Topic: Curry Base Cooking Tecnique

[haldi]

I was in the kitchens of a good takeaway, and they had recently started the curry gravy for next day's use.
They had a big pot about twelve inches high by about fifteen inches diameter.
I had a peek into it, they didn't mind
The liquid was a mixture of oil, water, garlic ginger, salt & tomato puree
Surprisingly it only came to half way up the pot
The other ingredients for the gravy, were a small can of chick peas, a couple of green peppers but loads and loads of onions
They were stacked right up to the top of the pot, half of them completely uncovered by any liquid.
The onions weren't even chopped
They were simply peeled
This mixture is boiled for at least an hour, with a lid on
The water comes out of the onions as it cooks
Conversation is very difficult, at this place
I wish it wasn't, because if you can't see something done, you aren't totally sure you've got it right
Anyhow, from what understand, when the onions have wilted, they add the spice mixture.
That is cooked for an hour, then pureed for use
No separating the oil, at this place

I suppose I have learnt four important points from this

1. If making a scaled down version of this gravy remember the onion:other ingredients ratio
If you wanted to make a ten onion base then you should only use a quarter of a green pepper

2. Don't chop the onions

3. Maybe I am overwatering the gravy. Try it with half of what I usually use

4. Don't overcook the added spices

Before I saw this, I had just tested out a theory
You know the "make in large quantities" changes the base flavour
I got hold of a huge pot
I think it holds about 15 litres, and tried a curry base recipe I was given
I used a full five kg bag of onions and one and a half litres of oil
The spice mix was basaar
It was about a three hour cook
Anyhow, the end result did not exactly match the base sample I had been given
It was close, but missing a very special after taste
One of my kids described this taste as like doughnuts
Crazy as it seems, I thought that a pretty accurate comment
I reckon the oil they use, is seasoned in some way
If you are using this amount of oil then you have enough depth to cook the days poppadoms in
When I try another full size base, I will do that
The spice mix mellows, cooked in a large quantity too
It was the extra hot spice mix (as used in the original sample base)but the base is not hot at all.
The overall flavour is sweet, mild, not overly spicy with quite a depth.
It's very usable, but no way will I use all this!!
Down the drain again
So I suppose the most important point I found, was that nothing "magical" happened making a large scale base
Definitely no apparition of the "Taste"

[Curry King]

Thanks Pete, great post, interesting that they don't chop the onions at all and less liquid, nearly all the demo write ups we have are cover everything.

[Chris303]

again...this is just further proof that there is absolutely no magical secrets in making the base in any form. most places seem to slap their bases together quite quickly with very little alchemy.