Topic: Mridula Baljekar's Restaurant Base Sauce Review

[Nessa]

I'm going to make this sauce today I think. I have a load of left over chicken tikka that needs using up and this sauce looks really simple and fast.  I'll let you know how I get on!

Thanks again Ray, you're a star.

[Nessa]

As per Rays's suggestion I used half the quantity of methi leaves and I still thought it overly-dominated the flavour and aroma - next time I will just use a scant teaspoon instead.  I also thought the paprika was overly dominant too, but the brand I have is a quite expensive spanish one so perhaps it's a stronger flavour than the big plastic bags of 'Rajah' brand paprika, which I will try next time. 

I didn't like the smell of this sauce on it's own, perhaps because of too much methi/paprika. I used it with some chicken tikka, onions, mushrooms, mustard seeds, kalonji seeds (I really like them!), garlic/ginger, green chillies, chlli powder, coriander powder, garam masala, tomato puree and fresh coriander. 

It was very, very yummy but nothing like a restaurant curry at all. Oh well!  The rest of the sauce is in the freezer ready for the next cooking session.  Maybe by then the methi/paprika overtones will have mellowed a bit!