Topic: Talked about base sauce with take away owner and chef

[Mark J]

If you can still find out his chicken stock recipe (for the gravy), that would be brilliant!

Hi Pete,

Finally had a chance to find this info out, I was there last week but there were other customers present and I didnt think it at all fair to discuss this delicate topic with an audience  ;D

Basically he uses the jelly exactly as you found out, he said it takes ages much longer than the base, boil the carcass for hours with turmeric, cinamon, cardamom,bay etc then skim the jelly off when cold.

[pete]

Thanks ever so much , Mark
It confirms what I've benn told from several restaurant chefs
The jelly has such a distinct smell that I recognised from the gravy
It's just a bit yuck to make

[pete]

OK, I chatted to the guy again tonight and have his recipe for making up his standard sized pot of base sauce
He was at great pains to be wary of adding too much chilli, salt and garam masala. Too much of any of these will ruin the base and are irreversible.

Now what I find particularly interesting is the use of garam masala
This spice mix has black cardamom in
That is the spice I felt was missing from the Kris Dhillon recipe.
When chatting to chefs, about a missing "taste", black cardamom was mentioned twice.
Perhaps it is considered as the most important spice for the base
In isolation it has a foul smell, almost medicinal
But the curry gravy I froze, leaving them in, had this warm flavour when thawed out.
Nothing like it's original character
If you sifted out the pods they were the source
Totally changed
If left in, for any length of time, you really don't need much
If the curry houses are keeping their base for three days, then this spice's effect would really evolve

[thomashenry]

I think it'd be helpful if from now on, we actuallt specified the weight of onions used in our bases, rather than the number. Onions can vary quite a bit in size, and we could all be ending up with quite different amounts on onions in our base if we just go by number.

KD's recipe for example is very precise - there are no 'x cloves of garlic', 'x onions' - its all done in grams.

[Mark J]

I agree TH, the most recent base Im using specifies 350gms of trimmed onions, no mistaking that amount!

Trouble is a number of these recipes we have got from chefs and they dont specifiy exact quantites, when I spoke to the take away man he said 30 onions, I quizzed him and got it down to tennis ball sized, but that was it.

Also I asked him how long does he pre fry his onions for and of course his answer was 'until they are done'

[Curry King]

Trouble is a number of these recipes we have got from chefs and they don't specify exact quantities.
Also I asked him how long does he pre fry his onions for and of course his answer was 'until they are done'

Thats the problem they are experienced to the point of doing everything by sight and don't weigh or measure anything.  Ive not had a single recipe from a chef thats been explained in detail, always a bit of this a bit of that but not to much  :

[currychris]

    I only have a halogen hob...I'll get me coat... 

[woodpecker21]

hi currychris
don't worry as i have a knob too. but i still churn oout a bloody good currry. it is all in the cooking of the final curry. cooking of the spices, generous amount of oil reused if you can and not burning  it 
these with the room and the money have the luxury of gas burner and can even flambe the only advantage of these is that the flame is so high if cooks from the outside in and ours just cooks in the centre so we can't just leave it we have to be more vigilant and stir regularly so as to ensure that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan
i do find that using the lid to my wok helps with the speed of cooking to acheiving the same results. finally if you remove the curry from the heat and let it settle and cool slightly the taste is .................well you decide

regards
gary

[currychris]

Cheers Gary,
I do have an aldi gas barbeque but it takes about 45 mins to cook one sausage on it so I'd be  b****ered with a massive pot of base sauce on there. I do get by with our halogen but I wish I could be let loose on a big gas stove....luxury!  :,
Chris

[DARTHPHALL]

I've got a Turbo charged Halogen hob & it makes bloody fine Curries so have no fear matey, you'll soon be cooking ace Curries in no time ;D