Topic: Curryheads "Madras 2011"

[solarsplace]

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.

Hi DD

Personally, the end result is the key for me, so not adamant about one method compared to any other method.

Do you have a base in mind? is there anything already on this site or in a book that you feel is more in the direction you are thinking? can you suggest to us an example please?

Regards

[George]

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.

Ah. so that helps explain it. I didn't read anything in the recipe to say to remove any oil. I just used the base as it was, and it produced a final Madras with approximately the same level of oil as many BIRs. You said you removed oil from the base, only to add it back for the final curry. Doesn't that produce the same end result??? I thought that's the whole point with this base - it's simple.

[PaulP]

Hi DD,

I don't really understand what happened as your curry should have had 60 ml or 4 tablespoons of oil in it.

I don't advocate any particular cooking style over another, I've just returned to the Taz base after trying several other bases using the more "normal" fry first approach.
Like SP says I'm only interested in the end result, not the method.

To give us a clue what are your favourite base and final recipes on this site?
It goes to show that we are not all looking for the same thing, even under the fairly narrow definition of BIR food.

Paul

[Curry Barking Mad]

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.

hi DD,
Just so that I understand what you have done...
1/ Did you make the base as written?
2/ Did you remove any oil from the base?
3/ When making the final curry did you start the curry with the base or...
4/ Did you add extra oil to your pan to fry the garlic etc?
Regards
Mick

[Stephen Lindsay]

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

Nope.

[Stephen Lindsay]

i assure you it was made correctly. but isnt 6 tennis ball sized onions to 400 ml of oil an awful lot of oil.

Am never too keen on recipes that measures onions like this. By my best judgement my 6 onions weighed 1kg (unpeeled weight).

[Cory Ander]

I have to say that I have tried Taz's recipe, when it was first posted (and method, and spice mix), and I found the results pretty good (i.e. comparable to many other bases on this forum) but also pretty bland (I'm not sure why DD found it "sickly sweet" though).

Having said that, to me, a typical BIR curry (from yesteryear, at least) had sweetness, depth of flavour and savouriness.  All of which, to me, are still missing from my/our recipes (including this one).

But, to support what DD may be saying, regarding "consistency", BIR curries (certainly from "yesteryear") where also very much more "flocculated" (rather than "smooth").  Almost as if they either used no curry base or less curry base?

PS:  And I am from "dawn Sowff" Ray (regarding "sweetness") 

[Cory Ander]

The Taz base is a little different from many other bases on this site mainly due to what it doesn't contain e.g. no carrot, potato, cabbage, fresh coriander.

But it DOES include tomatoes and capsicum?  Some might think that these really aren't essential ingredients for a curry base PaulP?

Furthermore, this is part of DD's original post on "objectives":

"A group effort to create an improved base sauce, and madras recipe to go with it"

To that end, I do wonder why DD would throw in the towel rather than suggest deficiencies and improvements?  Except that we are all probably aiming for very different things and all have quite different opinions on how to get there.....

[George]

I have to say that I have tried Taz's recipe, when it was first posted (and method, and spice mix), and I found the results pretty good (i.e. comparable to many other bases on this forum) but also pretty bland (I'm not sure why DD found it "sickly sweet" though).

I was surprised how similar the Taz base tasted to the MarkJ base which I've always used before, which has carrot and celery in it, and more. Anyway, the Taz base tasted fine in it's own right, and I eventually managed to get a good tasting final curry from it.

[PaulP]

Hi CA,

I agree with pretty much all of what you said. I'm only making the point that we seem to find a new base recipe now and again, we find it has a "missing" ingredient e.g. cabbage and then find we are no closer to the goal. Yes I could try a Taz base without tomato or pepper but don't really see the point.

The thing that distinguishes my home made curries from the local TA I use seems to be contained in the oil itself. Tasting just a drop of the oil on the side of the plate or the TA container immediately reveals that special quality, a moorish oniony spicy but sweet flavour.

This to me is the hardest thing to crack by cooking small batches of base sauce at home.
I'm working on and off with cooking spiced onion oil but don't have all the answers at present.

Regards,

Paul