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

[Willyeckerslike]

sounds just like the curry recipe group tests threads

[Peripatetic Phil]

sounds just like the curry recipe group tests threads

But much simpler, surely, Willy : only one base and one dish to prepare (plus one's own usuals), rather than several variants of the same thing all of which are unfamiliar.

** Phil.

[Derek Dansak]

lets start by getting some ideas on possible contenders for a base which seems suited to madras in particular. The test would be making the base, then using your prefered madras recipe, and 1 or 2 other madras recipes other members suggest. Then we report back and try to agree on what base has potential. remember the base might evolve over time (along with the madras recipe to go with it) , so it should be  just a simple base, we all agree as being a good building block base, which we can build upon.  I personally found the safron base, and ashoka base, did not produce the best madras i have made. I got better results with kd style bases, which have a large amount of onion. my contender would not be the kd base though, but something along those lines. 

[solarsplace]

Hi

Good ideas here!

Personally have tried loads of bases from the site and books but always end up coming back to the CA base as I find it to be the most flexible base with regard to getting good results from a variety of dishes. Although my version of the CA base has been tweaked substantially, I would like to put forward the standard CA base as a contender for the 'breakthroughs lie with recipe refinement' project.

Edit: What is this project going to be called? - in the past various posters have severely 'done one' basically just down to the naming conventions and what they might imply being used to discuss an idea like this? - keen to avoid that kind of negativity.

Cheers all

[Peripatetic Phil]

Edit: What is this project going to be called? - in the past various posters have severely 'done one' basically just down to the naming conventions and what they might imply being used to discuss an idea like this? - keen to avoid that kind of negativity.

I too am keen to avoid negativity, so may I make a plea that this project (and I don't actually care what it is called) requires making at most two curries at one time.  Normally I would make just one, and fry a frozen paratha, just to keep things quick and simple; I think I could stretch to making two (so long as they both used the same base) but beyond that I would be likely to drop out because of the work involved.

** Phil.

[Derek Dansak]

lets call the project 'madras 2011', giving us all year to come up with something improving upon what we have already.  I dont mind trying CAs base with a few madras recipies. i am interested in razors base + madras also, that sounded promising. I wonder which of the 2 would be best for this project? any one compared the 2 when it comes to madras or vindaloo? both might produce a tasty curry, but which is closest to bir madras. Is CAs base similar to the safron base?  I seem to remember it is?

[Razor]

Hi DD,

Obviously, I'm not going to make comparisons between CA's base and mine ;D but, they are the only two that I use now, often alternating between both in turn.

I've had some very good results with CA's, and the final Madras reminds me very much of one of my local restaurants madras.  That said, my madras is very similar to my favourite TA's.

My base does give up a lot of oil when making your final curry, whereas with CA's, I usually add an extra tbs when making my curry.

I really like the idea of this "group effort" and the fact that there is no particular time frame applied to it, makes it all the more appealing.

Just one question though, if I may, which/who's spice mix/curry masala are we going to use?  I only ask because, if I make CA's base but use my spice mix, my curries don't taste that dissimilar to when I use my base and spice mix together.  It's for this reason that I've always considered a base, as a means to get liquid/sauce into a curry, and believe that the spice mix has a bigger effect on the final flavour!

Ray

[emin-j]

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.

That's it DD ' work as a group ' for a change 
I reckon with all the Curryheads on this site we should 'develop' a new Base rather than use any of the existing recipes that most of us have tried and for one reason or another didn't stick with  A discussion on the 'must have' ingredients would be a start and eventually we should all come to an agreement  : Making the smallest amount practical as a trial to go with an established Madras Recipe so we should all at least be working on a level playing field.
In my opinion I strongly suggest we stick to 'BIR' methods (or as we would expect a BIR to work,speed of prep,max flavour for least money) quite a few of us have spent time in a BIR kitchen and Ingredients/Methods used should be favoured.

[Peripatetic Phil]

I reckon with all the Curryheads on this site we should 'develop' a new Base rather than use any of the existing recipes that most of us have tried and for one reason or another didn't stick with 

It would be interesting to know how many (or how few) have not found a base they are happy to stick with.  For myself, I use KD1, every time.  Yes, occasionally I vary it, like tonight (dilute with 50% chicken+ginger stock, and add kala elachi), but for my everyday run-of-the-mill curries I use KD1 base and KD1/PT Madras final spicing.

** Phil.

[Derek Dansak]

I agree emin-j that we should aim for a new base we all design together. so in the long term we all arrive at a new base. To kick of with, it might be best to use an existing base, what do you guys think?
approach 1)  we design a new base in the next few weeks collaboratively, and begin testing it against our favouriate madras recipes , then all report back with scores etc. Then possibly modify the base again until its acceptable.

approach 2) we pick an existing base, eg, kd1 , CAs, or razors, then all do trials with our favourate madras recipes, then report back with scores. Then begin improving the base, and madras recipe over the year as a group. 

what approach sounds like the quickest, least hassle and most agreeable?

this project will work best if its kept simple and informal ! then we might actually get somewhere as a group for a change !  its stupid not collaborating more as a group, , as its our main strength. Should we start a new thread for this to alert more members? where in the cr0 web site site should the project be based?