Topic: 100%

[JerryM]

billycat/CA,

i can see now where my approach to the 100% has differred from what Haldi has done.

my adopted approach to curry making is to put a lot of oil into the base during cooking and then take most out to cook the dishes. this works for me and i'm very happy with the taste when cooked at high heat. well sorted in fact.

one potential reason for the overkill from this trial for me was using the previously fried oil in the base and then using it again to fry the dishes in. i also use a fair bit of oil at dish cooking (4 tbsp for most and 6 tbsp for madras). the used oil taste came through far too strong - double fried.

if this was the reason then for me personally i can't see a way of overcoming it. i'd have to adopt one or more of:

a) use fresh oil for frying (as per CA)
b) cook at a lower heat
c) use less oil for dish cooking

none of these options sit well for me.

another reason could be that i've not followed Haldi's approach exactly having added my oil at the start of cooking. i also added much more oil (550ml added of which 275ml was fryer oil and 450ml reclaimed - i needed ~400ml for cooking). i also left more of the oil in the base than could have been the case for Haldi's spec (10 desertspoons in the finished base of 2.1L having started with 800g onion c/w 750g Haldi base and 8 dsp initially). it would be very difficult for me to reduce this amount of oil further.

i accept i'm short on the pukka oil (having used my own fryer oil - chicken & bhajis) and that could also be a reason.
 
hence my earlier interest in how Haldi cooked the dishes (the flame position, amount of heat, amount/type of oil).

i'm happy that i've tried the approach and u don't really know if it's for u or not until u've tried it. for me i now know i'm happy with what i'm already producing. if u're not then u must give this approach a try as it has every chance of working the same as for Haldi. it does produce a taste similar to that produced at high heat. is it as good - for me no.

[chriswg]

Hey guys, looks like I hit the motherload! Good old Zaffrons.

Chrish
Its nice to receive ur mail after ages, I hope that ur keeping well.Our chef Roshan also know u and he is happy n ready 2 teach u how to make curries.Except sunday monday n saturday u can come any lunch time u r welcome looking forward to see u. Yogi.

[emin-j]

I watched the webcam on the easttakeaway website for a couple of hours the other night ,they made curry's and base sauce while i was watching http://www.easttakeaway.co.uk/ I noticed the Chef was removing excess oil from the Curry's with his Chef's spoon and placing it into a stainless container at the back of the hob , didn't see what he did with it after though ,I wonder if this is the ' flavoured ' oil they are more likely to use in their base 

[Curry Barking Mad]

I watched the webcam on the easttakeaway website for a couple of hours the other night ,they made curry's and base sauce while i was watching http://www.easttakeaway.co.uk/ I noticed the Chef was removing excess oil from the Curry's with his Chef's spoon and placing it into a stainless container at the back of the hob , didn't see what he did with it after though ,I wonder if this is the ' flavoured ' oil they are more likely to use in their base 

I emailed them some time ago about this, they assured me that it was only to remove excess oil from each curry to make them a little healthier, : and that the excess oil was not used back in the base uh yeah ok, (they wouldn't lie to us ,would they?)
 

[Secret Santa]

didn't see what he did with it after though ,I wonder if this is the ' flavoured ' oil they are more likely to use in their base 

Almost certainly not. But do this yourself at home, it really lifts the flavour of a curry if you use this as the oil for making the curry, as opposed to using it in the base!

[Curry Barking Mad]

didn't see what he did with it after though ,I wonder if this is the ' flavoured ' oil they are more likely to use in their base 

Almost certainly not.

Secret Santa,
You seem nearly convinced that they wouldn't add it to the base,
Just wondering why you think that,
Bob

[Secret Santa]

Two reasons

1. The collected oil from several (random) curries gets very very intense on the chilli front!

2. Any benefit from this oil, collected from the curries, is diluted in the base. The chilli factor is reduced...a good thing but, the flavour factor is reduced too!

There would be no benefit taste wise in the base, and every reason not to use it because it makes the base more chillified!

And, of course, the BIR kitchens I have seen, including the ones online, use nothing but fresh oil and ghee!


Also I speak from experience. I have collected oil from curries and used it in the base. It has no effect, other than to make the base hotter (chilli wise).

Use it in the making of the curry though..and yes it makes a great deal of difference!

[haldi]

I don't know what I am doing right, with this old oil
But I've copied another places curry base, and gone on to make a clone of one of their curries.
I posted the recipe here http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2296.0
Up until now, my homemade version was nowhere near as good
If you tried a teaspoon of my latest attempt, you would have to eat the lot.
Seriously folks, these latest curries are absolutely addictive
When I'm at work, I'm just thinking about the next time I will cook one

I am gobsmacked at it's quality and I am really critical of everything I make
Both bases I made, require boiling the veg for an hour, then adding the oil & spice and boiling about another two hours
I realise that these cooking times are not needed for smaller quantities of base, but it really affects the oils flavour
And that's how long the genuine full sized base takes to cook
The new Bruce Edwards recipe cooks the veg for only an hour
If anyone is satisfied with that, then good
It keeps things simple

But it didn't work for me
I really believe that you need at leasttwo hours cooking with a base
You simply won't get the right flavour with less time

The idea of using old oil in the base may not be common practice at all places
But it's not a theory of mine
I have seen it done

But if noone else can make this work, then I guess that doesn't really matter.
It does make me wonder if I lucked out with this old oil I got.
Maybe I'll never be able to do this again, when it runs out

[Curry Barking Mad]

Two reasons

1. The collected oil from several (random) curries gets very very intense on the chilli front!

2. Any benefit from this oil, collected from the curries, is diluted in the base. The chilli factor is reduced...a good thing but, the flavour factor is reduced too!

There would be no benefit taste wise in the base, and every reason not to use it because it makes the base more chillified!

And, of course, the BIR kitchens I have seen, including the ones online, use nothing but fresh oil and ghee!


Also I speak from experience. I have collected oil from curries and used it in the base. It has no effect, other than to make the base hotter (chilli wise).

Use it in the making of the curry though..and yes it makes a great deal of difference!

Secret Santa,

I was kind of waiting for you to mention the chilli issue in the base when used for kormas etc, and I agree with you, I know the chefs would also be aware of this so could possibly add excess oil only from milder curries, dupiazas, bhunas,
I too am not convinced of the use of the excess oil in the base, I just wanted to get your take on this,
However, I disagree that the online kitchens use nothing but fresh oil and ghee, presumably you are talking about the making of the base as well? I watched Maliks add very dark oil to the top of the fresh onions in their base pot, it really coated the onions, I watched the base making from start to finish several months ago and no clean oil was added,
I emailed them asking what the dark oil was that they added, they told me it was clean oil, I'm not blind but I understand that they wouldn't want to share the information,
I have posted about this before, I believe this was used bhaji oil or poppadom oil, both of which they fry separately in a different container, I can't see that poppadom oil would have much flavour but the bhaji oil would,
Just my observations,
Bob

[chinois]

I really believe that you need at leasttwo hours cooking with a base
You simply won't get the right flavour with less time

The idea of using old oil in the base may not be common practice at all places
But it's not a theory of mine
I have seen it done

I agree with you haldi on the long cooking of the base. I always found i had to cook them for longer than suggested in the recipes.
I found using the oil from the Ashoka fried onion paste had a good effect and a reserve stash i made from my deep fryer oil and excess oil from my own and takeaway curries (and even other cuisines) worked pretty well too.
I am satisfied that cooking a lot of the ingredients (inc oil) of a curry multiple times and in different ways is the 'secret technique' home cooks generally miss. The Ashoka recipes made me aware of this regarding onion and garlic (cooking the former in 4 ways i believe). It is also a technique that Heston Blumenthal uses a lot. See his 'perfection' TV series. It seems pretty common sense after that.