Topic: Mick's/Taz's Curry Base Gravy

[PaulP]

Hi Gazman, it tastes fine to me - but lentils? Doesn't have any lentils in it does it.

Don't worry about the taste of the base and make your judgement after the finished madras. Don't forget the reduction and scraping back techniques when you make up a curry later.

[gazman1976]

any tips paul on how to do that lol? i am a crap cook but love curries lol, how to reduce and scrape back ?

[PaulP]

Hi Gazman,

I'm a bit busy now cooking Taz base and preparing to cook my first paella dish.
Check the original instructions posted by Mick (Achmal on this forum).

You start with about 200 ml of hot base in your pan. Get this bubbling then add all your spices, chilli and any tom paste and garlic/ginger, salt and methi you are planning to use. You did mix up the Taz spice mix first?

Now keep this on the boil as you are going to drive most of the water out of this mixture. As the water reduces you will get brown residues on the pan. Scrape this back into the liquid continuously before it burns.

After about 5 to 8 minutes the mixture should be well reduced and the oil should begin to show clearly. Of course it depends on the heat and type of pan etc.

Then you can do second stage, add more base, pre-cooked meat and simmer to get your desired consistency for the curry.

Good luck!

Paul.

[gazman1976]

Yeah i have made his spice mix , cheers for the Help Paul


Garry

[gazman1976]

Ok my findings

I put 200 ml of base in my pan , i have an electric hob so turned it up full blast , i heated up until bubbling for a few mins and kept scraping back , i then added 1 TBS of the taz spice mix and kept scraping back for another 2 mins , added another 100 ml of the base and kept reducing , i tried it and its got a lovely taste , tastes very like my takeaway below me, on the spice mix i never had the madras powder , so i used curry powder to sub this and only had methi seeds lol, i was experiment over next few days but i believe this is it, tastes same i only think the technique needs perfected

Thank you for this !!!

[PaulP]

Sounds like it turned out better than my chicken paella Gary! That weird paella rice takes much more cooking than I expected.

Glad you liked it - most people who try it seem to like it although for me it is not the final answer and still doesn't get me to 100% BIR. It just has a very rounded and balanced curry flavour. I had a lamb karahi from my new takeaway last night (for the second time) and the lamb was to die for.

The oil (more than I put in my curries) had a fantastic flavour that I can't put my finger on just yet. I believe the Taz stuff will make a good starting point for better tasting curries, for me at least.

Paul.

[gazman1976]

I Agree, i didnt add any madras powder, i will be making a curry with it tonight and only had methi seeds so will pick up sum dried methi leaves today and i have a leg of lamb in my slow cooker as we speak lol .

Garry

[gazman1976]

ok i made a lamb madras , cooked the lamb in my slow cooker for 6 hrs,  i followed the recipe and used the taz spice mix , added extra 1 tablespood of madras power and tea spoon of methi at the end , it was amazing !!!!!!

[Cory Ander]

Hi gazman,

Please post your photos using the cr0 image hosting website here:  http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/

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Thanks

[PaulP]

Looks good to me Garry.

Just a question - when you slow cooked the lamb what did you put in the slow cooker apart from the meat and I guess some water? Did it turn out very tender?

I do love a lamb curry if the meat is tender and fairly lean.

Paul.