Topic: Aussie IR Lesson - Gravy 3 - Onion Gravy

[Masala Mark]

Hi Folks,

Well here is the last of the gravies. Dish recipes will be coming over the next couple of days. Hopefully you'll find them as exciting as I found it when waiting for jb's posts, and still looking forward to more of his with much anticipation!

One of the other chefs that I spoke to regarding lessons used 3 gravies as well, but from what I could gather he made a big base onion gravy and then created the 3 gravies from that. I'm still trying to get him to come around, to see another method in action.

Cheers and happy reading,
Mark

Onion Gravy

Ingredients:
- 0.5 cup Vegetable Oil
- 2 Indian Bay Leaves (broken into bits)
- 4 big Onions, (sorry no measurement on this one, minimum tennis ball size)
- 2 big Tomatoes (sorry no measurement on this one, roughly same size as onions)
- 1 tbsp Ginger/Garlic puree (50:50)
- 2 tbsp Salt level
- 1 tsp panch phoron ( cumin, mustard, kalonji, fennel, fenugreek seeds)
- 1 tbsp Coriander Powder
- 1 tbsp Cumin Powder
- 1 tbsp Garam Masala
- 1 tbsp Kasoori Methi
- 1 tbsp Kitchen King Masala ( or curry powder)
- 1 tbsp Deggi Mirch

Prep Work:
- Very finely chop the onions
- Very finely chop the tomatoes
- Ginger/Garlic puree is made 50/50 rough ratio with a little water to aid processing

Method:
1. Heat oil till just shimmering
2. Add the panch phoron, this should crackle a little, immediately add the bay leaves and stir
3. Add onions and mix well, then add the salt and cook until light golden brown
4. Add a little water to cool the pan ready for the spices
5. Add the powdered spices and fry for a min or so
6. Add the tomatoes and continue cooking till the tomatoes have mushed completely and the onion pieces are barely discernable. This took about 45mins, essentially all the water had to be cooked out and the oil separated, this was his indication of when done. It will be a very dark color once completed.

If it is sticking to the pan too much, add a little water to loosen off, this may happen later on in the process, remember to keep stirring from time to time.

Use:
- From this sauce, 2 1/2 heaped tablespoons of it would be used in a single serve curry
- Used in Madras, Vindaloo, Rogan Josh, Tikka Masala and non-veg Korma dishes (that was an interesting point of his)

Notes:
- Again, this was a very thick paste by the end of cooking. You could still see onion bits though, I questioned him about this and he said they disintegrate in the final dish preparation.
- It is always the same ratio of onions to tomatoes 2:1.
- Cooking to a thicker paste will store better in the fridge rather then the consistency used in the restaurant
- The Panch Phoron was his little addition to the restaurant he works in, he said others may just use cumin seeds. He told me the owners brother was doing the cooking for the first 6 months of this IR opening and apparently nearly bankrupted the owner as his dishes were so bad, he was then given a little leeway with the dishes to try and turn things around, the Panch Phoron was one of his little additions which has apparently been well received.

[Ramirez]

This is great stuff Mark. Really looking forward to the recipes that accompany these bases!

[George]

- 4 big Onions, (sorry no measurement on this one, minimum tennis ball size)
- 2 big Tomatoes (sorry no measurement on this one, roughly same size as onions)

This recipe looks good but I'd be hard pushed to find tomatoes the size of tennis balls here in the UK.

Would that be roughly 4 normal-sized tomatoes (equal one tennis ball volume), perhaps?

[Masala Mark]

- 4 big Onions, (sorry no measurement on this one, minimum tennis ball size)
- 2 big Tomatoes (sorry no measurement on this one, roughly same size as onions)

This recipe looks good but I'd be hard pushed to find tomatoes the size of tennis balls here in the UK.

Would that be roughly 4 normal-sized tomatoes (equal one tennis ball volume), perhaps?

Hi George,

Essentially you need one half the amount of tomatoes as onions, if it's 3 tomatoes to make up half the volume then that will do as well, hope you get what I mean.

We get pretty big tomatoes here by the sounds of it then!

Actually, we just had a season of extreme growth for our Oranges, they were so big they were pretty much un-saleable. Oranges were the size of grape fruit and weighed on average 1kg each!

He was pretty loose with his measurements, it was visual thing for him. For example the ginger/garlic puree that he uses is 50:50. He doesn't weigh it though, he put the two piles side by side and said that looks good, he asked me if I wanted to weigh it! I think he was taking the pi** out of me!

When you look at what's in this recipe, it's essentially the same as the base gravies except for the seeds and a whole lot less water which actually gets put back in when cooking the dishes.

Cheers,
Mark

[George]

Mark

Thank you again for these recipes. They appear to have great potential not least because I've tended to have better curries outside the UK. The only country worse, in  my limited experience, is the USA.  How do you rate Australian Indian restaurants in general?

My present ranking by region for the quality of curries is:

1.India
2. Middle East, e.g. Dubai
3. Far East, e.g. Singapore
4. UK
5. USA

[JivyJ]

- 4 big Onions, (sorry no measurement on this one, minimum tennis ball size)
- 2 big Tomatoes (sorry no measurement on this one, roughly same size as onions)

This recipe looks good but I'd be hard pushed to find tomatoes the size of tennis balls here in the UK.

Would that be roughly 4 normal-sized tomatoes (equal one tennis ball volume), perhaps?

Beef tomatoes would qualify for that size and you can find them in any supermarket

[Masala Mark]

Here's a pic of the paste after unfreezing. Have used the pastes from frozen now to make about 8 curries, they handle the freeeze/unfreeze process very well, much better then base gravies seem to in my opinion.

[Curryswede]

Hi, I'm cooking this right now. Are you sure it's 2 tablespoons salt? I'm tasting it and it seems way too salty.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Hi, I'm cooking this right now. Are you sure it's 2 tablespoons salt? I'm tasting it and it seems way too salty.

I don't know where to find the recipes to go with this onion gravy, but two things strike me as relevant :

1) The salt content seems to be in proportion to the spice content
2) Only "2 1/2 heaped tablespoons of it would be used in a single serve curry", so I wonder whether further dilution takes place at that point ? 

** Phil.

[Curryswede]

I ended up having to throw everything out. I tried the madras recipe and it was totally inedible. To anyone making this, I would say use 2 teaspoons salt and add more to taste if necessary.