Topic: Ali's Indian Restaurant Cooking Base Revisited.

[Invisible Mike]

Some super looking curries there LC! Apart from the evaporated milk that's a pretty standard base recipe though (although I have seen it used before and have used it myself - Shah's recipe comes to mind).

Having watched a lot of restaurant videos I am surprised how few professional chefs actually tarka their garlic and ginger and mix powder before adding to the pot. I think it makes a world of difference and would never not do it, but hey, that's a whole topic of it's own... 

All the best

[littlechilie]

Morning MM, yep that is a great topic and feel free to discus it on this thread if you wish as its a very interesting stage when cooking a base.
And a good point if it would be added or not to a base, Ali's base dose not but many do.

I have as you can guess also used most available base gravys in the past, but find when tempering the spice the flavour is not correct or me.

I'm on the fence about frying and browning the garlic, it produces a great depth of background but is not for every dish! Once it's in the base its permanent  this tarka IMO could be better added indervidualy to a curry as I have seen in many good restaurants.

The simplicity of base is something we all seem to struggle with, convincing our selfs there must be magic or many ingredients. I'm not in this camp I'm afraid and with my ongoing results my belief is base is just base! A way of adding liquid stock.

The Magic well that's just all in the cooking technique and in the way we use whole spice,mix powder,fenugreek,tomato pur

[Peripatetic Phil]

I'm not in this camp I'm afraid and with my ongoing results my belief is base is just base! A way of adding liquid stock.

Ah, now there (and perhaps only there), we disagree.  I view a base as a way of adding body to a curry, not just liquid stock -- I believe that the onions (which are an integral part of every base) are there to thicken as well as to sweeten and contribute flavour ...

** Phil.

[littlechilie]

Hi Phil, Yep I agree and worded my post incorrect, I was trying unsuccessfully to say on that point is it's no magic potion  yes what you say is 100% it's there for body and thicken and sweeten.

But I'm still not in the baggar Camp

It just needs the basic ingredients and cooked in the correct manner to be a winner! This I think is were a lot of people fail in adding there own touch to a recipe.

I know I did in my early days.

Thanks LC