Dipuraja's Curry Base Gravy

[Razor]

Hi Fellas,

Ok, made the base last night along with his chicken Madras

The Base:

Ok, I observed Dipuraja's advise on making sure that the onions are cooked, and so, I gave them about an hour.  I only put enough water to cover the vegetables but this can vary.  I only cut my onions in half but if you chop them smaller, then the amount of water that you will need to cover the veg will be less.  A more specific measurement on the water would be good!

After about an hour, I got the dreaded smell of burnt onions.  I raced over to the pan, whipped off the lid, and virtually all of the water had gone, leaving behind just the veg and oil.  I quickly transferred into another pan and just about rescued it, so be careful if you boil for longer!  Luckily for me, I hadn't added the tomatoes and spice yet.

I added the toms and spice, give it another 15 minutes, then blitzed will a jug kettle full of water.

The base tasted ok, but certainly not the best for me, much preferring CA's.

The Madras

Made the Madras to spec.  I wasn't over the moon with the final dish.  It was very strong in flavour and over spiced, and I don't mean too hot, just the spice balance wasn't right for me.  Maybe the addition of Garam Masala was the culprit? The taste wasn't either old school or new it was, as SS says 'typical low end TA fayre'

Now, I'm not going to rule this out altogether as I am more than aware that I could have cocked it up, but I'm pretty sure that everything went to plan.

All in all, bit disappointed if I'm being honest, I have had better from off the forum and I'm not looking to cook low end TA food but reasonable BIR food!

But understand, this is only my opinion and there are others who have had good results, so you may want to still give it a go, if only to rule out or to add to your preferred list!

Ray

[Malc.]

That's what we need, good honest write up's, well done Ray.

[michaelpratt]

I think in all his videos he seems to over-spice things. Don't get me wrong , I appreciate the effort he put in to publishing his cooking on the net, but nothing in the videos says "eat me". Too much powder, under-cooked so raw tasting I would guess, and we still haven't got to the bottom of the recipe for the curry powder in his spice mix.

[Domi]

Originally by Bez...oops! I mean Razor

All in all, bit disappointed if I'm being honest, I have had better from off the forum and I'm not looking to cook low end TA food but reasonable BIR food!

But understand, this is only my opinion and there are others who have had good results, so you may want to still give it a go, if only to rule out or to add to your preferred list!

I made the CTVindaloo using CA's base and the result was a run of the mill jack of all trades vindaloo - the kind that does pizzas, chicken and cheesy chips! lol but having said that, some people may prefer those kind of JOAT curries...Gawd knows I've eaten enough of those after a night on the vino lol ;D

It wasn't a curry disaster, but it's not top notch by any stretch, I've made the Dip base to have another go on Monday, I'm just about to blitz it but I didn't have any probs with loss of water and it wasn't overspiced for me though I'm not a fan of the mildly spiced curries TBH...I'll post pics on Monday of the full Dip curry & base

[haldi]

All in all, bit disappointed if I'm being honest, I have had better from off the forum and I'm not looking to cook low end TA food but reasonable BIR food!
Ray

This takes us back to the beginning of the forum
Someone (maybe me) posted a demo recipe
People tried it at home and it's not as good, as it should be
But I'd bet that if you bought one of Dipuraja's curries, it would taste pretty darn good
I've seen curries cooked which are little more than the gravy heated, and they tasted fantastic
Unless you take extreme action, there will always be a dividing line between home made and bought curries

[Razor]

Domi

Originally by Bez...oops! I mean Razor

ya twistin ma melons maaaan! ;D

it wasn't overspiced for me though I'm not a fan of the mildly spiced curries TBH

When I say 'overspiced' it wasn't too hot, I just think the spice blend is out of balance.  I think it's unusual to have equal parts of ground coriander and ground cumin, the norm being 2 coriander - 1 cumin (in my experience)  I also think that there is too much garam masala in the blend.  I would suggest 1/4 part instead of 1 part.  It almost looks like the spice blend was designed for memory purpose rather than for flavour

Maybe I didn't water down the base enough?  The final dish was thicker than Dip's and I cooked it for about the same length of time, I also used lemon dressing as appose to lemon juice, because that's all I had in, but I don't think this would have made a great deal of difference?

Just not for me I'm afraid   I've not totally given up on Dip though, like I said, it could have been down to my poor cooking (but I don't think so  )

Ray (Bez)  )

[Domi]

Sorry Bez, I was replying to michaelpratt's post re the overspicing, luv Sorry, about yer melons, I was aiming for yer plums ;D

This takes us back to the beginning of the forum
Someone (maybe me) posted a demo recipe
People tried it at home and it's not as good, as it should be
But I'd bet that if you bought one of Dipuraja's curries, it would taste pretty darn good
I've seen curries cooked which are little more than the gravy heated, and they tasted fantastic
Unless you take extreme action, there will always be a dividing line between home made and bought curries

I'd second that, Haldi I also think that sometimes we're spoiled or rather sometimes we spoil ourselves (or this forum does lol)....I've tried quite a few recipes that if I'd used them when I first joined, I'd be overjoyed with the result, but overtime I've changed my idea of a top notch curry, I'm still chasing the old style flavour but I do think that sometimes we're too hard on some recipes because of our expectations.

At one time I'd have been happy with making a JOAT curry at home in fact, sometimes I'm more than happy to eat a JOAT curry from a takeaway but because I'm in search of  my idea of perfection, if the recipe isn't as good or better than my usual I see it as a letdown, when in fact it's not. I have a fantastic chocolate cake recipe but I like to use other chocolate cake recipes for the difference, because a change is as good as a rest lol

[chriswg]

When I made his base I didn't need to add in any water until it was time to blend. It reduced right down just like it looked in the video and there was plenty of fluid in the pot which I assume mainly came out of the onions.

This also backs up what I saw in a BIR kitchen when they were cooking a base batch. They had a huge stock pot filled up to the brim with sliced onion and green pepper and occasionally the chef would go over and use a tool like a crow bar with a spade end to rotate the onions to stop the ones at the bottom burning. I bet after 45 mins that pot would only be half full with soft onions cooking in their own moisture. It certainly didn't look like they added water while the base cooked.

[JerryM]

have now made this base - it's very much a saffron to me.

for the 1st time i felt as soon as i started making this base i was wasting effort. as soon as i started to look at the recipe in detail i realised there's is nothing new here for us all.

anyhow it's made. for me it passes the threshold but it's no where near as good as the best bases on the site. i do need to cook with it.

the other thing that got my back up was the red pepper and i think fresh tomato sitting in Dippies initial base at the start of the video - the one u don't get to see much of.

ingredients added


after blending


cooking complete

[Malc.]

the other thing that got my back up was the red pepper and i think fresh tomato sitting in Dippies initial base at the start of the video - the one u don't get to see much of.

Jerry, your right there is fresh tomato in there though you have to be quick to see it. The tinned tomato he ads at the end of the second pot he shows cooking suggests that this recipe is designed for people at home. I'm fairly sure he'd have cooked his blended garlic and ginger in oil first too, rather than putting it in to boil. Perhaps this is a measure of what he is trying to do?