Topic: Frying spices

[After8]

Yeah, I'm turning into a proper curry anorak. I'll give me guts a chance to recover, and will be back in there.

Has anyone tried that restaurant spice mix that Bruce Edwards recommends?

A8

[spicysarsy]

Hi After8, Yeah I tried the Bruce Edwards mix when I first joined the forum, but to be honest I personally prefer to use ChiliPrawns and Darthpall's mix's.

[After8]

I'm reluctant to ask this, but has anyone tried using curry powder to totally replace the mixture of various spices. This would explain how so many small outfits can achieve consistant results without the years of experience.

A standard curry would use just the curry powder ( mild madras), with extra chill for the hotter madras, then more still for the vindaloos. The high turnover of this one particular thing would also mean it was constantly fresh.

This site in the link may interest - if you click on the products it sometimes gives you a list of their ingredients. I think I may have ballsed up the link, but here goes!
 

http://www.simplyspice.co.UK/ground-spices-c-15.html?page=1

[Mark J]

With the second one, I fried a few onions, then a bit of puree and then threw the spices in, frying them for no more than 20 seconds. I'm sure the onion helps to deffuse the heat - Bruce Edwards uses a pepper which, I guess, does much the same thing.

Hi Mate,

When frying something with water content (ie tomato paste and onions) the temperature in your pan wont go much over 100C, of course it depends how much of this content is in the pan as to how hot other areas of the pan will get but for example if you added a load of oil and a load of onions in a pan and cooked it on high the temp wont go over 100C until almost all of the water has been driven out of the onions.

[woodpecker21]

hi guys
the spice mix i'm using at the moment is .......

2 parts turmeric
1 part coriander
1 part cummin
1 part garam masala
1 part chilli powder
1 part curry powder(only an addition to my Rajver masala)

turn out some fantastic curries mainly vinadloos but tasty hot and the missus scoffs the and hiccups that's more than enough commendation. sorry all the above spices at the moment are rajah. asda do the 100g bags for around 48p a bag.

regards
gary

[After8]

I'm having the folks around for curries next weekend, so I set about making them to freeze (sauces only - will lob the chicken in on the day)

I made four, two were identical dopiazas, apart from the fact that I pre-fried the spice mix on one and just threw it straight into the sauce on the other. The flavours were quite similar, but the textures were very diffrent.

The fried spice curry had that fluffy texture, you know, where the sauce never seems to mix with the oil. The other had that BIR smoothness, like a soup. It seems like the frying process sort of locks the spices into the oil so they can't mix with the base.

I tasted both, and preferred the non-fried one, though both were
 fine. Maybe pre-frying is best for dishes which have little or no base, but loads of oil.

One other interesting point, both curries tasted completely different, after thay had been left to settle - the flavours come out a lot more.l

BTW, I also found that fennel seeds give rice a nice aniseedy overtone.

[Chilli Prawn]

Hi A8, I and others have written many lines of text on this subject, and I guess you are learning (the hard way maybe which isn't a bad thing).  If you read hints & tips there is loads of feedback with stuff about the oil & water issues.  To be honest both approaches are correct, but do you want a BIR approach or a Traditional approach because that is where the main differences lie.  If you use water the product will not freeze well (I have spent years perfecting freezing techniques for the business).  Water is used in traditional because the meal will be eaten when it has finished cooking.  Basically water breaks up the spice and releases the flavour and thats it; so you choose when to add it to adjust the flavours of the dish.  It always better to add an emulsion rather than water, e.g. thinned yoghurt or milk.

Please follow this link http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php

CP

PS How was the Madras?

[DARTHPHALL]

Hi After8.
I have used just Curry Powder in the final curry cooking/making stage & have found it makes a decent enough basic quick Curry.
But i use my own base which has an already high depth of flavor compared to many basic bases like KD's which makes it easier to make quick good tasting curries.Coupled with a load of Chilli powder it works bloody well.

Seasons greetings 

DARTHPHALL

[Jkhoury]

I always fry spices first in oil and believe this to be crucial in creating a great curry. 

If you find that you are burning the spices start by using a low heat and gently fry them for a couple of minutes, if they do burn and turn black then bin it and try again.  As you get more confident turn the heat up and this will allow you to cook them for less time.

If you browse through some older posts this subject has come up and is talked about quite a bit, if I can find any interesting threads I will post a link back here.

cK

I definitely have to agree with you here.. I've always fried spices in oil first and have also found it's an absolutely essential in getting the taste you're after in a curry.

[After8]

I haven't done the madras yet, but I'm toying with using just curry powder with a bit of extra chilli, some garlic powder and possibly ginger powder, then finally adding some garam masala if needs be. Curry powder is, after all, just a spice mix. If the madras turns out to be crap then it'll only be me that eats it as I'm the only one in the family who'll eat anything remotely hot - I'll just pretend it's nice.

I used a Fairly bland base so I could adapt it for the creamy stuff and this all turned out well.

A8