Topic: What Ingredients are we missing

[Derek Dansak]

i have been using an adapted version of the old smelly kd base recently. i really would advise it, as its very close to cooking with the real bir base i once purchased. the texture of the final curry is exactly like a real bir. i also believe it will be more suited to adding half a chef spoon of spice mix per curry. (like real bir do) a tsp of spice mix per curry is all you can get away with , using safron style bases. lets face it many members have posted new base recipies in the last year, but they are still closely resembling the safron base. Its about time we all realised the safron base is a time waster. if none of us are happy with our curry, and we all use safron derivatives, it just illustrates how crap that base is. my local bir would never use it, i know that for sure. it would really take the edge off there curries. there own base is bland and thin and pukey, but boy does it deliver a stonking madras. 

[Derek Dansak]

how many very thin unusually bland bases do we have on this site? there is an odd lack of bases which fall into this category. i know of none, and i have tried 8 at least.

[peterandjen]

Have you Kris Dhillons sauce from the new curry secret, thats about the blandest one ive tried.

[jimmy2x]

admins base was the first one i tried, its much more spicy than any others ive found, infact just as it is some would consider it too hot for say making a korma or even a bhuna.

still after experimenting, even with my own version i have to say so far for me the base does give me my best final madras to date, which is why ive just made another batch.


the thing i see missing from my curries is the intitial lip sting of the chilli you get when you take your first mouthfull, my chilli allways seems too deep with momentary lapse before i feel the heat. Any restaurant ive gone to always has this initial sting in its curry.

maybe we are all correct on technique and spices its just perhaps are using the wrong brands or types.

Maybe we should all go out to the takeaway, bring our curry back and do a picture and taste comparison and debate on here. perhaps we could disect or re-engineer and all come to a conclusion.

Im waiting for the day when we realy have this written down and correct.


perhaps we can set a takeaway date for all on here to have such a debate?

[Derek Dansak]

no i have not tried the latest kd base. how does it differ to the old one?

[chinois]

the thing i see missing from my curries is the intitial lip sting of the chilli you get when you take your first mouthfull, my chilli allways seems too deep with momentary lapse before i feel the heat. Any restaurant ive gone to always has this initial sting in its curry.

Wow, this shows the difference in people's taste.
I regard the deep delayed taste/effect of chilli as a success, something to strive for. An initial lip sting tells me the chef doesnt know how to prepare chillies properly or they're using bad quality or strong powder.
If using fresh chillies i deseed, wash and soak in warm salty water to get rid of excessive harshness and get a more rounded flavour. So if you want the opposite i suppose you shouldnt do any of that! That way you should get the stinging sensation you get when you go to the loo or scratch your eye after handling chillies.
As for using chilli powder, which most places seem to use over fresh, try buying a cheaper/stronger brand rather than a quality one made from kashmiri chillies.

[Derek Dansak]

Its odd but i find all the best bir madras have very little heat, and minimal chilly. i found the lower class bir use alot of chilly in madras to cover up the lack of taste. getting the right heat is sooo simple. just play around with different combinations of 1) chilly powder  2 or 3 tsps 2) green chilles chopped with extra chilly powder or 3) red and green chillies mixed and chopped , and no chilly powder. its usually green chilly that gives the bir heat you sound like you like

[JerryM]

DD,

i not sure "bland" is the right word unless that's what u mean - i'd call it moorish as opposed to soup. the real BIR base i got from my local TA (free i'd add - straight out of the pan in front of my eyes) was certainly not bland.

i think i know what u are getting at though - it was very different to how the std bases turn out. but u can get to it - the amount of oil, onion and thinness are critical. the staggering thing for me was that although the real BIR base is "thin" - it's not watery for sure.

[peterandjen]

@Derik dansak, sorry i wouldn't have a clue i havn't tried the old one but if its anything like the new one its a bit bland.

[Bobby Bhuna]

lets face it many members have posted new base recipies in the last year, but they are still closely resembling the safron base. Its about time we all realised the safron base is a time waster. if none of us are happy with our curry, and we all use safron derivatives, it just illustrates how crap that base is.

I don't get on with the Saffron base myself, but that is a load of rubbish. Saffron follows a very similar recipe to any good base I've tried. I just don't think it's great. On your next point, many of us are happy with our curries, myself included.

How are the more recent bases Saffron derivatives??? After Saffron, SnS's derivative SnS June 2009 (Saffron's recipe refined with great results), Bruce Edward's, Ashoka's and CA's are the only popular bases that sping to mind. Other than SnS' June 2009 base they have NOTHING to do with Saffrons base.

In fact, ingredient and method wise, Saffron's base is incredibly generic and not dissimilar to any good base on this site (albeit slightly lacking IMO). It's absolute nonsense to suggest that the reason that people are not producing great curries from our recipes is because since Saffron, all of our base sauces are a derivative of a lacking base.

If that were the case why wouldn't we all be evangelising quality bases posted before Saffron? There were better and more popular bases on cr0 before Saffron, and there are better and more popular bases on cr0 now, not that this greatly effects people making sub standard curries. I've knocked out a few quality numbers using Saffron. It's good enough to do the trick.