Topic: Interesting Base Sauce....

[london_lhr]

Hi all,
Found this while browsing. May be of interest!
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THE BASE CURRY SAUCE
Stage one
ingredients:
               15 fluid oz measure of SPLIT RED LENTILS
               4.5 pints WATER
Thoroughly wash the lentils in several changes of water and remove any
stones.  Put them in a large pan with the water and bring to the boil.
Turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes uncovered.  Skim off the
froth that collects.  Partly cover the pan and cook for a further 40
minutes, stirring occasionally.
While the lentils are cooking take the following
stage two ingredients:
               4 lb COOKING ONIONS
               7.25 teaspoons GROUND GINGER
               7.25 teaspoons GARLIC POWDER
               1.5 teaspoons ASOFOETIDA
               5.5 pints COLD WATER
               3.5 teaspoons SALT
Peel and slice the onions in half, place them in a large micro-waveable
casserole with 8 tablespoons of the water.  Cook on high for 16 minutes
(650-watt Microwave), stir and cook on high for a further 16 minutes.
Leave to stand for 10 minutes.  Add the rest of the water to the onions.
Put the ground ginger, garlic powder and asofoetida in the liquidiser with
a third of the onions and water - liquidise for two minutes.  Liquidise
the remaining onions with the water for two minutes.  Put the mixture in
a large pan, add the salt and bring to the boil.  Turn down and simmer
for 10 minutes.
While the lentils and onions are cooking take the following stage three
ingredients:
               29 ozs TINNED TOMATOES
               2 large FRESH TOMATOES
               18 fluid ozs SUNFLOWER OIL
               3.75 teaspoons TURMERIC
               3.75 teaspoons PAPRIKA
Liquidise the tomatoes for two minutes.  Mix all the ingredients together
in a saucepan.  Bring to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer uncovered
for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
When the onions and lentils are cooked put them together in the large pan
and mix in the cooked tomatoes.  Bring the mixture back to the boil and
turn the heat down to simmer.  It is important at this stage to skim off
the froth that rises to the top of the sauce.  Continue simmering and
skimming for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the sauce
sticking.
You should now have approximately 10-11 pints of base curry sauce that
can be cooled and frozen for use later (in small batches), or used
straight away.


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This recipe found at : http://homepages.tesco.net/~andy.oddjob/curry.htm

Barry.

[curryqueen]

Please can we define between authentic an BIR.  There are a lot of helpful people in this forum, but, I am sure that an Indian restaurant do not use lots of ingredients, that are very time consuming to make gravies etc.  We need to define between AUTHENTIC and BIR here!  Have made a new gravy tonight with the suggestion that no ginger should be used and peeled tomatoes should be used instead of tinned or pasatta, also that garlic should be fresh - I used about eight cloves.  It smells promising, I will let you know the results when I have tried it out.

[pete]

Have made a new gravy tonight with the suggestion that no ginger should be used and peeled tomatoes should be used instead of tinned or pasatta, also that garlic should be fresh - I used about eight cloves.? It smells promising, I will let you know the results when I have tried it out.

That's the Blondie one, isn't it?

[Curry King]

I will let you know the results when I have tried it out.

Im making gravy tonight so hopefully before then  ;D

[Blondie]

Hi all,

yes the base with fresh tomatoes and no ginger was told to me by the owner of my local.  I haven't tried it myself yet as I made a batch of base on Friday which was when he told me this recipe.  I will try it as soon as I have finished experimenting with the present base.

Does anyone else seem to spend most of thier time making bases and experimenting and very little time actually producing a finished dish that they eat?  I know I do.

cheers all,

Blondie

[curryqueen]

Hi Pete,  Yes it is Blondies recipe, I thought I would try it out as I needed some bhuna onions.  I made only half quantity as I have some gravy already in the fridge.  I have just compared new gravy to one I had in fridge and there does seem to be slight difference.  Whether is is because the new gravy was at room temperature and the old cold I'm not quite sure.  I did use 6 plus garlic cloves and about 4 tomatoes in the half quantity gravy (new one)  It has a good aroma about it and the fresh tomatoes gives it a tomatoey taste.  Old gravy you can't really define too well whether there is tomato in it or not, but, then again has that certain aroma as well.  I will leave the new gravy for a few days and then see how it is then and post.