Topic: Interesting Development!

[joshallen2k]

Great work Ray!

Its not typical BIR but surely if it gets us to more savoury BIR-like curries, then go for it.

I'm curious also what the caramelized onion of the bunjara method (when used as a base paste) would add to a curry, vs. the usual boiling method.

Very interested to see how this pans out.

Cheers,
Josh

[Ramirez]

Good stuff Ray. I've heard of a concentrated base, with say half the water used during cooking, then more added when it is heated for the final dish. I guess your idea is the same principle but taken one step further.

Anything to cut down on the freezer space!  ;D

[Masala Mark]

Hi Ray,

I do the exact thing you are toying with and it works very well. Besides taking up less room in the freezer, it will unfreeze quicker as well, and I find it actually works better in the cooking of the final dish as well compared with a frozen normal base.

I've had two different Indian Restaurant Chefs out, and both have said for freezing this is the best way, basically to get rid of as much water content as possible.

Obviously if you're going to use all the base in one go then no need to make a paste. If I'm having friends over and doing curries, I'll make the base the normal way and keep my stash in the freezer for when cooking just for the family.

To make the base gravy paste, they used 1.5kgs of onion and approx 500ml water. When blended it is very thick, and when it cools is even thicker. Oil in the pot first and heated for a couple of mins, then onion in and stirred through for a few mins, then in went the water, lid on and cooked for about 30-40 mins stirring occaisionly. When the onions were half way done at this point, in went the ginger and garlic, stirred through and then cooked another few mins. A little water was then added along with the spices and tomatoes, lid back on for another 20-30 mins. Freeze it in 4 tbsp amounts and that works well with about 250ml of water being added in the final dish.

I also do this with a korma base paste and butter base paste as well and it is superb.

When I'm cooking with the base pastes, I actually add water to the paste prior so that I end up with the gravy and then can add that into the dish as if it were prepared in the normal fashion.

Cheers,
Mark

[JerryM]

Razor,

fantastic idea. you could be selling this if it works - forget pataks hey.

can't think of anything to help but will get my thinking cap on.

[Razor]

Hi Guy's,

Just noticed that I quoted my "10 litre" version in #7.  What I meant was my 3 litre version (10 portions), sorry for the confusion.

are you confident that this will be successful ?  When I have tried this, I have found it necessary to add liquid to a Kenwood goblet liquidiser in order for it to be able to do its job : in the absence of additional water (or stock), things just rise up the goblet and don't get liquidised ...

** Phil.

Hi Phil,

I don't use a jug blender, I will use my stick blender on this one.  I am hopeful that it will blend ok, there is plenty of oil in there so it should be loose enough to blend ok.

I have no problem with blending my onion paste so I think/hope it will be fine.

Ray

[Peripatetic Phil]

OK, good luck !

Update : tried the Bosch stick blender on my current batch of KD2 base, but on trying to get the resulting gravy through the mesh of a sieve, I realised that the particle size was still quite large.  I then transferred what remained in the sieve, plus a little of the now-fltered gravy, into the goblet blender and gave it another minute, after which it seemed absolutely fine.  I am not sure what the maximum run time is for a 600W stick blender, but I suspect it is considerably less than the 3 minutes that Kenwood recommend for the goblet, and I have a feeling that it may be as little as 15 to 30 seconds.

** Phil.

[Razor]

Ok Guy's,

Experiment complete.  Quite interesting.  I'm off to Old Trafford now, but when I get home (if I get home) I will post the results with photo's too.

Ray

[Peripatetic Phil]

I'm off to Old Trafford now

Old Trafford ?  I thought our team were touring in Australia ?!

[Razor]

Ok guy's, so the experiment is complete.

I didn't quite manage to get the "paste" consistency that I would have liked however, I did manage to get it to a puree of thick yogurt consistency.

I think I could have taken it further if I'd had used a non stick pan but unfortunately I had to call it a day at the stage that I'd reached, in fear of burning the contents.

Now, unlike the water version of this base, it did require a fair bit of attention, again not helped by the use of a normal pan.  It was a little labour intensive but nothing to difficult.

Here is a few photo's of how I progressed.  Please excuse the picture quality, I'm obviously a better cook than I am a photographer.  I will post the exact amounts and measures in the relevant section on the forum.  This is just a pictorial for you all, to get better understanding of what unfolded

Ingredients:


Onions, coriander, garlic and ginger frying in the oil:


After 10 minutes of frying on high flame:


Salt and Spices in:


Tomatoes in, and a can full of hot water:


Everything completely fried off:


Ingredients pureed, note how thick it is:


And finally, how much I ended up with.


I ended up with 1.2 litres of base puree, which coincidentally weighed 1.2 kg, (See Phil, this metric thingy is quite simple, isn't it? )

Now this has been taken from my 10 portion base (3 litre) so you would need about 120ml of this puree and 180ml of water to give you 300ml of base.  Now, you could either add this puree to the water and mix before hand, or, just do what I did, and added it to the pan.

Here's a few more pictures of the final curries that I made using this puree. Again, sorry for the picture quality

Chicken Jal Frezi

Ingredients: Front row; Oil, G/G paste, Spices, Onion Paste, Base Puree,
Back row; Water, Par boiled peppers and onions, precooked chicken, Tomatoes and chillies.


Garlic and Ginger frying off:


Spices in, off the heat:


Onion paste in:


Base Puree in:


Water in:


Peppers and Onions in:


Chicken In:


Fresh coriander in, at the end:


Finished Chicken Jal Frezi:


The verdict, well, it took my by surprise a little.  It tasted different to that of my normal curries using my standard base recipe.  Very savoury, which for me is a good thing.  Came out slightly thicker than my usual too.  I suppose I could adjust the amount of water that I put in of the amount of base puree.

Did I like it?  Yes, I loved it, was really good (but I would say that, wouldn't I?) ;D

Up next was the wife's veg bhuna.  Now she had no idea what I was doing all day in the kitchen, so she would be perfect to judge.  On her first mouthful, she looked at me and went mmmm.  She then asked if I'd used another recipe?  When I told her what I'd done, she immediately asked, "does that mean I get my freezer back then?"

Finally, I thought I'd give a milder curry a go with it.  Not really my thing but Chicken Korma seemed the obvious one.  So I knocked this one up for the lad, who in his typical teenage manner, ate it, and grunted something which I believe was "That was orrite that"

Veggie Bhuna:


Chicken Korma (bit too much sauce I think):


So, it seems to have past the test. 

Would I use it going forward?, yes no problem!

Is It BIR?, most certainly not!

Does it give BIR results?  most definitely, in my opinion of course!

Will it get the wife off mi back for robbin all her freezer space?  ABSOLUTELY ;D

Hope one or two of you guy's would like to give this a go in the future.  It doesn't have to be my base of course, you could use what you're using now, just leave out the water.

All feedback very welcome.

Ray

[solarsplace]

Hi Razor

You are doing yourself a dis-service! - the photos look great.

Most certainly will give this a try, thank you for all your efforts to post the results for the forum to enjoy.

Regards