Topic: who believes future breakthroughs lie with recipe refinement ?? or new bases ?

[Derek Dansak]

Whats the general concensus on how things will progress on this forum. Thought it would be interesting to hear other members views on  1) if future breakthroughs will come from some improved final curry recipies, or 2) improvements in the base, or 3) a combination of  both 1 and 2.   

    I feel i need to understand the base a bit better, and then tweak my recipies to get where i want to be. 
  What do other members think ?

[Peripatetic Phil]

Although not directly an answer to your question, I do not believe that there is still a missing link to be discovered (no secret ingredient, no secret style of cooking, and so on).  I personally believe that there is now sufficient information in the public domain (including on this forum) to allow the average home chef to re-create a basic BIR curry without difficulty, and to get to within (say) 95%.  As to whether we yet have enough information to re-create all of the standard dishes, I am less certain, simply because I restrict my home curry preparation to a basic Madras style, and I am less certain whether I could re-create (say) a Chicken Bombay or a Chicken Bhuna with the same degree of accuracy and success.  As to tandoori, I last cooked this for guests about eighteen months ago, using a domestic charcoal barbecue, and the recipes I used (which differ between Chicken Tikka and Tandoori Chicken) were the result of multiple refinements and fine-tuning over time.  The results were as close as I have ever got to complete authenticity, and were (in my opinion) somewhere between 85% and 90%.

But to answer your real question, I am confident that the answer is "both".  We have already see over the last few days that Ham's base with black cardamom is both attracting attention and attracting praise; but a base alone cannot make a curry, any more than can the final preparation and spicing.

My two penn'orth, for what it's worth.
** Phil.

[solarsplace]

Snip...

But to answer your real question, I am confident that the answer is "both".  We have already see over the last few days that Ham's base with black cardamom is both attracting attention and attracting praise; but a base alone cannot make a curry, any more than can the final preparation and spicing.

My two penn'orth, for what it's worth.
** Phil.

Hi

For what its worth I agree with Phil, although my efforts will be 90% recipe refinement and 10% base tweakage.

From the knowledge and recipes on this forum, and the books we all know about I was able to produce a 100% Chicken Tikka Jalfrezi last Saturday night. It was absolutely spot on and up there with any of the best from any restaurant. However, I cannot say the same for my Vindaloos. They are very nice, very nice indeed but still sit at 85% to 90% - they are just not the same. This must be down to something like recipe refinement?

Cheers guys

[parker21]

and now someone says about black cardamoms in the base when my rajver revisited base contains it with the whole spices listed. and i posted that so many years ago!
gary

[JerryM]

DD,

for me it's 100% No 1 - recipe refinement.

i do think though that it really is each to their own on this though - members have varying levels/areas of expertise along with differing expectations and consequently widely varying needs.

i still can't believe how far ranging views remain and we seem collectively further away from our goal than in the past.

i'd also add a No 3 - Technique.

[Peripatetic Phil]

and now someone says about black cardamoms in the base when my rajver revisited base contains it with the whole spices listed. and i posted that so many years ago!
gary

I'm sorry, Gary, if I failed to give you proper credit : mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

** Phil.

[emin-j]

DD, I believe we still need to find a Base Sauce that the majority of the Forum would agree to being BIR and this Base used on a regular basis by Forum members with their chosen Curry Recipe and the results shared on the Forum. It seems to me we are all plodding along week in and week out doing our own thing and not really gaining much ground 

[chriswg]

I'm with Jerry. You take any of our bases into a BIR kitchen and ask the chef to use it to make your favorite curry I bet it tastes bloody brilliant. I also don't think we need to worry about recipes either, I think they are 100% right. Between us we have spoken to dozens of chefs and watched lots of BIR videos, I really don't think say a Madras has more that 6 or 7 ingredients in it. Possibly less in some cases.

I used to get really angry when Indian chefs would tell me Onion Bhajis are the easiest thing to make. Just chop the onions, add the spices and flour and make a batter, make into balls and deep fry. It sounds simple but it still took a year, and Axe's IG experience before I was able to crack it. The thing is, they were right, it is that simple as long as you chop the onions correctly, add the spices in the correct order, the right amount of flour and have the oil at the right temperature to be able to cook them for the correct amount of time. I'm certain the same goes for the curry cooking, once we know the secret we'll be there.

Axe - get yourself back to IG fast!!!

[Derek Dansak]

emin-j i agree totally. its about time we worked a little more as a group. Nothing to strict mind !  ;D  how about striving towards a single base and a madras recipe to go with it?  surely we could all agree on a base thats very suited to only madras. then work together to find a decent madras recipe.  what do other members think on this.  with all our experience we must be able to improve on what we individually know.

[Peripatetic Phil]

emin-j i agree totally. its about time we worked a little more as a group. Nothing to strict mind !  ;D  how about striving towards a single base and a madras recipe to go with it?  surely we could all agree on a base thats very suited to only madras. then work together to find a decent madras recipe.  what do other members think on this.  with all our experience we must be able to improve on what we individually know.

I like this (a concerted effort) and offer one suggestion : each should compare the results with his/her own preferred base/recipe for Chicken Madras, then score both on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 = "Disgusting : looks, tastes and smells like doggy poo" and 10 = "Superb : could not be bettered in any way", then provide an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the two variants when compared to the other.

** Phil.