What Colour Should a Curry Base be?

[nderfel]

hello all,

A quick question around the curry base sauce (i don't think i like calling it gravy!)  I made my first attempt at the weekend and followed Bruce's recipe I was very surprised at the colour that it ended up, a pretty vivid Orange / yellow-  is that right or did I possibly add too much turmeric?

Either way it ended in a pretty passable pork vindaloo so i was pretty happy.

I used pork loin rubbed with oil onto which i rolledsemi crushed cumin seeds, coriander seeds and black peppercorns before frying it off. I finished cooking it into the sauce with some sliced peppers and a MASSIVE pile of scotch bonnets - lovely!

[Cory Ander]

Hi Nderfel,

Most bases here will vary from a light straw/yellow colour to reddish/orange colour depending upon how much tomato and/or paprika and/or chilli powder they include.  Bruce's is a yellow/pale orange colour (check out some of the photos in the thread).

The base will become paler upon blending and will darken with prolonged cooking.

[Stephen Lindsay]

What about making exotic coloured curries - purple or green versions anyone?

[nderfel]

What about making exotic coloured curries - purple or green versions anyone?

Now the question has to be did the Hairy Bikers purple rice pudding prompt the qustion

[Stephen Lindsay]

What about making exotic coloured curries - purple or green versions anyone?

Now the question has to be did the Hairy Bikers purple rice pudding prompt the qustion

Funnily enough now that you mention the Hairy Bikers

No they didn't prompt the question ha ha

[Secret Santa]

What about making exotic coloured curries - purple or green versions anyone?

Made me laugh when I read this. Many, many, years ago, I made cauliflower cheese for the girlfriend and me and decided that I wanted to to get a bit of an orangey colour into it, as if I had used a very red cheese.

Well, I only had red food colouring to hand and thought a tiny, tiny, amount might do the trick. So in it went and, oops, I well overdid it, and the cheese sauce turned bright red. I just scoffed it down, but the poor girfriend just couldn't handle the change and even though it tasted fine she just didn't enjoy it.

Moral of the story, if you want blue curries it's best to eat them on your own!

P.S. What's exotic about a green curry? Spinach curries are green, and I've had several chilli chicken curries that have obviously been doctored with green food colouring.