Topic: Base Gravy,Oil v Without Oil.

[macferret]

Great pics SP - they really made you welcome. Nice work.
Tim

[chrisnw]

I cook predominately traditional Indian bases & masalas and the occasional BIR style base. I really cannot envisage a base / masala made without oil as it is an essential vehicle for the whole and dried spices. For example an Indian chef told me many years ago to always add turmeric to oil before the aromatics i.e. ginger / garlic paste. I usually now add turmeric (and salt - browns onions much faster) to the oil during the onion frying stage. I have included this video link for the preparation of a traditional yellow Indian gravy, which is particually interesting as the chef admits the mistake of adding turmeric too late. The final gravy is excellent by the way and works great in many Korma and South Indian style dishes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_59BTa60gw

Excellent thread LC 

Chrisnw

[livo]

Photo #28 I an interesting one!!!  BIR in a familiar purple label.  There's your 5%???  ;D

[chrisnw]

Tomato in the gravy - I'm not a fan. But then I prefer a Bangladeshi old-style curry such as you got in the London area in the 1980s (and often still do in Brick Lane and South London.) The high tomato content is more of a Pakistani / Punjabi thing.  Glasgow curries tend to have a lot of tomato in the base, for instance. But I find it too sharp. All a matter of taste of course.

Very true, many traditional Pakistani / Punjabi curries use a concentrated onion / tomato masala which gives a very distinctive taste and texture. However, the sharp taste of the tomato should disappear though with proper cooking, I think this principle also applies to BIR curries.

Chrisnw

[sp]

pataks tandoori and tikka pastes?  they use both tandoori paste and tikka paste plus yoghurt for marinading the lamb tikka before it gets cooked in the tandoor.  chicken tikka suprisingly is done with the tikka marinade shown in the other photos - tandoori masala powder and yoghurt, rather than the pataks tikka paste

[Garp]

Nice pics, sp. What part of the animal is that big bit of lamb from?

[sp]

i think they're lamb tenderloins? i didn't ask to be honest!  boneless, they came in a box, individually wrapped in plastic, important to be cut in the same size as beef medallions, too small and they shrink too much, used for tikka on the skewers and for the pre-cook.  8 or 9 pieces per curry, depending on the size

[livo]

pataks tandoori and tikka pastes?  they use both tandoori paste and tikka paste plus yoghurt for marinading the lamb tikka before it gets cooked in the tandoor.  chicken tikka suprisingly is done with the tikka marinade shown in the other photos - tandoori masala powder and yoghurt, rather than the pataks tikka paste

Pataks yet again.  Here is a link to the question I asked back a few months ago about the Mild Curry Paste being used in bases.
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,13264.0.html

[livo]

i think they're lamb tenderloins? i didn't ask to be honest!  boneless, they came in a box, individually wrapped in plastic, important to be cut in the same size as beef medallions, too small and they shrink too much, used for tikka on the skewers and for the pre-cook.  8 or 9 pieces per curry, depending on the size

The best and most costly part of the animal.

[sp]

my lamb phall being cooked.... listen carefully to what the chef says (whilst you try to ignore my voice  :-X)... and notice the consistency and oilyness of the base...

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1489731591309127&l=7479535007867726979 (part 1/2)

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1489737427975210&l=6372943035861149781 (part 2/2)