Topic: Slightly confused

[TikkaTai]

Before joining this site I had found a youtube video of Steve Heaps base gravy & seasoned oil. I have to say the gravy was spot on! The oil though I discarded. When that base ran out I made (yesterday) the updated Glasgow base. I have found recipes using this base hard to find. I used some pre cooked beef. The results were really poor, glad I wasn't feeding anyone else  The curry gravy was really thin, does anyone know how I would thicken it? also, where are the recipes for this base mix hiding? I don't think I'll make it again but have 4 portions in the freezer.

Regards, Tai

[livo]

Beef curry is a lot harder to cook in BIR curry than Lamb and Chicken. I struggle to get a good beef curry and don't often try. I use more traditional recipes for beef and to be honest I prefer chicken and lamb curries anyway.  If the gravy was just too thin you may just need to cook it down and keep evaporating water out of it.  Use it by adding to the pan pre-heated and in small increments.

As for the Glasgow base and associated recipes, I'm not sure having not cooked it, but the members here will tell you of the regional differences between different BIR areas and your in Scotland with this one.  My advice is to stick with the other bases.  One of Chewtytikka's, or JB's Takeaway. I recently found the Saffron base quite acceptable.  I bought Misty Ricardo's ebook and his gravy is good too.  There is a whole sub board dedicated to base recipes.  I even came up with a hybrid of several different base gravies that worked out pretty well.

I haven't really bothered with matching recipes to particular base gravies and I don't really think this is how it's meant to work.  You should be able to make a Chicken Madras using any base gravy.  They may not end up exactly the same but they should all be a decent Madras.

[TikkaTai]

Thanks Livo,

Much appreciated. I'm just cooking off a heap of veggies to have another try, after that I'll stick to chicken and not the Glasgow base. I'll do as you suggested & add small increments to the pan. The Steve Heap recipe came out well as it was much thicker! I will definitely check out Chewy Tikkas & JB's base recipes for my next attempt!

Watery vegetables anyone  :

[livo]

It could be saved by using half of it at a time and adding it in to make another batch of gravy. Just adjust spicing a little bit to make it a decent sort of base.  Extra onions and thicken it up a bit.  Or you can dump it and go again. 

Remember that the typical BIR curry is wetter than an Aussie one.  Use less water in the base. You can always dilute it later.

[Sverige]

Thin base is not a problem. Not cooking the curry long enough, is.  This is what results in a runny curry,  Simply cook your final dish long enough to get to a consistency you like, and forget trying to match the brief cooking time you see in videos from BIR kitchens.

It sounds to me like you're following a recipe which mentions a cooking duration and, entirely reasonably as a beginner, you're sticking with that.  Better to throw the cooking time expectation out the window and just cook it to where you're happy with it.

At home, without a high output burner, it's hard to get the spices in a curry cooked properly without extending the cooking time longer, which a thin base helps you achieve. Thicker bases which force you to not cook the curry long enough are a problem imho.

[Sverige]

It could be saved by using half of it at a time and adding it in to make another batch of gravy. Just adjust spicing a little bit to make it a decent sort of base.  Extra onions and thicken it up a bit.  Or you can dump it and go again.

Nonsense!  You're advising him to add his base to another batch of base, or to add extra onions to it?  Or "dump it"

He just needs to use the base he has properly.  If you don't know the answer to a question posed, better to stay quiet than to start giving dodgy advice. You're just going to cost the guy time, money and frustration.

[livo]

I've successfully done it.  Just because you don't agree don't make it wrong.  I've also dumped base and it's no great financial strain. Onions and a bit of water.  That's the difference between someone who knows how to follow recipes and someone who knows how to cook.

Did you not read my first reply? I gave the exact same advice you have now repeated but without the sprouting about burner output.  I then added alternative solutions which if done with a sensible approach are perfectly feasible to anybody capable of mathematical basics and some cooking experience.  Did you not read the different cultural expectation between BIR and Australian served?  I speak from actual first hand experience here.

I notice you've provided no advice on the question of beef. Enlighten us all.

[Sverige]

No Livo, the difference between someone who knows how to cook and someone who doesn't, is the former doesn't spend hours cooking a base gravy then have to throw it away because they messed up. I've never binned a base gravy, so draw your own conclusions.

I notice you've provided no advice on the question of beef. Enlighten us all.

Have I missed the introduction of a new rule where no one can reply to a thread without answering every question within it, or are you just "sprouting" (sic) ?!

[Les]

To me a recipe is not the Bible, It's just a guide. So change it as you wish to get what YOU want.

[Peripatetic Phil]

To me a recipe is not the Bible, It's just a guide. So change it as you wish to get what YOU want.

Exactly, Les.  "Rules (and recipes) are for the guidance of the wise and the blind obedience of fools".   Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader CBE, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, FRAeS, DL may not have used those exact words but he would most certainly have approved and agreed.