have noticed on here that most sauces call for the spices to be added 5 mins or so before the end is there any benefit to this as i have always added mine at the beginning
Hi DM,
I think the advantage (if there is one) is probably that the spices retain more of their flavour if they are added towards the end of cooking (and therefore haven't had the crap..and flavour...boiled out of them). On the other hand, boiling them for longer makes the flavours more diffuse and subtle, which is no bad thing.
As far as your base recipe is concerned, there seems to me to be to be too few onions (I'd up them to 2 - 3kg) for the quantity of other ingredients there. And maybe too little oil (I'd increase it to 500ml or so if you also up the onions).
Personally, I wouldn't fry any ingredients first (but others would disgree). I'd just chuck them all in a pot, add the water, boil them for an hour or two, then blend them until smooth.
How do you find it anyway?