Topic: When Curries Go Wrong

[Invisible Mike]

Do you ever make your favourite base you've made it 100 times before, you follow the recipe exactly, cook it for the required amount of time, blend it etc etc but it just tastes wrong? Bitter and harsh but no reason why? You persevere and make a curry with it regardless and it just tastes bloody awful!

I'm sure somebody here knows what I'm talking about. What do you put it down to and how do you salvage such disasters?

Cheers

[Madrasandy]

Try cooking your already cooked base again for a while, see if it improves on flavour.
Onions can take different amounts of time to cook and become sweet and the heat levels play a part if cooking for a said amount of time only.

[Sverige]

Onions vary in strength. It may be the recipe you use normally works because the onions you've been using are mild, but this time you bought some stronger onions which developed a bitter flavour.

The fix would be to cook them for longer, they will mellow and sweeten.

[chewytikka]

You've made the IDENTICAL BASE 100 times, thats impressive (which One?)

If its rubbish, You can't salvage it, tip it down the loo and make No.101 ;D

cheers Chewy

[fried]

I've made bases that are less sweet, or seem a bit less savoury, I'm sure my taste buds are curried out. Never made one that's been bitter. Do you add a garlic tarka?

[Invisible Mike]

You've made the IDENTICAL BASE 100 times, thats impressive (which One?)

If its rubbish, You can't salvage it, tip it down the loo and make No.101 ;D

cheers Chewy

Yep exactly 100 times chewy! 

I've made bases that are less sweet, or seem a bit less savoury, I'm sure my taste buds are curried out. Never made one that's been bitter. Do you add a garlic tarka?

Yep, garlic and ginger fried gently, then mix powder, then tomato pur?e and boiling water then add it to the onions, cook for another hour then blend....

[mickdabass]

I went through a phase about a year ago when I could do no right. I binned 3 consecutive pots of gravy, and all the curries I made from the 4th were complete pants too. Don't know why to this day...

Regards Mick

[Invisible Mike]

I think as Andy and Sverige have said, the onions even after over 3 hours in this case were undercooked. Just goes to show, there are no set times on cooking. Onions differ, they are done when they are done. Over spicing is another cause of ruined bases too I find.

[spiceyokooko]

I think as Andy and Sverige have said, the onions even after over 3 hours in this case were undercooked.

Where an earth do you get this from? 3 hours? You're kidding right?

And what makes you think the base was at fault?

More often than not things go wrong at the final dish cooking stage, not the base gravy. Base gravy is just a lightly spiced onion soup. And there's no way jose that onions should be undercooked after 3 hours.

[Invisible Mike]

Spiceyyokoono. I've made enough bases to know when one tastes wrong, even before making a dish with it.

The harsh, overpowering flavour meant the suggestion it may have been undercooked was a feasible one.