Topic: The Base Gravy

[CurryManUKs]

Firstly, I wish you all a happy new year!

With my base gravy about to run out, I figured I'd make this post to have all the up-to-date information in one place.

This base gravy got me thinking and I liked the look of the final curries.

After seeing a lot of videos, and reading many recipes, I have a few questions that people here might have answers to.

1) Does frying the onions make a difference, or is the Maillard reaction useless for the base gravy?

2) Does frying the spices at the beginning make a difference, or is the effect that it produces in curries useless for the base gravy?

3) When speaking of bases that "overpower" a dish -- that is, make every dish taste the same -- what is mostly to blame: the type/quantity of spices or the use/quantity other ingredients (e.g. cabbage, peppers, condensed/sweet milk)?

4) Have you tried to make a curry with the "spiced oil" from a base gravy? If so, is there a noticeable difference in the flavour of the curry?

5) Do you think the type of tomato makes a difference (chopped tomatoes, plum tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, etc.?) -- do you know what restaurants generally use?

6) Have you found it true that certain bases are more suitable for certain curries?

7) I take it that most of you have experimented with numerous bases; which is your favourite?

If you'd be so kind as to weigh in on whichever questions you can answer, that'd be great. I intend to make my batch tomorrow, so I want to be prepared. 

[Peripatetic Phil]

My Eur 0,02

[CurryManUKs]

Thanks, Phil. How much of a difference do you think a base gravy actually makes? Most recipes seem similar, and I figure it'd be pretty hard to tell a difference unless you made two curries alongside each other with just the base gravy changed. Maybe I'm mistaken and it's easy to tell a difference (I tweak my ingredients too much to have ever made a fair comparison!) I'll add KD1 & Syed's base gravy to my list. Have you tried chewytikka's 3 hour base or Zaal's restaurant base?

[Peripatetic Phil]

Thanks, Phil. How much of a difference do you think a base gravy actually makes?

In practice, little difference, although some bases are so far from the norm that they must make a difference.  There seem to be two schools of thought

[CurryManUKs]

Agreed. I'll just get on with a base that is highly praised, maybe make some alterations to my taste, but fretting over minutiae is a bit of a headache. Maybe one day I'll, by chance, make something superior to restaurant curries.  I think I'll pass on the seasoned/spiced/reclaimed oil. Studies suggest that reusing oil is remarkably unhealthy, and while curries aren't super foods, I don't want to make them more unhealthy than they need to be. If memory serves, whether seasoned oil makes a difference is highly contentious, so I'll play it safe.

[CurryManUKs]

Has anyone experimented with using different onions? Some onions are sweeter, others more bitter. I wonder if it makes a significant difference. I can only get my hands on English brown onions but I hear that restaurants typically use Dutch onions.

[Stephen Lindsay]

1) Does frying the onions make a difference, or is the Maillard reaction useless for the base gravy?
I believe it does though I can't prove it.

2) Does frying the spices at the beginning make a difference, or is the effect that it produces in curries useless for the base gravy?
I believe it does though I can't prove it.

3) When speaking of bases that "overpower" a dish -- that is, make every dish taste the same -- what is mostly to blame: the type/quantity of spices or the use/quantity other ingredients (e.g. cabbage, peppers, condensed/sweet milk)?
Most base recipes on this site have been tried and tested and some, like BE for example have been well used. Therefore they should not be overpowering, and it is almost certainly too much of something, such as salt, chilli etc.

4) Have you tried to make a curry with the "spiced oil" from a base gravy? If so, is there a noticeable difference in the flavour of the curry?
No.

5) Do you think the type of tomato makes a difference (chopped tomatoes, plum tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, etc.?) -- do you know what restaurants generally use?
No.

6) Have you found it true that certain bases are more suitable for certain curries?
No. I will qualify this by saying that if a base is balanced, it should be able to be used with most curries on the BIR menu.

7) I take it that most of you have experimented with numerous bases; which is your favourite?
Taz.

[CurryManUKs]

1) Does frying the onions make a difference, or is the Maillard reaction useless for the base gravy?
I believe it does though I can't prove it.

2) Does frying the spices at the beginning make a difference, or is the effect that it produces in curries useless for the base gravy?
I believe it does though I can't prove it.

3) When speaking of bases that "overpower" a dish -- that is, make every dish taste the same -- what is mostly to blame: the type/quantity of spices or the use/quantity other ingredients (e.g. cabbage, peppers, condensed/sweet milk)?
Most base recipes on this site have been tried and tested and some, like BE for example have been well used. Therefore they should not be overpowering, and it is almost certainly too much of something, such as salt, chilli etc.

4) Have you tried to make a curry with the "spiced oil" from a base gravy? If so, is there a noticeable difference in the flavour of the curry?
No.

5) Do you think the type of tomato makes a difference (chopped tomatoes, plum tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, etc.?) -- do you know what restaurants generally use?
No.

6) Have you found it true that certain bases are more suitable for certain curries?
No. I will qualify this by saying that if a base is balanced, it should be able to be used with most curries on the BIR menu.

7) I take it that most of you have experimented with numerous bases; which is your favourite?
Taz.

Thanks for the reply. I've noticed that Taz's base neither fries the spices nor the onions. Do you mean to say that these things change the base for the worse, or do you just think not doing them in that particular base is better? One thing I've noticed, too, is that Taz's base contains a lot of oil -- is there an advantage to this? Certain things "just work", but recently I've been trying to understand ingredients and what they do so if I tweak recipes, I know the effect I'm producing.

[Peripatetic Phil]

[R]recently I've been trying to understand ingredients and what they do

Then I think you stand a far better chance than most of achieving a first-class curry (or any other dish you turn your hand to, for that matter).  How many of us could say, hand on heart, that we understand why almost all curries use more turmeric than any other spice ?  Why we add cumin, coriander, fenugreek, ... in the proportions that we do ?  This is, I think, the very heart of our problem.  Not having had the good fortune to have been raised in the sub-continent, we have no innate understanding of what these ingredients set out to accomplish (sorry, a teleological description, but you will know what I mean).  We understand why we use chilli (because it makes dishes hotter) but as to the remainder of the ingredients all that most of us know is "well, that's how it's done".

Carry on as you're doing, CMUK

[Stephen Lindsay]

Thanks for the reply. I've noticed that Taz's base neither fries the spices nor the onions. Do you mean to say that these things change the base for the worse, or do you just think not doing them in that particular base is better? One thing I've noticed, too, is that Taz's base contains a lot of oil -- is there an advantage to this? Certain things "just work", but recently I've been trying to understand ingredients and what they do so if I tweak recipes, I know the effect I'm producing.

When I make Taz base I fry the onions and other vegetables in the large amount of oil it contains, then I add the spices, water etc.

Yes the Taz base does have a lot of oil, but when you cook a curry with it, you don't use any oil. You start with the base and add spices etc. Because of the amount of oil in the base, it fries the ingredients rather than boils them.

Here is an example basic curry to give you an idea of what I mean:

Chicken Medium Curry with Taz Base

Ingredients:

1 portion pre-cooked chicken
400 ml Taz curry base gravy
1 level tbsp tomato puree mixed with 1 tbsp. water
1 tsp garlic ginger paste
1 tsp BE spice mixture