Topic: Tomato sauce hack

[madpower]

A mate of mine was making us a curry with a jar of pataks balti sauce,i asked for a taste of it out the jar and the first thing that sprang to mind was that it tasted similar to a bir kitchens tomato sauce i once sneaked a taste off,it tastes mildly tangy and quite tomatoey,so as i like to experiment i went and bought a jar and liquidized it and i made some bir curries using the same amount of the balti sauce instead of using the watered down tomato puree version to cook the spices in ,the curries i have made are so much tastier,i feel it was a big step forward and i wont be turning back,maybe the purists may not like it so perhaps they could look at the ingredients on the jar and have ago at making your own

[livo]

More information needed. I followed the first bit up to where you liquidised the jar of Pataks Balti sauce.  What happened after that?

[Peripatetic Phil]

As I understand it, the Patak's balti paste was used after liquidising as a substitute for diluted tomato pur

[madpower]

I used a chefs spoon of the balti sauce to cook out my spices rather than using the watered down tomato puree method before adding my base,i still make the curries bir style,i feel it is a tad closer to tasting like a bir than i have achieved before,sorry for not making it more clear Livo i hope this helps

[madpower]

Correct phill

[George]

I used a chefs spoon of the balti sauce to cook out my spices

Please clarify - what exactly do you mean by 'cook out' please?  I understand frying, baking, grilling, etc. but not 'cook out'.

[madpower]

Sorry george, just a term i picked up from  some were,basically boiling your spices in the balti sauce to cook out the rawness of the spices before adding your base.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Please clarify - what exactly do you mean by 'cook out' please?  I understand frying, baking, grilling, etc. but not 'cook out'.

I would say that the nearest BIR term is "bhuna" (also "bhoona", "bhunao", etc).  The phrase "cook out" is used by many chefs to describe a process, normally involving frying, in which the aim is to "cook out" (="remove by cooking") some unwanted element (rawness, excessive moisture, etc) in the things that one is "cooking out".

** Phil.

[George]

Many thanks for clarifying the possible meaning. I've heard professional chefs use the term on the radio and it always sounds a bit odd. Why not simply say the ingredient was cooked or fried? Another strange phrase from the English language which I often wonder about is when shop assistants ask if I am all right, like they are implying I look unwell.

[livo]

So I assume the liquidising process is a dilution with water. 

I've been using this recipe for Balti Paste for about 10 years now. It has produced some nice curry dishes and salvaged some not so good ones as well.

https://www.kidspot.com.au/kitchen/recipes/balti-paste-scratch/n805h9rv

Check Mallika Basu 321desicooking video on YouTube from 2013. They look like 3 tasty and easy dishes using the same Pataks paste.