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

[PaulP]

Hi Ray,

I finally got my Taz based chicken korahi finished by about 10:45 last night!

It was pretty yummy but in using the spiced oil and onion/pepper paste I maybe need to think about reducing some of the spicing in the final dish as it was a bit over the top in terms of depth and strength of flavour.

What you have been saying about the sweetness of savoury curries I understand and the oil in my finished curry certainly had that TA quality.

The Taz base is a great lesson in simplicity and shows the importance of reducing your base to get the deep flavours from it.

I just think I need to adjust my final recipe spicing to allow for the extra flavours I've introduced with the oil and paste.

It's not easy getting it spot on, is it?

Cheers,

Paul

[emin-j]

Gonna give this base a go,probably make Friday for Saturdays Curry 

[Razor]

Hi emin-j,

Gonna give this base a go,probably make Friday for Saturdays Curry 

Well, I don't think you will be disappointed mate.  You WILL, end up with a good layer of oil on the surface of the finished base, which is great for starting off your curry with.  After that, I wasn't sure what to do with it, as I've never made a base that releases so much oil.  With that said, I've never made a base that uses so much oil either but I think it's vital in this base.

I would follow Mick's advice and simply stir the oil back in before you portion it up to freeze (if your freezing it, that is).  Also, I would dry roast the coriander and cumin seeds, and grind them up, rather than using whole, as blending the whole spices can be tricky.

Hi Paul,

It's not easy getting it spot on, is it?

It certainly isn't mukka but that won't stop us trying, will it? ;D

Ray

[joshallen2k]

I still believe this base/method has produced the best Madras I have made to date.

I have adapted the original dopiaza recipe to produce a Madras, Vindaloo, Bhuna and Jalfrezi. All have been superb.

-- Josh

[rhodriharris]

This truly is a simple and the best base i can find, my takeaway dosen't use sugar to get the sweetness in its curries and i always wondered how the hell they did it.  Now i know where and how the sweetness is obtained, its all in the onions and the oil pulls it out.  I never in my life thought that onions were sweet and that just adding oil to the initial cooking would bring it out.  I realise that longer cooking times may be needed and never set a timer more just wait till my base looks like its cooked, somedays it takes an hour and somedays two. Thanks mick/taz as i couldn't even pay to get this kind of cooking lesson.

[976bar]

I made this base sauce last week and took pictures but unfortunately cannot post them.

The weekend, I made a Chicken Korma using CA's recipe with a slight modification for my daughter. She won't get one from a take away anymore as she said they don't taste as good as mine

I also made a CTM using the tomato soup method with a few modifications which came out top notch.

But the dish that was outstanding for me on Saturday evening was the Garlic Chilli Chicken. It was awesome. This base is really something else, well done and thank you TAZ!!!

[peterandjen]

As regards the whole spices for this base, i used the food processors blender jug for blending my base, when i had the last dregs of base in the saucepan, about a pint or so, the whole coriander and cumin had sunk to the bottom of the pan, this was all then added to the blender and blended, because of the smaller amount of liquid it was really a short process to grind/blend them up.
Its funny but i wouldn't have thought that the coriander seeds would sink.
I made two meals with the resulting base and never found a single piece of husk.

[emin-j]

As regards the whole spices for this base, i used the food processors blender jug for blending my base, when i had the last dregs of base in the saucepan, about a pint or so, the whole coriander and cumin had sunk to the bottom of the pan, this was all then added to the blender and blended, because of the smaller amount of liquid it was really a short process to grind/blend them up.
Its funny but i wouldn't have thought that the coriander seeds would sink.
I made two meals with the resulting base and never found a single piece of husk.

I dry roasted the Coriander and Cumin seeds for this base then ground them in my pestle and mortar, first time I have roasted seeds and found it very easy.

[976bar]

I made Taz's base just over a week ago, but was not able to post pictures then.

I used a spice ball for the whole seeds, which I then emptied into a small food processor with a little of the base. This pureed the seeds into a fine paste without any husks, which I then added to the blended base, simmered for a further 15 minutes until the oil rose to the top, then gave it a stir.

I'm really impressed with this base

[Tomdip]

made up some Taz base yesterday - has anyone else noticed it actually smells really nice while cooking?  Must be the cumin/coriander but it overpowered the usual onion smell. 

Might not get the usual comments from the girlfriend about the kitchen smelling