Kushi "Authentic Balti Curry" Cookbook Base

[JerryM]

Secret Santa/CA,

quite a shock this. many thanks though. i've just bought a new bag (59p from my local Asian store - supreme brand calling them tezpatta) and from the pic i can say i've never used the real stuff - amazing.

clearly as with everthing it's in the small print - "laurel" on my pack when i need "cassia"

i'll get a new bag asap.

ps i left the cloves out and reduced chilli to 1 tsp. i added in 500ml of extra oil and could only get out 350ml. the rest was to spec even the methi.

[JerryM]

tried to get the proper bay leaf yesterday but my local shop does not stock either. looks more trickier than thought to obtain.

[JerryM]

Razor,

have now cooked with the base - made plain curry sauce, 976bar kashmiri, admins jalfrezi and ashoka bhuna korahi. pic is of the kashmiri.

the dishes were on par with what i normally produce. it re-enforced my existing belief that once a base passes a "threshold" it's impact on the final dish it less than the other togo aspects ie ingredient, technique & equipment.

i don't have a pigeon hole for this base as it is very different (but still nice) to what i've made - i really do like the taste of the base. the neareast pigeon hole is the rajver but even that's not close in terms of recipe. whether it goes into my top 3 i'm not sure - i would need to cook more - it's certainly up there with the best.

i would take out the mace for sure - not good. i'm not convinced on the cassia in place of cinnamon. i was surprised that i could not detect the methi. i'd take the chilli down to 5ml as i like to add what i need at dish cooking (got it in the neck from the good lady as the sauce turned out too hot for her - i loved the heat though nice madras temp).

i've still got 2/3's left and will try the Kushi basic balti next.

for me personally it's been just what i needed and am real pleased u posted - many thanks.

[PaulP]

Hi JerryM,

I ordered some proper Indian bay leaves yesterday from here:

http://www.theasiancookshop.co.uk/cassia-leaves--tej-patta--tejpat--indian-bay-leaf-2178-p.asp

Cheers,

PaulP.

[Cory Ander]

I'm not convinced that BIRs use Asian bay leaves?  Do they? 

[PaulP]

I'm not convinced that BIRs use Asian bay leaves?  Do they? 

I'm not sure CA - does anybody here know for sure?

I bought them as they are specified in my new 50 great curries of India book and I'll be trying to cook some of these recipes soon.

Paul.

[Razor]

Hi Jerry,

Really glad you tried it.  Not a break through for you but at least you enjoyed it.

Out of interest, how much of the base was you putting into your final dish?  The book itself, never asks for more than 125ml.  Each dish only requires about 5-8 mins cooking time max, I suspect that you may have cooked for longer to release some oil?

A quick note about bay leaf.  The book doesn't ask for Asian bay, it just say's dried bay leaf.  Now I've never used asian bay but if it does impart an aniseed flavour like SS suggest's, then I think that that, reafirms that you should be using ordinary bay.  Star anise is included in the whole spices so why would you try to add more anise flavour by using another source?

I have no idea what flavour bay produce, asian or ordinary but it may be worth trying both!

And as for the chilli Jerry, just leave it out altogether, that's what I do.  I prefer to add it at the main dish stage.

Thanks for giving it a go though, Ill post more main dish recipes, any preferences?

Ray

[Secret Santa]

I'm not convinced that BIRs use Asian bay leaves?  Do they? 

They're the only ones that they'd use cos they're easy to source. They sure as hell ain't using English dried bay leaves. Seriously, that statement is like saying...I'm not sure they use onions in their base, do they?

[PaulP]

Hi Ray,

I was getting very interested in this base until you mentioned not using more than 125 ml in a curry. I use 500 ml of base to make 2 moderate sized dishes normally.

Surely there won't be much curry sauce if you only use 125 ml?

Cheers,

PaulP.

[Razor]

Hi PaulP,

Ok, i've just checked the book and it says "add 1 ladle of base sauce, our ladle in the restaurant is about 125ml"

I totally get where your coming from with regards to very little sauce, but this is not the case!  Every recipe in the book only requires a further 2-3 minutes cooking after the base goes in, so not really much time to reduce the volume.

A lot of bases seem to require a larger volume (300-500ml) of base, and this is put in at about 100ml at a time.  With most of these bases, a lot of oil is released during the reduction.  The kushi base is different as there is only 75ml of oil in the base anyway!

If a nice amount of oil is what your after with your main dish (it is for me) just add it at the begining of your dish, in fact, this is what I recommend as the spice mix will require it because in  some cases, the dish can require as much as  4 tsp of powdered spice!

If you feel that there is not as much sauce as you would like, just add as much as you want, and cook until you get the consistancy that is good for you.

Ray