Topic: Happy with my curry base but....

[peterandjen]

I have a curry base i use for balti's thats very close to the bir flavour i love, and it is very close, only i reduce it down so its approaching almost a finished curry texture.

Ive noticed that on finishing the curry, the stir fry stage, thats when things start going downhill, i either lose its original flavours or they become too intense and overpowering, do you think this is because of my over reduction of base?

Also I have noticed on the video links here that your gravies are quite runny compared to mine, would you say that your gravies have a deep good flavour as they stand alone or do they have a background flavour?
The reason i ask is that if i water down a sauce then obviously the flavours become less pronounced, Im trying to make a comparison on taste with words its difficult...

In essence do you think that too much emphasis is placed on the base stage of the curry when the real problems could be with the stir frying stage?

[commis]

Hi

Peter hello and welcome, please could you post your balti base recipe and technique.. So we can better understand.

Regards

[PaulP]

Most of the bases I've tried are mild tasting and quite runny. They don't normally taste anything like a finished curry sauce, more like a mildly spiced soup.

As the previous poster said, if you post the recipe it would help.

Paul.

[peterandjen]

Balti sauce. makes 1 ltr
3tbsp veg oil
2cm chopped fressh ginger
1-2 cloves garlic chopped
5 spanish onions
half a tin tomatoes
2tsp roast ground corriander
1tsp roust ground cumin
0.5 tsp turmeric
0.5 tsp chilli powder
0.5tsp paprika
0.5-1tsp garam masala (down a bit)
2 bay leaves
4 green cardoman pods seeded
1 1/2 tsp dried methi (although i use fresh that ive frozen)
salt to taste
I also add about 10 fresh from frozen curry leaves

Heat oil, curry leaves and fry finely chopped onions till soft and clear not browning.
Add garlic and ginger and stir over moderate heat for a minute or 2 until its fragrant and lost raw edge.
Add toms and water and bring to the boil
Throw in spices fenugreek and bay leaves
Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 mins.
Liquidize and taste add salt to taste and simmer tasting all the time till the raw onion flavour has gone, take off heat its done.

Garam masala

1 1/2 tbsp black peppercorns
3/4 tbsp cumin seeds
1 1/2 whole cloves
4 seeded cardoman pods
2" cinnamon
1/2 whole nutmeg
2 star anise
roast gently then grind

[PaulP]

OK - if you say this base recipe only makes 1 litre with 5 onions, the last base I made (Taz recipe) made 3 litres with 6 onions. So from that point of view your base sounds quite concentrated.

Is it pretty thick before you reduce it?

[peterandjen]

Compared to the gravies ive seen here its pretty thick after the liquidising, basically i suppose that the finished sauce is the consistency of a finished curry.
yeah its too thick , thinking about it, by the time ive stir fried it its reduced even more.
I need to make it wetter lol
ill make some more tonight only wetter and then try it.
but ill stir fry the final stage a lot hotter than i usually do, and also ive noticed you lot use a lot more oil so ill try that too.
what do you think about mustard oil?

[PaulP]

I would use about 100 to 150 ml of oil and aim for a finished volume of about 2 litres.

Let us know how you get on.

PaulP.

[JerryM]

would you say that your gravies have a deep good flavour as they stand alone or do they have a background flavour?

background flavour for sure.

as long as u keep some "free" water during the spice frying then the spices will cook out fine. the "free" water can be added via watered tom puree or plain water or base.

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2968.0
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,2664.0.html

[joshallen2k]

what do you think about mustard oil?

I personally think it smells and tastes disgusting. I've only ever seen it used in marinade, not as a base for frying. (not that it couldn't necessarily be used for that though)

I'd say stick to vegetable oil, peanut oil, or spiced oil.

[peterandjen]

Well ive finished, i added about a third of a cup of oil and used about 750ml of water to the original sauce recipe and it turned out great, not as strong in flavour but still tasty.

Then for the stirfry.
4tbsp oil
fried 1 1/2 tsp of garlic and ginger for a minute then added half an onion till soft, threw in a ladle of sauce and reduced that down, added the other half a tin of toms from the sauce and another ladle of sauce and reduced.
Then added.
1tsp corriander
1tsp cumin
1tbsp black onion seeds
1/2tsp mustard seeds
1/2tspcumin
3tsp chilli powder
pinch of dried fenugreek
1/2tsp cardoman powder
and fried all that till i got that caramel stage.
then i just kept on adding a little sauce at a time and reducing it till my rice was on its 5 mins steam.
Added 1tbsp feungreek and 1tsp garam masala and hey presto curry.
I thought it was excellent and very close to the bir taste about a 8/10.
ive taken a few photo's too.