Topic: Instant base

[Peripatetic Phil]

Not yet tried searching for one, but here is the list of ingredients if you want to try to match it for yourself :

Liste des ingr

[livo]

Really???. French BIR made with stuff out of packets and you can sell 80 dishes a week to expats craving a good old BIR.  Doesn't say much for BIR then does it?

This thread answers many questions in one go.

[Hugoboss]

Really???. French BIR made with stuff out of packets and you can sell 80 dishes a week to expats craving a good old BIR.  Doesn't say much for BIR then does it?

This thread answers many questions in one go.

So who is judging your output ?

[Robbo141]

As a US-based expat I would buy that Shaheen instant base in a heartbeat if it got me that BIR certain something.  My girlfriend attended Manchester University and her halls of residence were in Rusholme.  Very good memories of bus rides from Sunderland and excellent curries.

Maybe I?ll import some Shaheen and give it a bash.  The resulting curry looks legit.

Robbo

[Hugoboss]

I have10 boxes (120 pouches) delivered to France for 100GBP. That may go up on my next delivery due to Brexit/Import charges but its still worth it. The guys at Shaheen are very accomodating so just get in touch Robbo to see if they will send to the USA. They deliver to lots of BIR take aways in the UK - the same take aways that also use Pataks/Nazirs ready made products.

Having tried a million of the bases on here and all over the internet this works as good as any. If you look at the ingredients in the Shaheen base and the soup its what we put in a base gravy anyway. I tend to go for low spicing in my bases and add at the cooking stage as its more controllable. As has been said many times before if you give myself and Atul Kochhar the same ingredients he will make a better curry than me.

Shaheen : https://shaheen.co.uk/index.php
If I want my base a bit spicier I use a Balti Massala Shaheen pouch along with the Onion Massala.

[jmansion]

Not yet tried searching for one, but here is the list of ingredients if you want to try to match it for yourself :

Well, I do make base gravy, typically one of the recipes from Dan Toombs' book.  I freeze a reduced form as big ice cubes and dilute on use.

I can't see why I would try to fake a soup and then use the Shaheen spicing though, if I'm cooking the veg.

Maybe a mix of carrot and coriander and tomato and basil?

[livo]

I was very tired when I posted last night Hugo and sorry, my word choice was poor. Please allow me to improve it. We know that the BIR method is about simplification and expediency. What I was meaning to say is that your method shows just how simple and expedient it can actually be. I did not intend it as a criticism of your dishes.

After now 14 years of base gravies from every corner of this site and others, what I was trying to say was that I'm now amazed that you can get the same, or better, result by combining 2 readily available packet products.  Upon reading your original post, I immediately looked into Shaheen Onion Masala.  I've seen it mentioned before and doubt I'll find it here but you never know.  What I did find is that onion tomato Masala is a very common shortcut in Indian cooking and there are numerous versions presented online.

[Hugoboss]

Apologies not needed Livo but good of you to explain. I join Forums to explore and glean any amount of information that like minded individuals care to pass on wether it be good or bad. It will always be the same old adage "dont knock it until you tried it" as we say over here !! If your import rules allow I would be more than happy to post you a Shaheen Onion Massala 

[livo]

No worries at all, Hugo.  It really is most unlikely that post costs will make it a worthwhile venture but thanks for the offer.  I will have a search online for any chance of Australian supply but I'm a bit doubtful.  There are many Indian imports here but the UK stuff doesn't make it to our shores.  I will be further investigating other Onion Masala shortcuts in any case.  There are many to select from and I'm fairly sure there will be a similar "soup" mix available in some form or another.

I'm all in favour of shortcuts.

Just out of curiosity, what is your most requested French BIR dish?

[Hugoboss]

"Just out of curiosity, what is your most requested French BIR dish?'

All our customers are Brits so its not really "French BIR" but most popular dish is Chicken Madras. We dont offer a huge range of dishes as we never intended to run this as a business. We just helped out neighbours/friends during last years lockdown and they then insisted we carry on supplying them and they would happliy pay as they were very happy with the product. Word spreads via Social Media and we now have over 250 clients !