Topic: Base sauce by chance

[flavorjunkie]

Good things sometimes come by chance!
I normally bulk cook a 1Kg bag of frozen chicken breasts (defrosted first of course).
The cooking liquor that is strained off is so tasty that I use it as a spicy stock in other recipes.
Rather than having to precook chicken in order to get this sauce, I worked on a specially prepared version, replacing the chicken with chicken stock.

Wanting to make a quick curry and having none of my normal base I thought I would use this instead.
So I put together a very simple curry and was amazed at the result, so much so that I felt I had to share it with others.

I initially used a supermarket's own curry powder, but felt it could be improved by a more specific blend.
I have made this with Hot Madras Curry Powder and also Tandoori Masala powder, both by RAJAH and they are both excellent.
The actual curry is very simple but bursting with flavour.

C45 Curry Base Sauce (Makes 400 ml)

3 tbspn oil
100 gm onion (prepared weight)
15 gm ginger (prepared weight)
15 gm garlic (prepared weight)
0.5 tspn salt
1 tspn turmeric
0.5 tspn ground coriander
0.5 tspn medium curry powder
0.5 tspn chilli powder
0.5 tspn ground cumin
0.25 tspn ground cinnamon
1 tbspn tomato puree
200 ml chicken stock (I used an OXO chicken stock cube in 200 ml of hot water)

Preparation
Chop the onion.
Grate the ginger.
Grate the garlic.
Mix the tomato puree with 2 tbspn of hot water.

Cooking
Heat the oil in a wok or heavy pan over a medium heat and cook the onion, ginger, garlic and salt, stirring regularly, for 5 min.
Stir in the turmeric, coriander, curry powder, chilli powder, cumin and cinnamon.
Stir in the diluted tomato puree.
Stir in 200 ml of chicken stock, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 min, stirring regularly.
Allow to cool and transfer to a measuring jug.
Add sufficient water to make 400 ml.
Blend until smooth.
Store in 200 ml quantities.

House Curry
2 tbspn oil
1 tspn chilli powder
1 tspn RAJAH hot madras curry powder or RAJAH tandoori masala
200 ml C45 Curry Base sauce
2 tspn tomato puree
0.25 tspn salt
1 portion precooked chicken (see notes below)

Preparation
Add 100 ml of water to the C45 curry base sauce to make 300 ml and warm before use.

Cooking
Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and cook the chilli powder and spice mix of choice for 45 seconds, stirring constantly.
Add the tomato puree, 40 ml of base sauce (1 chef?s spoon) and salt and cook, stirring regularly, for 1 min.
Increase the heat and add the chicken and 80 ml (2 chef's spoons) of base sauce and cook, stirring regularly, for 3 min, adding base sauce as necessary to maintain the desired sauce consistency.

Serving
Serve with rice and optionally garnish with a little freshly chopped coriander.

Notes
Raw chicken (1 inch cubes) can be used instead of precooked but the cooking time will need to be increased until the chicken is fully cooked.
Additionally, with the longer cooking time, more base sauce or even some water will likely be required to maintain the sauce consistency.

This curry was one of the best I have had and a real surprise (in a good way) 

[flavorjunkie]

My previous post received a zero response  :-X, but I have made this again using "Chicken Curry Masala" by MDH as the spice mix instead of RAJAH with excellent results again. If you want a quick base sauce and a good savoury curry give it a try. Each spice mix I mention gives a distinct flavour variation but they are all good.

Whist ordering some spices from "Spices of India" I looked at their recipe collection and noticed some that claimed to be cooked BIR style.
Whilst I cannot comment on the recipes I did notice that they included a puree stage which is what we would call a base sauce. This is diluted before use but it is interesting to look at - similar to the bases we are familiar with but using very little ground spices.

Here are a couple of quick links, but there are more BIR style recipes on there.

http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/acatalog/Chicken-Tikka-Jalfrezi-Recipe.html

http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/acatalog/Chicken-Balti-Recipe.html

Hope you find this interesting.

[PaulP]

Hi FJ,

The 2 links you provided both require the use of Mr Huda products to complete the dishes.
These are quite expensive and you are supposed to throw them away 6 weeks after opening the jars.

I have tried the Mr Huda Tikka paste and the Kebab paste and they produce pretty good results but it is cheaper to use recipes that use the Patak brand.

Cheers,

Paul

[flavorjunkie]

Hi PaulP
The links were just to highlight the puree stage of the recipe which is base sauce as we know it.
I am not suggesting the recipe itself, just pointing to the puree stage (used watered down) as another example of a base sauce.
Purely for interest.

[curryhell]

Interesting base.  Virtually spice free in fact.  KD's original base also makes use of minimal spicing, relying on the addition of spices during the main cooking stage.  I used KD's base for quite some time before trying others and found it to be quite good but not as good as many on here.  I still have several i want to try before giving this a go.  I can't see any reason why the results wouldn't come close to your average TA with the addition of the right spices and good cooking method. :

[Peripatetic Phil]

The 2 links you provided both require the use of Mr Huda products to complete the dishes.
These are quite expensive and you are supposed to throw them away 6 weeks after opening the jars.

I can't comment in the price (zero experience of the brand) but I would personally completely ignore the "use-by" date; unless a product contains animal, fish or shellfish (some Chinese chilli oils contains shrimp or scallop, for example), I would rely on my own judgement to tell me whether or not it was still fit for use.

** Phil.

[Unclefrank]

Hi Flavourjunkie i have made 19 of your recipes (from the BIR menu) so far and i must say they are excellent, each one has a different taste, texture, level of spice and heat.
I have made a few changes to some, using 2 tsp of anardana powder (pomegranate powder) instead of 4 tsp,
not really a big change but found it a bit too much. Having said that your recipes are well worth a go.
Achari


Badami


Chicken Malayan


Desi Chicken Tikka Masala


Hyderabad


Lahori



Only made the sauce on some of them so i can reheat and add precooked chicken (your recipe as well) when i have friends round.
Havent had one complaint yet. I find these recipes to be found on, say "an upmarket restaurant" with the posh names but i highly recommend people try them.
I also like the many different spice mixes just gives it that extra special touch.

[flavorjunkie]

Hi Unclefrank,
I really appreciate the feedback and that they were received well  ;D. Like all recipes, they are not carved in stone and we will all tweak things to suit our own tastes.

[bamble1976]

That's cracking work unclefrank!!!!  I will deinitely be giving them a try after this recommendation!  Cheers

Barry

p.s. where are the recipes for the above curries??

[flavorjunkie]

Hi Bamble,
I have sent you a personal message with the recipe location that Unclefrank was kind enough to speak well of.

FJ