1200 calories is not the same as unhealthy, is it Malc ?  I'm sure many meals contain more than 1200 calories (certainly thosde that I eat !), but if they contain a well-balanced mixture of naturally-occurring proteins, carbohydrates, fats, nutrients, etc., then their calorie content alone would not make them unhealthy ...

** Phil.

[Simplysandy]

Did I say something? Lol. Love it, guys that are passionate about something other than football :-) I'm not sure I agree that pouring that much oil into a base mix is necessary, but time and experiment will tell and I certainly bow to all your knowledge and experience (don't shout be nice)  ;D
I have noticed something else about this and another BIR curry site, why is it mainly men? And thinking about it, I've never seen a woman cooking in an indian. Now I'm very curious about this as mostly all of the cooking is done by women in asian households? After having a curry weekend, my family are now moaning about the smell, anybody got any tips how to de stink my house?

[chewytikka]

Welcome SS
It would help with your questions, if you were a bit more specific on what your actually doing,
i.e. Which base and recipes you are starting with etc

[Simplysandy]

Well like I said, I'm no expert which is why I'm asking! So all indian takeaways are Bangladeshi? Really? Well see you taught me something I didn't know. All the bases I have seen have quite a lot of oil in, which is why I was curious. I've tried c2g and 2 others off an other site. Best get some oust for the next bought of cooking!

[chef888]

oil and fat are carriers of flavour at the end of the cooking period sands you just have to spoon off any excess  , if your just thinking of the amount used in a base sauce tis the same thing and when it comes to cooking a dish you wont have to use so much oil to cook it and even then at the end of cooking tilt pan spoon off unwanted oil hope this helps  ( Ivan )

[dammag]

If the oil carries flavour then wouldn't you be taking away flavour by skimming off the oil at the end of cooking?

[DalPuri]

If there's enough oil floating to skim off, then you can guarantee there will still be plenty running through the curry.
And that oil that you skimmed, starts the next curry. 

[chef888]

i think Young Dal as hit the nail well and truly on da head cuz that's how i see it to ( Ivan)