BASE - OIl reclaim verses sweet tarka taste??

[adriandavidb]

I must admit that I tend to agree with SnS:  Every time a curry dish is prepared from pre-made base, spices are fried in oil, thus producing  freshly flavoured oil within that particualr dish on each occassion.  And also why take out oil produced in the base only to add it back again to final dish if it's reused?  And as SnS says, if its all lft in the base, provided the base is well stirred (to off-set the effects of any localized separation), there will be equal amounts of the origanal flavoured oil in each portion of base!

It was interesting to note that JerryM felt that a long simmer didn't adversely effect flavour.

[JerryM]

Sns,

i appreciate your dead set against oil reclaim and i can see your logic and warm to it. i fully accept Raj knows his stuff.

the trouble is the best curries i've ever made have been over the last few weeks or so - since i found the moorish taste via the reclaim process (using of course Raj's fantastic base).

now this is the "if"

the water trick creates the same magic for sure - i don't believe BIR's do this either. so all we need to do is work how the BIR taste is achieve without the reclaim process or the messing that's associated with the water trick.

if that can't be done then personal preference must prevail until the BIR taste mystery is solved by other means.

small PS for josh - my bases are always gone in 7 days, i keep them in the fridge and i don't freeze any. i sieve the reclaim oil through a fine plastic sieve and then a paper towel - i feel it will keep in the fridge indefinitely - the last batch is 2 wks old and tastes just as good as it did on day 1.

[JerryM]

And also why take out oil produced in the base only to add it back again to final dish if it's reused?

The "sole" reason for taking it out is that the base then contains the optimum amount of oil. too little or too much oil produces an inferior taste in both the base and finished curry. Trial and error or experience will eventually give the same result.

The bye product is the "easy" supply of spiced oil for cooking with.

[SnS]

the water trick creates the same magic for sure - i don't believe BIR's do this either. so all we need to do is work how the BIR taste is achieve without the reclaim process or the messing that's associated with the water trick.

This is really not a trick. What they do (in BIR) is to produce a more watery base, so the water is in the base already (with some oil).

Trouble is we tend to freeze our bases (at least I do) so I recently tried to produce a more freezer friendly 'condensed' base (hence the SnS's Base June 2008), but this does require some watering down - hence adding the water 'trick'. Although this was also used on my Simple Madras Style recipe posted a while back, as the Saffron base is more watery it wasn't always needed.

Turn down heat to medium/low. Some oil should now have separated. When the the curry thickens (which it will), the oil is re-adsorbed. Add a little hot water (or more base gravy for a richer taste).

Regards
SnS

[JerryM]

SnS,

apologies if u're not gelling with the term "trick" - it's intended to make members aware that it is something special - which it is - and they need to try it to believe it.

thanks for thoughts on next step - appreciated

What they do (in BIR) is to produce a more watery base, so the water is in the base already (with some oil).

i will try this out on my next CR02 base comparison adopting Raj's wisdom for one base and reclaim for the other.