Topic: Bobby Bhuna's Base July 2008

[JerryM]

Bobby,

have made the base but the mooli has got me.

With hindsight I should have tasted it before trying out this recipe. I also should have confirmed the weight/proportion having used 400g mooli in 1200g onions - I feel this is far too much. If I had not been following this recipe I would have ditched the mooli after tasting it and gone shopping for carrots. The mooli tastes like turnip but with a hot after taste just like English radish. For me mooli is not mainstream BIR. It's location and stock level in the supermarket bear's this out - there being big piles of the other ingredients.

The ingredients were the best looking that I've ever bought for a base (see pic). Looking at the recipe ingredients which I've used all before (except the mooli) I'd expected this base to be top notch ? the mooli spoilt it for me.

The final curry will be interesting for me as I believe once a base gets past a certain threshold then it doesn't have that much effect on the final curry. I will try to cook as soon as poss and use my std madras for comparison.

I followed the recipe spot on in terms of ingredients except for the ajwain where is used 1 tsp (c/w 1/4 tsp). The changes were some of my standard practises: puree the garlic/ginger in water before adding (as per BE), cook 1st stage for 2hrs (c/w 1hr), blend and add extra water (aiming to get back to the same vol after the 2nd stage ie evap off the added water), cook 2nd stage for 1 hr  (c/w 40mins), thin with water.

Observations:

1. smell during cooking was not good - mooli
2. mooli taste well overpowers the rest
3. 4 off chilli?s were too much (say 2 off)
4. oil qty seemed about right - based on amount on surface at end of stage 2. I did not add extra oil or reclaim during this recipe (I'm switching to yellow oil from red)
5. yield was excellent producing 4.6L

Conclusions:

Anyone liking mooli will love this recipe. For me it's a No No.

Spec (peeled/chopped):

Oil 200ml, onion 1200g, mooli 400g, red pepper 260g, coriander stalk 15g, fresh toms 280g, garlic 40g, ginger 70g, green chilli 40g, salt 15ml, cumin 10ml, coriander 10ml, paprika 10ml, turmeric 10ml, adjwain 5ml, initial water 1.5l, tin toms 400g. volume after blending 4.0L, 1.1L water added after blending, 0.5L water added for thinning, finished volume 4.65L.

I have more pics if needed.

[Bobby Bhuna]

Looks just right to me Jerry - I wonder if you have a bigger mooli than me? ;D

Thanks very much for trying. I'm surprised the Mooli made a taste difference because I couldn't really notice the taste, in the final curry at least... Let me know what happens with the final curry.

Thanks again,

BB.

[Bobby Bhuna]

Having had a look at the picture of your mooli, I would say that yours and mine are of similar size. I guess we'll just have to see how your curry turns out. I've still got hope this one will produce a good curry for you. If not, thanks very much for giving it a shot and at least you will be able to eliminate mooli.

Interestingly enough, I wonder what it's used for, it doesn't taste great alone.

[JerryM]

Bobby,

my feeling having cooked with it is a "what might have been" as i'm always reluctant to miss a trick - what i mean is that say 100g might just be OK. I need to cook with to say more.

hoping to cook tomorrow night. other than the mooli everything else is spot on the texture the colour etc. the mooli just overpowers the rest of the ingredients.

it's a bit like celery - which i'm not a fan of generally. i tried it in ronnoc's base and felt in the right proportion it might just have it's place.

[JerryM]

Bobby,

have cooked 3 sauces (1 LB spice, 1 DD spice and the 3rd LB as a consistency check) - thoughts have not changed on the mooli.

everything else was upto spec. i had to use fresh oil to fry but it was the taste that overpowered even through the final stage albeit very much reduced compared to tasting the base.

a much smaller proportion maybe what's needed although we did not feel the mooli closed that last 5%.

well worth a try and all part of the learning.

i used my chef's spoon for the 1st time and it felt good - will add in new post

[Bobby Bhuna]

Well thanks for trying it Jerry! I am however surprised that it made much of a taste difference, as I didn't notice it, more just the texture. Oh well, onwards and upwards!

[nits]

hey

is there any way i can make these bases in bulk and store it for later use. or does it loose its taste when used after some days.