Topic: Curryheads "Madras 2011"

[Stephen Lindsay]

If you like battered sausages and fried mars bars then it might be your thing.

In Scotland, along with deep fried pizza in batter, these are known as national delicacies.

We have the highest rate of heart disease in Europe to prove it.

[PaulP]

The base should have yielded about 3 litres.

If you use 400 ml of base per curry with a total of 450 ml oil in 3 litres of base you will end up with:

400/3000*450=60 ml oil in the final curry.

60 ml is about 4 tablespoons or a chef's spoon of oil. This seems fairly typical from the videos we have seen.

I also didn't experience much sweetness. If the base is not made up to 2.8 to 3.0 litres and you use 400 ml for the curry, then it will contain more oil and the texture would be too thick.

Sorry it didn't work out for you DD.

[George]

Third time lucky for me. This evening, I made my third and final batch of Chicken Madras using up the remainder of  my half-quantity Taz base. It must still mean I just consumed 225ml of oil, over the past 48 hours (approx) because that's how much oil I put in and there's no oil or base left. Scarey!

I left out all the 'additions' I used last night, and tried half a dozen completely different 'additions'. These worked to produce a curry far more to my liking. The last addition was a bit of a surprise, in terms of the negative impact. I added half a small onion, caramelised, but the curry tasted better before that addition, so it was a step too far. Now I must try and remember what I did with the first five new ingredients. It might be a few months before I try again...

 

[Curry Barking Mad]

For my own research and development, can anybody else say that they have found the resultant curry to be sickly sweet with a horrid texture?
All information is appreciated.
Regards
Mick

[George]

For my own research and development, can anybody else say that they have found the resultant curry to be sickly sweet with a horrid texture?

I certainly didn't find it sweet or with a poor texture. I don't know if DD has different tastes or did something different. For my first attempt, I stuck as closely as I could to the recipes, including the use of your formula for mix powder.

[Graeme]

The sweet texture... is this simply the cooked blended onions, oil and coriander ? that's what i smell when i get my old style BIR take away :-) not the tomato soup version.

[Curry Barking Mad]

@ George,
Thank you George.

@ Graeme,
As the base is simply spiced and mostly onion and a green pepper, I can understand what you say,
I'm trying to understand where the previously described "sickly sweet and horrid texture" comes from...
Regards,
Mick

[PaulP]

Hi Mick,

I can only hazard a guess that something went wrong when DD cooked the base. Nobody else has had similar comments.
Perhaps the base was not made to the correct volume, which would make it thick and more oily per 400 ml serving.

Cheers,

Paul

[peterandjen]

I still have 4 400ml portions of the base in the freezer so would prefer to hold off a bit before moving onto a seperate recipe, gives me time to play with the ingredients a bit too.

Neither me nor Jen found the meal sweet at all. Funnily the last takeaway's i have eaten from a place in Shropshire, and also previously the local one here in Northumberland were both definately sweet. I don't mind a little sweetness but going on these two places things have altered a bit lately, maybe uk tastes are erring on the sweeter side and thats what the TA's are giving us. For me its getting a bit sickly.

[Derek Dansak]

i assure you it was made correctly. but isnt 6 tennis ball sized onions to 400 ml of oil an awful lot of oil. even by my standards its alot. and i always use lots of oil per curry. The base tasted very nice after i made it. nice flavour. but when i actually cooked with it, i was spooning off far to much oil. it oozes oil, in a way i never witnessed in the bir kitchen i visited. i accept he had a different style of making base, but each to their own i guess.  I have spent 3 years practicing the bengual type method of curry making, where little oil is added to the base, (as taught to me by a bir chef)  i then add lots of oil at the curry making stage.  I guess i am interested in finding like minded members on this forum , who also advocate this approach.