Topic: Healthy Curry

[JerryM]

Axe,

it's a case of cake and eat it. in adopting the HC i'd like to get it as close as poss to what i produce by the hot fry method. it's not crucial as i see me cooking both to suit the occasion.

i have roasted garlic in non curry and it does as u say produce a very nice result (slow cooking does same - have added to rice in the past as it cooks).

the thought of blending the v.hot fried garlic in very little oil (1 tsp) came from the viewing the recent TA from the HC point of view - the starter curry sauce was "cold" cooked ie Dippies method where it was clear the main was hot fried. i use the slithers a lot by adding just at the end of cooking and if that's what u like they work a treat.

i have upped the proportion to 20g in 140g puree and can now get a strong taste through the puree. the only thing is that i think it needs to be even more potent as the 1 tbsp of puree is still lost in the overall taste of the curry. still work in progress.

20g fried slithers

[JerryM]

i've made a 3rd batch of the healthy curry base (no salt, no oil) and managed to get this one in balance. the base still came across as a sort of raw onion taste.

i made 3 off curries this time using small amounts 1 tbsp of pataks pastes (2 off using the patak tikka massala and 1 off using the balti paste). i was almost for chucking them as they were still below par - down to the base not being good enough. i have though binned the patak tikka massala jar (the one bought in error) as it's well poor in comparison to the balti paste. i made Dippies biryani to go with the curry and it worked out better than i'd expected - not brill but u certainly weren't forcing yourself to eat it.

i'm beginning to think salt is needed in the base to somehow cook out the onion. i also need to add in some carrot to eliminate it as a possibility. it could also be that i just need to cook for longer (currently blended then 1 hr).

i've also reduced the oil in the curry down from 1 tbsp to 2 tsp without any detriment.

it's very stark that u can't eliminate the salt from the final dish ~ 0.25 tsp is essential.

the cooking method is to use a deep sauce pan and the splash guard, add ingredients and stir to mix, hob on full, bring to boil, cook for 5 mins stirring say 3 times. the pan needs to be old as it needs cleaning with steel wool at the end of cooking.

[commis]

Hi
JerryM,I find it better to adopt a Chinese style on reduced oil cooking.Start with 15ml of oil,then add a splash of hot water to "keep things frying". Only down side is that you need to be at the stove all the time.

[JerryM]

I find it better to adopt a Chinese style on reduced oil cooking

commis,

appreciate the thoughts - i'm aiming to keep the blinkers completely off and need to keep this Chinese style option in mind. i'm aiming to get as close as poss to the hot fry/oil method. i'm going to up the ante on the all in method today by including onion - this should give me a clear steer on how to proceed. the deep pan is working pretty good so far with the base being the naff part of the total equation.

I'll also know on the need for salt & carrot inclusion in the base.

[Malc.]

Jerry, forgive me but that garlic looks well and truly cooked past its best. Burnt garlic tastes extremely bitter, do you actually prefer it this way? If it's of any help, the garlic I could see in the IG Puree was not cooked to this extreme. I wonder if this is why you are finding it hard to get the flavour into the puree to.

[Razor]

Jerry, Axe

I find that if you take a full bulb of garlic, give it a good glug of olive, then roast at say, 200c or gas mark 6 for about 40 mins.  You should be able to just take a clove off the bulb and squeeze out the garlic.  It will be like a puree and it becomes very sweet.

Ray

[michaelpratt]

Hi Razor

I do that all the time. As well as becoming sweeter it is also less pungent so if a recipe calls for two cloves of garlic I would add four of roasted garlic.

Mike

[Razor]

Hi Mike,

Yeah, that's true, it does become less pungent.

Good tip,

Ray

[Malc.]

Ray, I think you missed my earlier post.

Mike I believe it's the Kernel in the Garlic Clove that gives of that really pungent taste. I sometimes remove this if I am not cooking the garlic to hard.

One thing is for sure, Roasted Garlic is quite tasty.

[Razor]

Hi Axe,

Yes just gone back through the thread and spotted it.  Great minds and all that

To be honest, I really haven't been following the thread that closely as when I see the word 'healthy', something in my mind translates it to 'Tasteless' no offence Jerry

I just had to pass on the garlic tip after seeing Jerry's nuked ones ;D

Ray