Topic: PanPot's Ashoka Curry Base

[Unclebuck]

PP me old mate 

looking forward to the recipes, all the best UB.

[Derek Dansak]

Hi PP, i will always have fond memories of my ashoka days. learnt alot that month. and grew alot wider lol . i will always re visit that bhuna , spot on.

[JerryM]

this base alerted me to the use of marg - i'd thought for some time there was something added along the curry way down to the sheen on the surface but i could never get any real solid (fat) when putting a TA container in the fridge so had discounted it.

this base for me anyhow has always had too much of the stuff in it (cholesterol) to use on a regular basis. the last time i made the base i reduced the proportion down to 25% from the 50% spec.

following on from this reduction in the interim period i've been trying out marg with various bases and have settled on between 1 and 2 tbs per 800g onion.

i revisited this base at the weekend to try out the last batch of ashoka recipes (the ones panpot posted all in one go - probably something like dec 09). i reduced the marg down to this norm and felt it worked real good. i'm going to cook a few non ashoka dishes later this week to get a feel for how the base rates. with the lower marg it's now sitting higher than i'd previously thought.

i must admit i'm still taken aback by it's simplicity yet manges to punch well above it's apparent weight.

[haldi]

I thought I would revisit these recipes
I think the measurements may be a bit off
The base I made was really chilli hot and the garlic ginger really overpowering
Did anybody else find this?
I think the gm instruction on spices ,are wrong too
For instance 50gm of Cumin powder is half a small packet
For 3kg of Onions, that's a lot
I was looking for a madras recipe to go with this base
I couldn't find one, have I missed something?
Ingredients:
3 kgs of chopped onions
50 gms Cumin Powder
60 gms  Salt
water to cover the onions
Add 100 gms of Tomato paste
100 gms of the Garlic/Ginger paste
10-20 gms of Chili powder (to taste but he recommended 10 since more can be added when cooking)
15 gms Curry powder
20 gms Turmeric
1 block of Coconut block
250 gms Vegetable margarine (again he uses East End Brand)
250 gms of oil

Method:
Place onions, Cumin Powder, Salt in pot and cover with water and bring to the boil before simmering until onions are soft. make sure the onions don't become dry keep your eye on the water.

Once soft add the remainder of ingredients then blitz with blender and continue to gently simmer for 1 hour

[JerryM]

Haldi,

have attached what i used last. it's a half size giving 10 portions.

i stopped using the marg as it was too sickly and use veg ghee. from memory the salt is also slightly too high (say 26g in place of 30 stated). i also have a note to reduce the ghee to 75g from the 125g stated.

i would have used seed to measure and then grind. i may have taken it as ml. it's sort of boarder line for me to weigh it as opposed to spoon it.

this base was and i guess still is No 4 and consequently not made it for a long time.

there was no madras recipe given.

[Secret Santa]

3 kgs of chopped onions
50 gms Cumin Powder
60 gms  Salt
water to cover the onions
Add 100 gms of Tomato paste
100 gms of the Garlic/Ginger paste
10-20 gms of Chili powder (to taste but he recommended 10 since more can be added when cooking)
15 gms Curry powder
20 gms Turmeric
1 block of Coconut block
250 gms Vegetable margarine (again he uses East End Brand)
250 gms of oil

I don't think I ever made this haldi but you're right it doesn't 'look' right. One whole block of coconut for example fior just 3kg onion...really? A tenth of that might be more appropriate.

In fact i'd I'd be tempted to take a tenth of everything (apart from the onions). This would give a mildly spiced base.

In my notes I found a comment from Panpot that a madras is made just by adding a TBSP of blended mix red/green chillis to the base sauce but I'm not sure if this related to the Ashoka style or not. It sounds right though because this is a Scottish style base where it is itself a mild curry - unlike most English bases.

[haldi]

thanks Jerry & SS
I've frozen everything I made but I definitely think it's a bit wrong
No way could you make a happy Korma with this base
The Korma recipe only requires uht and main ingredients added
It would be way too hot

My current favourite base is still the revised Glasgow recipes by Big Boaby
It's funny though, that despite some threads being very popular and long, not many people actually try the recipes
I guess there are just too many, and you run out of cooking time
I bet there are loads I've not done
I never tried Ifind4u's recipes although, I still want to

I'm going to revisit the curry crunch recipes next
I only tried them a few times and that must be about four years ago!
I seem to remember that they had a very good aroma
At least, that's what my notes say

[ELW]

thanks Jerry & SS
I've frozen everything I made but I definitely think it's a bit wrong
No way could you make a happy Korma with this base
The Korma recipe only requires uht and main ingredients added
It would be way too hot

My current favourite base is still the revised Glasgow recipes by Big Boaby
It's funny though, that despite some threads being very popular and long, not many people actually try the recipes
I guess there are just too many, and you run out of cooking time
I bet there are loads I've not done
I never tried Ifind4u's recipes although, I still want to

I'm going to revisit the curry crunch recipes next
I only tried them a few times and that must be about four years ago!
I seem to remember that they had a very good aroma
At least, that's what my notes say

There's loads of garlic in the Ashoka food Haldi, there's a few discrepancies in the report but a genuine one all the same. Bases with coconut seem to stop the oil rising sometimes for me

[Secret Santa]

No way could you make a happy Korma with this base

And that's the true test of a Base sauce haldi.

Most kormas are base sauce, coconut, cream...nothing more.

If the base can't make a good korma it's not a good base!

[JerryM]

Haldi,

for long time i've relied on what i call "threshold" for base. if it passes that criteria then any base will do.

i had a wobble recently in my search for no3 madras. i went back to KD1 base and started tweaking it to bring it in line with a BIR base i tasted from the restaurant that makes the no3 madras.

i've now tasted 2 BIR bases and both were very different, yet both produce top notch BIR. if anything our bases are in fact too good.

in short i'm not looking at base for improvement. the technique and proportions far outweighing any ingredient combination.