Topic: My Madras Lesson

[Cory Ander]

have you ever tasted anything that tastes as good frozen as it did when it was fresh other than Ice Cream ! 

Yes!

..but what I was meaning is that a base cooked for longer is not necessarily worse (and is arguably better)!

[Cory Ander]

Next time I cook a Madras I'll make one fresh and one using frozen base to see if there is any discernible difference. I imagine they will be very similar but my point earlier was that as there is little or no time saving using frozen base, I may as well make it fresh every time. It also means no more 3 - 4 hour base cooking sessions on a Saturday afternoon, and plenty of extra room in the freezer.

Yes, and I'll wager you can't tell the difference Chris!  A frozen base is instantly (once defrosted of course!) available for cooking...whereas it will take you AT LEAST 20 minutes, or so, to cook a similar base (questionable!) from scratch each time!

[chriswg]

FYI Cory, I ordered a Madras from my local favourite last night at 8pm - the busiest time of the week - and it was terrible. No chilli heat at all and it was a very strange almost transparent orange/brown colour. Interestingly though was that my wifes CTM was excellent, it was a really think tasty sauce. I can only assume they were so busy, my 'easy' dish was palmed off to the pot washer to cook while the CTM was handled by the head chef.

[976bar]

I have to say that I have made several different batches of base sauce/gravy over the past 2 years, and the curries I have made from them haven't been anywhere near as good as the ones I have made without a base sauce. Maybe I'm not cooking them on a high enough heat? maybe its something to do with the ingredients, I don't know.

I posted a Chicken Kashmiri Masala on here a while ago which I cannot find anymore, but it used just fresh ingredients and no base sauce, and it was one of the best curries I have ever tasted....

I'm not knocking base sauce, but I think in future I'll leave it to the BIR's to produce, and I'll continue to make my mouth watering curries without it..

[billycat]

976

I have cooked with great success your kashmiri chicken and must say it is a real winner even better if you use pre cooked chicken tikka and a tad of fresh pineapple juice

mark

[Cory Ander]

FYI Cory, I ordered a Madras from my local favourite last night at 8pm - the busiest time of the week - and it was terrible.

Sorry to hear that you had such a disappointing result from your local favourite BIR.  All I can suggest is that you change to another one!

To my mind, the busiest TIME of the week is around 11 to 12pm (Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays)!  8pm is generally far too early to get the best result from them (in my experience anyway).

[JerryM]

976bar,

link http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3585.0.

i make the base version all the time. it's currently our No 1.

[Cory Ander]

I have to say that I have made several different batches of base sauce/gravy over the past 2 years, and the curries I have made from them haven't been anywhere near as good as the ones I have made without a base sauce. Maybe I'm not cooking them on a high enough heat? maybe its something to do with the ingredients, I don't know.

I posted a Chicken Kashmiri Masala...it used just fresh ingredients and no base sauce, and it was one of the best curries I have ever tasted....

I'm not knocking base sauce, but I think in future I'll leave it to the BIR's to produce, and I'll continue to make my mouth watering curries without it..

With all due respect then, 976bar, you (and several others here) seem to be more interested in cooking traditional Indian curries and NOT typical BIR curries.  Nothing wrong with that but, to my mind anyway, not the focus of this forum!  Actually, forget that, I'm actually no longer sure what the focus of this forum is! 

[JerryM]

the timing of getting a BIR eh!

i find it best to avoid the busy times. i won't buy on friday's or Saturday's. midweek early on when hardly any other orders are coming in is best.

i think the main point though is to find a spot on BIR. this these days with so many entering the market is very hard to do. i only rate 2 for example (maybe 3) in warrington and we probably have at least 20.

i chatted on the very subject (he prompted) with a friend in brum yesterday and he was very disappointed that the v.good BIR's are becoming a thing of the past. so it's probably nationwide. i guess the competition is so fierce. i find the family run are the best. obviously a speculative purchase will give an instant assessment. u need to ask a few questions about the establishment to get a picture about who they are to be sure the consistency will last over time. 

[Cory Ander]

i find it best to avoid the busy times

And that doesn't surprise me at all Jerry 

My experience has been that, if you want a crap curry, go during their slacker periods (when throughput is low and their head chef is probably not present).