Topic: Does abduls base sauce and recipies teach experienced members anything new?

[Derek Dansak]

I am impressed with Abduls fine efforts in posting so much for us. Nice gesture. Normally i would try the base , but due to work i am short on time.  Are these recipies some of the finest on cr0? Do experienced members rate these as seriously worth trying? or would they be a step sideways , rather than I definate step up from existing methods?

How does the jalfrezzi and madras compare to others cr0 recipies?

I would love to hear some feedback, as I have had no time to try these recipes ,but am burning with curiosity?
 
cheers DD

[Razor]

Hi DD,

Like you, I'm quite curious about Abdul's recipes too, and like you, have never really found the time to replicate any.

I do have a copy of his book but as of yet, still not tried anything.  If, as Abdul says, he is a BIR chef, and there is nothing to suggest otherwise, then I'm sure that he will most certainly have something to offer us all.  Whether it is to all members taste, well, that's another matter.

It does seem that we are all in search of something slightly different to each other and whilst Abduls recipes will be curry heaven to some, no doubt they will be not quite upto the mark for others.

Just a quick glimpse at his base sauce, there is nothing in there that we don't already know about, the method is pretty standard and I should imagine that the end result is comparable to many of the decent bases here on cr0, which I guess does fill me with confidence, in the sense that there is NO mystery/secret ingredient that continues to elude us.

Again, his '8 spice' is not too dissimilar to quite a few spice masalas on cr0, and the ratios of each spice are pretty much we what all are accustomed to now, so again, no mystery there.

Finally, his methods are very familiar in the sense that, he usually starts off by frying off the ginger, garlic and onions until golden, then adds the spice masala, then the gravy and finally the meat.  All pretty standard stuff to the more experienced member/cook.

I respect Abduls wishes to keep the identity of his restaurant a secret but I would love to see how the recipes that he has kindly provided cr0, compare with that, that he serves in the restaurant.  If there is a marked difference then that would suggest one of two things, 1) There is  the possibility that the recipes differ somewhat or 2) our own technique is lacking somewhere.

To answer your original question, reading through his formula's, I would have to say, No, he's not teaching me anything that I didn't already know!  However, I'm not arrogant enough to say that he couldn't help me improve my own technique and get me that step closer to an authentic tasting BIR style dish, infact, I'd put money on it that he could!

Very good question DD,

Ray

[Stephen Lindsay]

I've bought the book, made the base, used the 8 spice, and tried a couple of recipes. Razor you are right - nothing earth shatteringly new. Good curries but no better or worse than those I have made with BE, Ashoka or Taz recipes.

To be honest I'm not surprised at this as I think this is the conclusion I have been working towards for the past year, though I didn't realise it at the time.  As I've said in other posts, I do believe this site has everything we need in terms of information. But that is only the half of it - we need to be working regularly at cooking curries to internalise the information, improve our technique. Like most things this requires practice and repetition. Apart from one foray into Abdul's recipes I've been working with the Taz base exclusivley since it was posted and I think it has helped me produce curries of a consistent quality.

I've no reason to assume that this can't be equally achieved with Abdul's base, or Razor's or CA's etc.

[Derek Dansak]

Ok , cheers guys, thats basically confirmed what i suspected.  I guess time will tell, if his recipies rise to the top of the pile.