Topic: BIR Madras in 30 mins - Advice required!

[Garnett]

I appreciate that a spice mix and some preprepared base suace is pretty fundamental for true BIR results but for me it's impractical and so I want to try and experiment to produce the most BIR-like curry I can in under an hour without any preprepared ingredients. And with that in mind the other day I attempted...

45 Min Chicken Madras Experiment 1

Aim

To produce a Chicken Madras without any prepreparartion using a easily repeatable method.

Objectives

A thick sauce
A complex, spicy yet not over-hot taste

Method

Chicken

The chicken will be cooked separately to the sauce using the method described in Bruce Edwards' Curry House Cookery:-

Add about 5 oz of oil to a 4 litre cooking pot
Heat
Add two or three handfuls of finely chopped onions (to give a "layer" in the pot)
Add plenty of bay leaves (or curry leaves)
Add 3 or 4 peices of cinnamon
Add 5 or 6 Cardamoms
When Onion shows sgns of frying add tablespoon of garlic and ginger puree
Stir
Add tablespoon of yoghurt
Add half a tablespoon of tomato puree
Add 3 or 4 pinches of salt
Ingredients should be getting quite dry
Add half cup of water
Add rounded tablespoon of Rajah Hot Madras Curry powder
Add Chicken
Cover pot
Leave for 20 minutes
Serve

15 mins before the chicken is ready begin sauce

Sauce method

A mix of "Madras Curry" method from the book "Curry - Fabulous dishes from around the world" and "Kid Curry's Madras - with no base!" from CR0

Heat oil in saucepan
Add rounded teaspoon garlic paste and same of ginger paste
Fry 2 minutes
Add 2 onions finely chopped/blended
Add 2 pinches salt
Fry 5 mins
Add rounded tablespoon of Rajah Hot Madras Curry powder
Stir
Add Tomato puree and or blended tomato
Cook for 8 mins adding coconut milk to taste/thickness.

Variations in method:

Chicken

Cooked chicken for 10 mins longer than should have

Sauce

Only used 1.5 onions. 2 was clearly going to be too much.

Added half a tin of tomato puree, no blended tomato

Added approx half tin of coconut milk towards end of cooking

Results

Chicken was perfect.

Sauce was too light in colour. Should have been redder. Spice level good. Taste very good but not BIR. Sauce too "bitty" - needs to be blended finely perhaps.

Conclusions

Possibly need to add less madras mix, and more paprika, chilli powder and/or tomato puree/blended tomatoes to attain correct redness.

CAN ANYONE MAKE ANY SUGGESTIONS ABOUT HOW TO PRODUCE A REDDER, LESS "BITTY" SAUCE?

[PaulP]

Hi,

I'm no expert around here but by adding coconut milk and yoghurt I don't think you'll ever get the right colour for a madras.

I reckon you might be able to substitute a full base by gently frying some onions until soft then adding water and tomatoes and boiling for a while - you would still have to liquidise to get the smoothness you are looking for, but a hand blender would easy do the job.

[chriswg]

I used to make a 10 minute Madras by frying some garlic paste and tomato pur?e and adding some Madras powder. I would add the chicken and fry it for 5 minutes before adding some chopped tomatoes (blended ideally) and water to get a sauce. One it was bubbling away it would be ready to eat. It was actually pretty good for a quick tea.

When you say using a base is impractical, what do you mean exactly? do you never have a few hours free to knock one up? All you need is a big stock pot and a few hours free. Once it is made you can put it in Tupperware dishes and freeze. Even for an impromptu curry you should easily be able to make one in under 45 minutes using a defrosted microwave base. It would be just as simple as the recipe you described. Also, if you forget all that hassle with the chicken cooking and just boil some in cumin for 5 minutes it would probably end up being a lot easier.

[joshallen2k]

Yes, I think what's "impractical" is going through all that bother (45 mins) to make a Madras.

Using the base sauce method I can knock one up in less than 10 minutes served on a plate.

The base method is a must, especially if what you're truly after is a BIR Madras.

[emin-j]

Anyone ever thought of trying a can of Soup as the base ? All sorts of Soups available nowadays ,checkout the ingredients in a tin of vegetable Soup I think it's got most of what we put in a base other than Spices. It would make a very convenient base if it worked  might need to run it through the blender for a minute tho first.

[Garnett]

The chicken takes 25-30 mins and I plan to have the sauce done at/in the same time.

As I said, "I appreciate that a spice mix and some preprepared base sauce is pretty fundamental for true BIR results but for me it's impractical". We have very little freezer space which makes the making and freezing of a base isn't that practical.

PaulP - I could be wrong but I can't see how t he yoghurt in the chicken pot would make too much difference to the sauce colour. I could certainly try it without.

Chriswg - The reason I like to do the sauce and chicken separately is because to boil te chicken I imagine a sauce thinner than I like or get from a BIR. Is there a way round this?

Joshallen2k - I appreciate what you're saying - I really do, and I had hoped I'd stressed due deference to the 'Base' notion. I'm happy with the taste of my baseless recipe but just want help with the consistency and the colour - are these aspects solved by using a base?

[joshallen2k]

Joshallen2k - I appreciate what you're saying - I really do, and I had hoped I'd stressed due deference to the 'Base' notion. I'm happy with the taste of my baseless recipe but just want help with the consistency and the colour - are these aspects solved by using a base?

Well I definitely think it would help with the "bitty" observation, as the base method uses a blender to puree the onion mix down to more of a soup consistency...

As for colour, one thing to do is to start experimenting with chilli powders. For e.g., in a Madras when I use Kashmiri Mirch it does tend to be redder than standard chilli.

[Secret Santa]

Anyone ever thought of trying a can of Soup as the base ?

It's been brought up a few times over the years and I've definitely considered it but never got around to actually doing it. Having made SnS's base again recently, I'm convinced that a tin of tomato soup (not cream of...) would work well, as SnS's base tastes just like a spicy tomato soup to me.

So...1 can of tomato soup, some jarred garlic and ginger, a few of the usual spices and possibly some form of pre-cooked pureed onions (any suggestions for commercial ones?), and I think you've got yourself the easiest base in the world!

[JerryM]

Garnett,

1st put the chicken to one side. focus on getting the sauce right to start with.

the KC recipe is the place to start for sure. since i made the KC i've made onion paste  - 2 ways - course onion and blended. for this i'd go with blended onion. for me then the KC curry recipe is your starting point. i'd be wary of the amount of ginger but the rest (garlic, salt, spice mix, chilli powder, tom puree) are the curry essentials.

don't worry on the onion front - more is better (just add water if gets too thick).

as for the redness - for me the spice mix must have paprika in it or add it separately (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2444.0). i also add passata or sieved tin toms.

for the chicken i'd keep simple - use the ashoka "marinade". http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3189.10


for coconut i'd try the block. i'd also move your whole spices from the chicken to the curry.

best wishes & very brave

[Unclebuck]

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2237.msg18954#msg18954

That was a while ago.