Topic: Madras Base Sauce

[spiceyokooko]

Madras Base Sauce

Okay here's the base sauce I use for Madras style dishes.

Makes 2 1/2 pints (1.4 litres) which I put into 5 x 1/2 pint storage containers. So this makes enough for 5 dishes.

5 Tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil (any oil really apart from olive oil)
55g (2 oz) fresh root ginger coarsely chopped (take the skin off this first)
About 16 plump fresh garlic cloves coarsely chopped (take the skin off first)
8-10 shallots (I use the round ones rather than the long ones with a bulge in the middle) roughly chopped
2 Tbsp of fresh curry leaves or 3 tablespoons of dried (I always use the dried type)

1 1/2 Tbsp ground cumin (you can dry roast whole seeds first then grind or pound in a pestle and mortar, personally I haven't found a lot of difference, but I don't use pre-ground cumin, I always freshly grind whole seeds)
2-3 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp ground turmeric
85g (3oz) tomato puree
1.2 litres (2 pints) warm water (I boil a kettle and let it cool)
2 1/2 tsp salt or to taste (I used smoked salt)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
15g (1/2 oz) fresh coriander leaves and stalks, chopped
3 Tbsp lemon juice


Heat oil over a medium heat and when hot fry the ginger, garlic and shallots for about 3-4 minutes, stir frying continuously. Add the curry leaves, cumin, chilli powder and turmeric and fry gently for about 2-3 minutes (don't burn the spices! Turn the heat down if necessary) then stir in the tomato puree and cook for a further 1-2 minutes and then add the warm water. Stir in the salt and sugar and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a low simmer, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Add the chopped coriander leaves and stalks and lemon juice and simmer for a further couple of minutes and remove from the heat and allow to cool. When cool process the whole lot in a blender until smooth and fill 5 x 1/2 pint containers and freeze.

[PaulP]

Thanks for posting this and the final madras recipe. Is this from the book you mentioned? I've already ordered that book.

I wondered when I was going to get to use my bag of curry leaves! Just hope it doesn't taste like the Sainsbury's madras that has coconut and curry leaves in! Interesting the use of shallots and the lack of coriander powder.

Cheers,

Paul

[spiceyokooko]

Thanks for posting this and the final madras recipe. Is this from the book you mentioned? I've already ordered that book.

Paul

It is indeed a virtual direct pull from the book I mentioned in the Introduction thread, sadly I cannot claim originality for this, except that it works and tastes great. In fact I'd go as far to say I've never produced a bad dish from that book, on the contrary - all the dishes in it are excellent.

There's another dish I make from it called simply 'Masala Chicken' not to be confused with Chicken Tikka Masala, which is in my opinion one of the nicest Indian dishes I've had whether cooked at home or in a BIR.

When you get the book and try some of the recipes from it, you'll see that it's moving in a different path to trying to replicate BIR's to producing good tasty Indian food.

I gave up buying pre-made Indian food from supermarkets a long time ago preferring my own cooking, so I don't think it will taste anything like a Sainsburys Madras!

I'm looking forward to hearing peoples views when they get a chance to try it.

Cheers!

[PaulP]

Hi Spicey,

I'm cooking this one later today. I've also received the book.
My curry leaves are a few months past the best by date but the bag is unopened so they will probably be ok.
I'm planning to make a mildish chicken madras as my boy and wife will be sharing before we go to the firework display.

I'm a bit worried that 300ml of base doesn't seem much for 3-4 people.

I'll report back later - hope it doesn't have to go in the bin 

Cheers,

Paul

[spiceyokooko]

Heya Paul

Whenever I've made the Madras base it's always made 2 1/2 pints of base as I put it into 5 x 1/2 pint pots. She specifies adding 2 pints of water and simmering with a lid on, so with the other ingredients for me when pureed down it's always made 2 1/2 pints. You can follow her exactly if you like and split whatever base you end up with into 4!

In her Madras recipe she also specifies 675g of meat for 4 whereas I tend to use less than this and get 3 portions out of it as I prefer a bit more sauce and I tend to cook lamb rather than chicken and cook it for a lot longer.

I've always found her 2-3 tsps of chilli powder to be conservative and doesn't produce a very hot dish but then I blend and grind my own chilli powder which tends to be hotter than bought varieties and I adjust this by not adding more than 1-2 at the base sauce stage and then adding more when actually cooking the Madras dish itself after the onions are cooked.

Only you can know how hot your chilli powder is and if you want a mildish one I'd suggest perhaps adding 1-2 tsps at base sauce stage, cooking out the Madras and tasting at the end, if you want it hotter add a little more chilli powder and cook in the chilli for a further 5 mins or so.

I'll look forward to your views on this but I must admit I think it works best slowly cooked with lamb for a couple of hours or more.

Do try the Chicken Masala recipe on page 75 as I think that dish is fantastic!

Cheers and good Karma!

[PaulP]

Hi Spicey,

Well here are the results.

I cooked it to spec except I only had 30 grams of ginger after peeling it, versus 55 in the recipe. I wasn't going to the shops again so had to make do.

I used 2 teaspoons of Natco extra hot chilli powder and 1 teaspoon of Deggi Mirch chilli powder.

I didn't grind the cumin but it was a brand new sealed jar of Natco cumin powder.
For the lemon juice I squeezed fresh lemons.

After blending I was quite surprised by the taste of the base. The chilli really caught the back of my throat and I was panicking a bit as my 6 yo boy and wife can't take the heat like me.

I was surprised by the taste because of the relatively few spices. Apart from the chilli we are only talking cumin, turmeric and the curry leaves, which I had never used before.
I would say the base had quite a balanced flavour although a little salty.

The problems started for me after adding the coconut block to the near finished chicken curry. This had the benefit of reducing the chilli kick but it spoiled it for me and it was now tasting like a bland supermarket curry. My wife was positive about the curry and my lad was quite happy with it.

I've saved 2 portions of the base sauce and will try again sometime using lamb and slow cooking, but definitely not the coconut block or use much less!

I've noticed in the book that the northern or kadhai base sauce is much, much closer to the type of bases we cook to try to replicate BIR

I'm glad I cooked it for the experience but it was lacking the depth of flavour I can get cooking my BIR style madras curries. I've got a couple of photos but they are still in the camera at present.

Cheers,

Paul

[spiceyokooko]

Paul

Thanks for taking the time and effort to make the dish and share your experiences of it. As I said previously, I tend to make a lamb madras from it and let it cook out slowly over a couple of hours and I find the finished result to be lovely.

The base does have quite a raw and violent chilli heat to it if you taste it on it's own but as the author of the book rightly points out - it is intended to be used in conjunction with other ingredients and will taste a bit odd on it's own!

I like the fact that the grated creamed coconut tempers the heat of the chilli's and rounds out the flavour, particularly when it's cooked over a long period of time. I assume you added the grated coconut at the same time as the sauce?

I've also found that the longer the base and finished dish stand for (in other words over night or frozen) the more developed the taste becomes.

I've used the Northern Base Sauce for a number of dishes - mostly the Chicken Masala and I think it works extremely well in that dish - the addition of julienned green peppers at the end really lifts that dish.

I cooked out Khris's Madras this evening and I'll be reporting my findings on that in the other thread.

So, not as positive as perhaps my experiences of Mridula's Madras recipe but perhaps not a total disaster either!

Cheers and good Karma!