Topic: Next stage base for me

[Bobby Bhuna]

Sunday afternoon and time once again to make a base sauce. These are my changes.

Replacing my Mooli for 4 carrots, on Jerry's advice, adding 2 large carmelised onions before blending and sticking in a whack of vegetable ghee. I'll also be using 4 level dsrt spoons of the Rajver spice mix. Oh and more oil.

I'll let you know how I get on.

[parker21]

good luck bb, i sure you will let us know as soon as you can how it all went, do you let the base settle for a couple of hours before you cook the final curries? and what are you going to cook?
regards
gary

[JerryM]

Bobby,

your a real trier for sure.

very glad on the carrot. the real BIR base took me by surprise how simple it was and how much carrot was there.

the caramelised onions will be interesting. the latest curytester base had this. in my onion boiling trials the caramelised onions did taste much better but not enough to convince me at the end point it's that much different after boiling onions in water and oil for 2hrs.

the veg ghee is another real interesting one. i tried the butter ghee in a previous currytester base and found it too rich for the taste i'm after. any BIR TA that get's put in the fridge (not very often) has never had any solid fat. so for me this rules out ghee unless is very small in proportion. i think it could add a little richness in the right proportion. i've never tasted the veg stuff though.

i've not tried the rajver spice mix before - so thoughts will be useful. i'm currently sold on Derek Dansak's (more suited with the coriander/cumin ratio).

try out the slightly longer cooking method - 2hrs stage 1, blend, add some water say 300 to 500ml, 1 hr stage 2. the moorish taste seems to develop in the last hr.

[Bobby Bhuna]

Hey Jerry, my onions have just finished caramelising and they really smell like one of the missing tastes I'm after if you know what I mean. I've done 2 large onions out of 6, the rest being boiled. I should really have taken pictures but I figure what's the point unless it's really good. If it is I'll take some next time.

I've not actully added any spice mix yet. I plan to make a tarka and add that. I'll have a look at Derek Dhansak's spice mix and possibly give that a try. The Rajver is good though.

I've added 4 rounded tbsps of veg ghee so we'll find out what difference that makes. I too have never had any solid fat on next day takeaways but what's to say it's not just mixed in with the rest. I'll refridgerate one of my curries from this base and let you know if we get any solids.

Oh and I upped my ajwain to 1 tsp this time. This will be a very interesting base for me.

Cheers,

BB.

[haldi]

We are amazing aren't we?
We don't give up
I have plans for another base
I am trying a new one every weekend at the moment
My freezer is nearly full, so most of my attempts go down the drain.
The trouble is that they always end up so large
I recently kept some in a fridge for about four days
I thought it improved a lot
You know if you freeze a home made curry, when you eventually eat it, it sometimes tastes amazingly good
Do you think that is because it has been marinading for a long time, in the freezer?
I'm pretty sure they didn't taste that good when they went in

Good luck with your base,BB
Maybe this is the "one"

[Bobby Bhuna]

Maybe this is the "one"

Haha, cheers Haldi, they're almost always the one! ;D "I've nailed it" - I get ripped my friends, every time I make a decent new base sauce with some extra flavours I'm extatic. Let's hope this one pans out!

[Bobby Bhuna]

It's very good but it's not the one. I used DD's spice mix. The mistake was blending the garlic and ginger in cold water. I don't know what I was thinking - I found it too strong last time. It just tastes too much of that garlic and ginger blended in cold water taste. Othwise it's great but difficult to pick out subtle flavours.

[Bobby Bhuna]

I left the base out overnight to cool. The veg ghee has not come to the surface and hardened. However the base is a lot stiffer than it was yesterday. This is not down to evaporation since I have a lid on the pot.

For lunch today, I made a Chicken Madras omitting the garlic, and reverting back to standard TRS extra hot chilli, rather than Degghi Mirch which I have been using of late. I used 2/3 (two thirds) tsp DD's spice mix, which has really grown on me. Great flavour and tremendous colour.

It was very very good indeed. Yesterday, I used a large tsp of freshly minced garlic in the curry - something I don't usually do, it's just that I had no paste in. I think this accounts for the extreme garliciness issue that I suffered.

Conclusion:

Veg Ghee in the base make no noticeable difference as far as I am aware. It doesn't smell of anything in the first place, so I didn't really think it would have much flavour, although I have read that some do contain added flavourings (mine only contains veg oil however).

Caramelising one third of your onions makes no noticeable difference as far as I am aware. Next time I'm caramelising the lot.

Creating a Tarka and adding this to the base (when I say creating a tarka, I just get a good 200ml oil in a pan, heat it up and fry off my spice mix for a while - is this correct?) again doesn't make any difference that I noticed.

DD's spice mix is very good though... I used Rajah Mild Madras for the curry powder.

The extra oil I think did make a positive difference. I went for 350ml in the end (it's a large base though!)

Positive Points Learned

DD's spice mix is really good - I will be using this again
Use more oil
Either use less garlic / ginger or stop blending it in cold water - I'm inclined to stop blending it in cold water - I think it alters the taste.

The Next One

I'll be caramelising all the onions, using more carrots (I used 4 large this time but I need more), sticking with the spice mix and quantity, omitting the veg ghee, not blending the garlic / ginger and not creating a Tarka.

All said and done, this is a really good base that produced a great Madras just now. It's just not a real progression.

[JerryM]

The mistake was blending the garlic and ginger in cold water. I don't know what I was thinking - I found it too strong last time. It just tastes too much of that garlic and ginger blended in cold water taste.

Bobby,

can u please explain this a little more - i find blending the garlic/ginger in water at the start of making the base to be an improvement (from the BE base) or are u talking about the frying stage.

Interesting that the ghee did not surface at all and had no significant effect (well pleased with that result)

[Bobby Bhuna]

can u please explain this a little more - i find blending the garlic/ginger in water at the start of making the base to be an improvement (from the BE base) or are u talking about the frying stage.

Hey Jerry!

I mean BE base style. I find it adds a strong taste not present in any takeaway that I've had. It's not just like adding more garlic / ginger - it's actually a different taste. It smells far stonger when done this way.

When I first made the B.E. base I thought this was great for a curry or two but then I realised that whatever I did, I couldn't escape the omnipresent cold water blended garlic / ginger taste. I for one am going back to medium chopping.