Topic: A must in an indian curry

[JerryM]

Derek,

your man's definitely right for me on the onions but having switched to my new gas stove i've realised the amount of reduction "evaporation" at the frying stage has to be taken into account. i'd settled on 70% ish bulk veg in the finished base volume (of which most is onion) c/w to a norm of around 50% in the various base recipes. i'm now thinking the norm is right as the stove seems to reduce the base by 50% (400 to 200ml) c/w with 30% (300 to 200ml) in the past.

[Derek Dansak]

Hi Jerry, does the evaporation improve the taste of the curry with e.g safron base. i am not 'bought' on that idea yet. but could be gently persuaded!  cheers DD

[JerryM]

DD,

i feel it is one of the "musts".

Admin's Jalfrezi 1st alerted me to how the extra evaporation generates that moorish taste http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,2664.0.html. Then SnS's madras re enforced it http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2757.msg24504#msg24504.

the new gas stove has finally proved it for me as it really boils the water off compared to my electric hob.

getting the onion right is as u say a part of the equation - i aim to get bulk veg back to sort of "100%" in the finished dish so the amount of evaporation your aiming for determines how much thinning with water is needed. if u don't get the evaporation right then the concentration of flavours is not their either.

I?m no food scientist so shout if need me to explain better.

[Derek Dansak]

Thanks Jerry i will give that a go. do you use much fresh green chilly?

[JerryM]

no - i don't use much green chilli. only time at mo is admins jalfrezi which definitely needs it and tastes spot on BIR.

i've got it in mind to try green chilli in the base but have not got to it yet - i make mexican tomato sauce and that has green chillies punctured with a fork - they are then removed after cooking the tom sauce - it works well and thinking of doing same along the theme of adding whole spices (which i do and works well). The trouble is I can't decide on whether to keep them in the base and blend. Also Bobby B has tried and discounted so probably not going to do much for the base. I also don't like the base to be too hot so it's versatile - preferring to add ground chilli at frying stage.

[Bobby Bhuna]

Bobby B has tried and discounted so probably not going to do much for the base.

Honestly, it does nothing - I couldn't notice a change atall. I did finally get the green chilli taste I wanted however and it's so simply. Just add a whack of coarsely chopped green chillies to your curry about 30 seconds before serving. You're munching away and then bang, green chilli taste. ;D

I can't believe I didn't think about it. The man at the Indian cash and carry suggested it when I told him what I've tried.