Topic: Bruce Edwards Curry Base sauce

[raygraham]

Have just made a pot of base sauce from Bruce Edwards Curry House Cookery. Find a copy attached. I found it easy to make and the sauce has an excellent robust taste with more depth than the average sauces on this site. Right from the start it looks like it might be a good sauce just by the variety of ingredients it uses. One of my local take-aways make up their base and it can be seen they use an amount of vegetables in it as does this recipe. After making and tasting I would definately put it into my "one of the best" categories straight away. The only comments I would make is that the amount of Ajwain should be halved at least. I was given some advice that this flavour dominates if a full teaspoon is added so I halved it and the flavour was not overpowering.
Instructions say that a litre of the cooked base should be poured off and a litre of water added to "thin" the base down. I found this too thin so next time will leave the base in an undiluted state even if it does have a more concentrated taste.
I made a Chicken Madras and Bombay Potatoes and for me they were a very close match from one of my local take-outs. After recently making the "Balti Kitchen" base this new one by Bruce Edwards stands out as far superior and I am not surprised as there is so much more going into the sauce right from the start. Has anyone else made any other recipes from this or modified it to any success?

[pete]

Did you type that out?
When I posted it, I thought it was enough trouble to scan and resize everything to upload.
Thanks, it's better in this format!
I think Bruce Edwards is one of the best bases.
The ajowan seeds are overpowering.
Most people make some comment on that.
I have several recipes where thyme is used instead of ajowan
They are very similar herbs in smell and flavour.
Restaurants definitely use them both
If you go into any asian shop there are always small bunches of dried thyme about.
Normally somewhere near the fresh coriander, fresh fenugreek and fresh mint.
If you are already adding chicken stock, somewhere along the line,then I think there is little improvement that can be made.
Curry gravies are quite usually thin.
They are evaporated off in the hot oil to almost nothing.
A ladle's worth gets dried out in a minute.
The consistancy of the finished curry is nothing like the consistancy of the curry gravy.
The only recent thing that improves my curries, is the addition of pre fried onions.
Two tablespoons is always a welcome addition.
I fry the onions earlier until they are just starting to catch!
Then I dry them out on kitchen tissue.

[blade1212]

Nice work there Ray. Got this doc file stored away.

PS. I reckon this base and the one posted by MarkJ are about the best - I don't think we can get much better bases than these as I beleive the real secret is in the final dish and the method of cooking it.

Look forward to you sharing your experiments on the final dishes.......

Cheers.

[raygraham]

Hi Pete and Blade,

Yes, It was me!  I typed it out from the original but it was thanks to Pete I knew this recipe even existed and from that information I have just made about the best base sauce I have tried to date!
I would encourage anyone on this site to try it!!!
I found the original document posted was a bit hard to follow ( after all it was 1994 ) so I typed a simplyfied version that outlines everything you need to create this superb base sauce.
I found this recipe doesn't require exact measures so don't feel the need to get out the Atomic Scales!
As long as you follow the basic instructions, give or take a gram or two you will end up with a base sauce to be proud of!
To me, the finished base was a bit thin but I take the advice from Pete it is normally like this and can be reduced when cooking. Using a wide based fry pan that allows rapid reduction the sauce can be thickened to a more acceptable level. With advice from site members I also reduced the amount of Ajwain seeds added from 1 tsp to about 1/2 tsp. This was more acceptable and taste was not overpowered by one spice alone.
I haven't tried Mark J's version yet but I am getting the message this is another good tried and tested recipe near to the ultimate!

Will  be trying that next!

Thank's for that Mark!

Keep trying folks, we are getting very close to that elusive secret !!

Does anyone have a favourite base sauce they can recommend?

Ray

[Mark J]

Pete's 600ml oil with coconut is probably my favourite

[Curry King]

I tend to make the same standard base, onions, green pepper, carrot, tinned toms, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, turmeric, tom puree and salt.  I then shove in anything else I have to hand fresh corriander, creamed coconut, yellow and red pepper, celery etc..  It comes out similar each time and always produces excellent results.

[Robert]

I'm going to attempt my first batch of Bruce Edwards' base this weekend and I've been wondering if anyone has considered use the large parsnip shaped white radish known as mooli (sp?) in place of the radishes? I see a lot of it in Asian greengrocers.
Robert

[raygraham]

Hi Robert,
No I haven't tried that option but why not give it a go. And good luck on your first attempt at this one!
I have made Bruce Edwards base and recipes lately and have been very impressed. One change I will make in a future batch is to replace his "curry powder" in the "spice mix" with the Basaar Mix I have discovered recently which is a better quality than most curry powders. Apart from that Bruce's recipe is a tried and tested good quality base.
Also Darthphall's 99.999999999999999999999% base is queing up for a trial when I can find a bit of space in the freezer.

Ray

[Peripatetic Phil]

... One change I will make in a future batch is to replace his "curry powder" in the "spice mix" with the Basaar Mix I have discovered recently which is a better quality than most curry powders ...

Yes, following up on Curry Canuck's reply to my earlier posting, I looked up Bruce's recipe, and was staggered to find that he includes "curry powder" amongst the ingredients :

Bruce Edwards Curry Base

Spice Mixture

7 parts Ground Coriander
7 parts Turmeric
5 parts ground Cumin
4 parts Curry Powder
4 parts Paprika (optional)

Given the immense variability that exists amongst so-called "curry powders", and that I don't know a single person from the Indian sub-continent who admits to using "curry powder", I did feel that it cast some doubt on the authenticity of the recipe ...

[traveller]

yes, we do not use such thing as "curry powder" in northern India.  Ther eis no such thing there.  Maybe in south india they use Madras curry powder but i dont know for sure as i am from north India.