Topic: 3 Years on - Thoughts on what went into "that" base.

[prawnsalad]

My curry making only happens very occasionally now, usually when it's been so long that I've forgotten just how unlike a TA it actually tastes and that always brings me back to the point 3 years ago when I sat looking freeze frame at H4ppychris's base video where he promises we will all get to 100% satisfaction thanks to the contents of a small plate hes sliding in at around 25m 10s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A91qv2O5eQw

Although I continue to read new posts here there hasn't been anything as exciting since and so at the risk of getting people worked up over what happened back then I think enough time has passed to re-examine that saucer of "magic" as he describes it and wonder if it really was the method that hides so well in plain sight.

Personally from what I saw and read I think it was the real deal mainly due to his friendship with Sam which fits with a theory I posted a while ago in that the only way to achieve identical results is to have a Chef literally hold your spoon arm all the way through. Secondly his passion for BIR was obvious in terms of the large amount of personal time spent making videos in the TA.

This of course doesnt make me feel any better that the ebook never materialised and that this site could maybe now be alive with people shouting about how their own currys are surpassing the local TA on a regular basis.

Not that I am making accusations but I never properly understood why he left here anyway, be it arrogance, academic lazyiness with the book or just too much beer? all of which I think were suggested by others around then.

Remembering the aftermath, at least one person claimed to have been present in his kitchen when he was making that stuff and were bound to secrecy, but now the episode is pretty much ancient history I wonder if thats still the case? Does anyone have any partial information on it? Did anyone else know Sam or speak with him about it?

I can't help feeling it was an important missed opportunity and deserves revisiting in an intellectual fashion as opposed to Chris bashing, if only to debunk probably the boldest claim ever made here once and for all.



 

[haldi]

I would have loved to know
I emailed the takeaway that Sam works at, but got no reply
I thought maybe they would just tell me the missing ingredient

such a shame but I don't think we'll ever know

there's just a missing aroma from all my home BIR's
I never even got it with the Adey recipes either
Complete mystery
Just as baffled now, as I was ten years ago

[Donald Brasco]

I think it emerged on the other forum (CA's) in the "lets make a bircurries base" thread that it was a simple slow cooked bhagar of spices and diluted tomatoe pur?e with lots of water, boiled for twenty mins or so until the water was gone.  Same method he posted for making Kashmiri masala.

In other words, nothing revolutionary, just what many on here have emphasised, that the BIR flavour comes from well cooked spices. Chris's only problem was he was so green he thought everything was a revelation, when most on here already knew what he was teasing.