Topic: How to Make Spicy Oil ? The Secret to Truly Replicating BIR curries?

[parker21]

hi george great to hear from you again been a long time! how's your BIR curry cooking going? are you any closer to that bir curry?  just made a CT vindaloo to combat the cold/snowy weather we are having down here in kent(6" so far). anyway have you had any demos since you last posted?
regards
gary

[iamzegatron]

I've had some fairly decent results from my attempts to "synthesise" the spiced oils.  The end results look pretty similar to MarkJ's pictures shown earlier in this thread, a nice reddy goldy colour, tastes savoury with sweetness and spice underneath and smell fantastic.

Essentially I use the same method as making a stock for soup except with oil rather than water. Heating bits of vegetables and seasoning over a low temperature for a fairly long time.

I use a small bottle of oil and really just use what ever is at hand to flavour it. Some pepper, or even just the cores - if thats the word - from the pepper as these impart quite a bit of flavour,  some onion, a few green chillies, a couple cloves of garlic, bay leaves, pepper corns, cumin and coriander seeds, some coriander stalks etc and some spice mix to try to marry the flavour of the oil to that of the finished dish / base.  I'd say the closer the ingredients you use are to those in your base the closer the oil will taste to the oil you would reclaim from your base.

I then put it over a low heat for a good few hours to flavour - the longer the better, I'd say this is the most important aspect, the same as with stock - and then leave to cool and infuse further overnight.  I run it through a sieve or colander  to remove the whole spices, veg etc and then through a coffee filter to remove the sediment from the spice powders and pour it back in the bottle and keep it in the fridge.

I suppose its quite similar to making a base except with no other liquid, or any thing that will melt and turn in to a liquid, other than the oil meaning you can reclaim 100%.

[Cory Ander]

I have been attempting to make spiced oil and decided to try making it as follows:

Ingredients:

- 500ml vegetable oil
- 400g onions (coarsely chopped)
- 1 tbsp garlic (pureed)
- 1 tsp ginger (pureed)
- 1 tbsp green capsicum (diced)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp spice mix (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3765.0)
- 2 tbsp curry powder
- 1 brown cardamom
- 6 green cardamoms
- 2 inch stick of cassia bark
- 1 star anise
- 1 tsp panch phoran
- 1 clove
- 2 litres water
- 1 tbsp sugar

Method:

- Heat oil and gently fry onions for a few minutes until soft
- Add whole spices and gently fry for 2 minutes
- Add garlic, ginger and green capsicum and gently fry for 2 minutes
- Add tomato paste and powdered spices and gently fry for 2 minutes
- Add water and sugar and gently simmer (covered) for 3 hours
- Skim oil from the surface and filter through a colander to remove any solids
- Filter through several layers of muslin cloth to remove fine particles
- Store in a plastic bottle in the fridge

Results:

The resultant oil was orange/red colour, sweetish, and tasted and smelt pleasantly of onions and spices. 

Comments:

I have no idea if this looks or tastes like the oil that BIRs may use to cook their curries because I have never seen or tasted any, but it looks and tastes similar to the oil that is released from the BIR curries themselves.

I chose a method that resembles the preparation of a curry base except this was made for the sole purpose of making the spiced oil (I ditched the solids).  I am uncertain that removing lots of oil from a curry base is sensible since it is likely to diminish the spice flavours in the curry base.

I believe synthesising spiced oil has merits and would welcome any comments or suggestions on the best way to prepare it.

I haven't cooked with it yet and will provide an update when I have.

Here is a picture:

[joshallen2k]

CA,

I was planning on trying out your base this weekend. I will do so and send pics.

Also figured out I would try your spiced oil recipe at the same time. I tried to do an "old oil" trial of my own using deep fryer oil, but by the time it was getting close to dark brown, I felt it was also getting rancid. Some others have posted about this - the volume problem. So I'm looking forward to trying yours.

Question - since I'm making a fresh batch of base, do you think there would be any benefit in using some of the spiced oil to make the base recipe?

One of the things Haldi suggested was using a 50/50 mix of fresh of "used" oil when making the base. Appreciate your thoughts.

Thx,
Josh

[Cory Ander]

Hi Josh,

I haven't tried this oil in a curry base yet.  I've only tried it in a saag aloo and it made it taste better.

I have tried chip oil (from my own deep fat fryer, used for various cooking, chips, onion bhajis, etc) and oil from a fast food chicken outlet (which also fries some fish in it) and I ended up ditching those curry bases; they smelt and tasted disgusting!

Therefore, I don't know (yet) if adding this specially spiced oil to a (the) curry base will improve it or not.  I'd hazard a guess that it will add something positive to it but I don't actually know for sure (yet).  I'd be interested to know how you get on if you try, but you'd probably need to do a side-by-side comparison to be sure.

From what some people have said, oil from somewhere like a KFC (no frying of fish?) may also probably be worth a go?  Again, you'd probably have to do a side-by-side comparison to be sure.

[joshallen2k]

CA - I was just reading through the spiced oil recipe, and noticed that it includes 2 liters of water. Cooking covered for three hours, wouldn't the final liquid be very watery? Is there a skimming step involved, or did you intend a water/oil mix?

[Cory Ander]

Well spotted Josh!  I missed the skimming step and have now added it.  Thanks for mentioning it 

Just as background, I decided to add water because I felt that the ingredients would burn if I only used oil.  However, this does present a bit of a problem with subsequently separating the oil from the water. 

I recovered about 400ml of oil from the original 500ml (80% recovery).

Another point is that it is difficult to separate the fine particles (i.e. powdered spices) from the oil, despite the filtering steps.  It does worry be a bit that residual water and/or particles might diminish the shelf-life of the oil. 

I suppose the same is true of the vegetable ingredients (e.g. garlic) I used to make it.

I considered just using whole spices, but I wanted that rich red/orange/yellow colour, which I figure is from the tumeric and paprika.  I suppose whole tumeric, rather than powdered, could be used instead.

[Cory Ander]

I have to say, last night I added a little of the spiced oil to my saag aloo and refried it a bit. 

It certainly added oodles of BIR smell and flavour 

This morning, when I poured boiling water into the empty balti dish, to wash it, the BIR smell leapt up and hit me BIG time!  Very nice! 

Looking promising, I'd say.

Here's a photo of my saag aloo (note the oil around the edges):

[JerryM]

Josh,

for defo use the spiced oil for making the base. i found the best oil was produced having been recycled through 3 off bases.

i now use a little marg in every base but it reduces the shelf life of the reclaimed oil to the extent i no longer recycle it into the next base. overall i find the compromise worth it.

CA,

inspirational stuff. i really gel with most of the the whole spice in the spec. i really recommend doing a side by side with reclaimed from base though. just add the oil spec into the base spec to make a combined base spec.

[Secret Santa]

Another point is that it is difficult to separate the fine particles (i.e. powdered spices) from the oil, despite the filtering steps.  It does worry be a bit that residual water and/or particles might diminish the shelf-life of the oil.

Try doubled-up coffee filters in a funnel.