Topic: Vegetarians need not apply.

[livo]

Well even though my family don't want curry, who cares?  I do.
Thought I'd start a new post so as I don't hijack anybody elses. I'm guilty of that but it's sometimes difficult to know the boundary. The problem is that it can make forums unwieldy to navigate for others, either way you go. Oh well.

Chicken.  There you go.  As I mentioned elsewhere I have been pawing over old stuff.  Chicken carcases in the base.  The aroma was immediately what I've been missing, and that's just the base gravy.  As I don't have a grinder of anything of the sort I took a different approach.  I bought 2 whole chickens (not alive although my old hens don't lay anymore. Watch out girls!) and took the meat off them. I then boiled the remains and used the resulting stock in place of water in the base.  I then deboned the solids from the boil and threw it all in the base (sans bones) at stage 3. Blending and cooking out.

Well the aroma of the whole base changed immediately to anything Ive ever done before.  Plus I didn't rush it.  Stage 1 and 2 slowly in the pressure cooker pot and then stage 3 in the big guns. My crab cooker.

Would you believe that exactly 30 minutes to the dot after I put it on the flame, the magic that Chewytikka said would happen did.  As if by magic the oil rose to the surface.  I truly think that this is the first proper base I've made.

Pictures: Base gravy made with chicken stock from boiled carcases. Deboned chicken boil off.

[livo]

All blended up,  The big pot, Away we go. The magic happens.

[littlechilie]

Hi Livo,

I

[chewytikka]

Looks a good old school Garabi Livo ;D
Good work

[littlechilie]

Sorry forgot to say, as above, a great stock and gravy Livo. If bir can be improved upon then why not. extract that flavour to the max.

[livo]

I can't wait to cook a curry.

Littlechilli , I've had oil separation before. What I haven't done is put chicken through the base. Sorry for the confusion, and you're correct that it does read that way.  It was actually the exact 30 minute period of the oil appearing that was magic. Right on cue as it were.
Now that you've explained the flame it makes it clearer what Bing was asking. I've never had enough oil on top to notice that it would ignite.

Thanks chewy. This is what I'm after.

[Dajoca]

Hi Livo. Great post.
Any chance you could explain further (for the hard of understanding - me)
Which base recipe.
What method and what spice mix?

Thank you

[livo]

You could use any Mixed Powder. I made a batch from my averaging analysis here:- http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=14311.msg130229#msg130229
5:4:3:2:2:1:1
5 X Turmeric
4 X Curry Powder (I used Mothers Choice Madras Curry Powder here and in the Base Gravy ingredients)
3 X Coriander
2 X Cumin
2 X Paprika
1 X Chili (I used Kashmiri )
1 X Multi (Either Garam Masala, Tandoori Masala or Kitchen King) (I used Garam Masala).

Base Gravy ingredients from my Averaging analysis here:-. http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=14900.msg130125#msg130125  I used the quantities listed pretty much but I did add a couple of pieces of potato (left over Bombay Potato but you could use fresh uncooked).
I used 400 g of canned diced tomato only and no concentrate. You can mix and match here.
I didn't have any fresh coriander leaves or stalks.
I used my last piece of coconut cream block but again, use anything form of coconut or leave it out. Up to you.
This is a pretty common list of ingredients. I think you could use any of the more well known Gravy recipe ingredients.

As for method, I pretty much followed Misty Ricardo's method for Pressure Cooker but I did the final simmer in a big pot on the stove. You could do it all on the stove but it will take longer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Eyd3KfEdB4
Stages 1 and 2 I did in the Pressure cooker for about 20 minutes each stage.

The big change for me was the chicken.  I've never put chicken in a base gravy and I read over one of Chewytikka's very early posts that mentioned how they did it in the 1980's.  However,  instead of throwing it in with the base, I boiled two chicken frames in water. When it came to stage 2, I used this stock in place of the water to be added.  While that was cooking in the Pressure Cooker I cooled and de-boned the remaining chicken meat from the frames.  This I added to the gravy before blending and then stage 3 simmer till oil separation.

I then put it all through a fine mesh sieve and removed well over a cup of fibrous material.

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to assist.

[Dajoca]

Thank you again Livo.

Just to clarify, after boiling and stripping the carcasses, you added the remnants of chicken meat to the base, before blending?

Thanks for an excellent write up.

[livo]

Exactly. Boiled chicken stock instead of water at stage 2 and then add the boiled chicken meat before blending.
I figured it was easier this way than putting the frames directly into the gravy, then needing to get the bones out after they fell apart. For this quantity of base you'd get away with 1 chicken frame but I had 2 and they were only smallish ones.  It could be a bit too much chicken but it did make a good base gravy so I'm OK with it.

Read 3 Hour Curry Base thread from 2011 by Chewytikka. here

He discusses the use of a grinder or food mill and why it was used historically.

I mentioned it in my first post on cr0, which I referred to it as a grinder.

(Grinding or passing it through a sieve gathers all the unwanted pulp, onion fibres/skin, pips and seeds etc. leaving you with the smooth BIR textured sauce.

The importance of the grinder, if your trying to emulate the curries of the 60/70/80's
in those days, every BIR and TA would have two or three whole chickens boiling away in the curry base brew!

They would fish out the overcooked chicken at the end, literally falling apart, leaving lots of bits and pieces behind.
Once put through the grinder the base was ready to go!  This was a real "curry secret" which meant all the vegetarian's of the time weren't, if they liked a good curry that is!)

cheers chewy

I take no credit for this. I just did it a different way as I don't own a mill.