Topic: How long to cook the base sauce?

[PaulP]

Hi Ray,

I know what you mean about the sweetness. For me it is not a suggary sweetness but a kind of oniony sweetness. When you have a TA and there may be some oil left on the side of the plate or in the TA container, do you find you taste the sweetness in the oil?

If you do the sweetness must be contained in the oil and sugar doesn't dissolve in oil.
I believe it is a flavour from the onions. Probably!

Cheers,

Paul

[Razor]

Hi Paul,

When you have a TA and there may be some oil left on the side of the plate or in the TA container, do you find you taste the sweetness in the oil?

If you do the sweetness must be contained in the oil and sugar doesn't dissolve in oil.

Yes I do find it in the oil, I would say especially in the oil.  And I didn't know that sugar doesn't desolve in all, that's amazing.  Not even in hot oil?

Where in the country are you Paul, because I'm wondering if it's a northern thing, this sweeter curry?

Ray

[PaulP]

Ray, I'm in Liverpool - 32.xx miles from greatness - as your signature says 

I noticed the same thing from my decent local TA. Since then I have adopted the spiced oil recipe from Pete (sced) - the one I mentioned some time ago. My finished curries are definitely closer to BIR as a result. A combination of spiced oil in the base including the gritty cooked spice deposits, cooking with the spiced oil and using the onion/pepper paste that is produced when you do the spiced oil recipe.

I wouldn't claim for a minute that all BIRs use this technique/recipe but they somehow manage to punch a deep flavour into the oil. It maybe just that a 60 litre pot of base sauce takes on some different properties when it is kept and topped up over several days. It maybe a side product from them preparing a bunjarra type thing.

I used to sometimes add sugar to my savoury curries and would even use tom ketchup but I don't feel the need any more.

Hope this helps

Cheers,

Paul

[Razor]

Hi Paul,

Ok, so we can certainly say it seems to be a North West thing, if not a totally northern thing!

It maybe just that a 60 litre pot of base sauce takes on some different properties when it is kept and topped up over several days

Totally agree with this statement, and I've mentioned before that we will treat our base very differently from the BIR's/TA's, for the very reasons that you've mentioned.

Would be interested to see if the members agree with the sweetness thing or not. 

Ok, a little experiment if you all don't mind;  If you wish to reply on this thread, could you start off by; adding sweet or not sweet, followed by whereabouts in the country you are, for example:

Ray; Sweet, Manchester
Paul, Sweet, Liverpool
Phil, Not sweet, Darn Sarf,

You get the idea?  It will also give us an indication on how the regional variances differ!

Ray

[Peripatetic Phil]

"Spicedup", on SecretCurryRecipes.Com, wrote

However with your spiced oil to hand and onion paste ready I couldn't resist cooking a Jalfrezi
The result an absolutely top curry, great BIR taste and a lovely sweetness from the onion paste.

So maybe onion paste ?
** Phil.

[Razor]

Hi Phil,

I do use onion paste as rule, and it does add a sweetness but my local TA assures me that he doesn't use onion paste.  He could be fibbing, but he looked at me like I had two heads when I mentioned it to him.

So Phil, you don't detect a sweetness in the curries down your way then?  I think if we can collate some data with reference to sweetness across the regions, it may help our quest with the base development project that we're attempting.

There will be other factors of course like, heat, consistency and so one but one step at a time eh? lol

Ray

[PaulP]

Hi Ray,

I may have been wrong when I claimed that suger can't dissolve in oil as I just found this:

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2002-03/1015878783.Ch.r.html

Confusing eh?

Paul

Edit: After a bit more searching it looks like sugar will not dissolve to any great degree in vegetable oil.

[Razor]

Hey Paul, the science of cooking, don't ya just love it eh? lol ;D

Well I've just made up a Madras using the Taz base posted by Achmal.  Now I made the very same dish last night, and was very happy with the results but tonight's effort is just out of this world?

I did everything the same, the only difference being that the base was a day older, and went into the pan cold!

It was definitely sweeter (still not like my fav BIR/TA) and much more savoury.  If you haven't tried the Taz base, I would recommend it, but you will need a good blender to smooth it out but I will report on this base on the correct thread later.

Ray

[PaulP]

That's quite a coincidence Ray as I'm about to cook a chicken Korahi using a Taz base cooked with spiced oil and a small amount of coconut block, but otherwise to the letter for the Taz recipe. I'll be adding the onion/pepper paste to this one.

I don't think I'll have blending problems anymore as my wife bought me a 200 quid Waring commercial stick blender that is nearly the size of a road drill.

Enjoy your food

Paul

[Razor]

Paul,

I don't think I'll have blending problems anymore as my wife bought me a 200 quid Waring commercial stick blender that is nearly the size of a road drill.

That kinda blows my 17 quid Rachel Allen one out of the water then lol.

Enjoy ya grub fella,

Ray