Topic: Muttley's basic sauce - Non rambling version

[Muttley]

This sauce seems to me to be a base from which you can make a large number of BIR style curries. I've only tried to make a Madras so far, and it seemed to me to be indistinguishable from a good takeaway example.

Ingredients

4 Large Onions (or 8 small ones - probably better, but hard to get hold of at the moment)
200ml vegetable Oil
1/2 tsp aesofetida
1/2 tsp chilli
3 tsp Turmeric
3 tsp Ground cumin
1 tbls peeled/chopped garlic
1 tbls peeled/chopped ginger
1 can tomatoes

Method

Heat oil until garlic and ginger just sizzle quietly
Cook garlic and ginger for about 8 mins until almost browned
Add aesofetida, turmeric, cumin and chilli and continue cooking for 2 mins
Add onions, sliced and stir to coat with oil
Add enoughg water to nearly cover the onions
Boil on a gentle simmer for an hour
Add the can of tomatoes
Puree with a hand blender (or in a food processor if you haven't got one)
Cook (covered) on a very gentle simmer for 4 hours. This sauce is sufficiently runny that it will not gloop or stick, so just needs a very occasional stir - in fact, I'm not sure it even needs that.

You should now have a sauce from which you can make a wide variety of BIR style curries.

A version without tomatoes is obviously needed for some sauces.

I've tried Madras, and verified that by gradually adding some sauce to some cooking youghurt/cream, you will get the creamy type of sauce needed for a Passanda/Korma/Malay (although these would need the non-tomatoe version).
Don't try to add youghurt/cream to the sauce, it won't work - it'll taste OK, but the youghurt/cream will never blend completely and will look slightly curdled.

Add some coconut from a block and colouring to a creamy version that to get a tikka massala sauce.

[pete]

Hi Muttley!
This sounds good
I really believe that the key to a good sauce is the initial garlic ginger fry (as you said) and the L O N G boil
You say four hours but I reckon longer will be even better.
I think the extra time changes the flavour of the oil in the gravy.
It gives it that "used" sour taste

[Muttley]

Hi Muttley!
This sounds good
I really believe that the key to a good sauce is the initial garlic ginger fry (as you said) and the L O N G boil

Well, when I "reverse engineered" the sauce from what I believed the IR's must do, I actually changed the garlic/ginger frying to what you suggested. I would have done it for a couple of minutes until just coloured, but what you said about frying it slowly until it browned, seemed, intuitively right, somehow, so that's what I did.

The other thing I'm still not sure about is whether it would be better to fry the onions first. And if so, for how long.

There are so many permutations and combinations.

The trouble is, that you actually get quite a lot of sauce for each batch you try.

Having mused on this even further, I'm pretty sure that the basic sauce should not contain tomato. I don't think that long cooking of the tomato actually adds anything, and it makes the basic sauce less versatile (cannot really be used with anything that shouldn't end up red-orange in colour.

I think now that I've got something that is as near as damn it spot on, I can use physics to try and simplify/speed up production.

What I'd like to be able to achieve is a technique that anyone can try - one that will not look intimidating and overly time consuming or complicated to those trying to take their frst steps in home cooked curry.

One possibility that I think may well be beneficial is microwaving the onions first. Microwaves are not, generally, that useful in cooking, but one thing they can do is break down the cellular structure of high water content ingredients placed in them. I think this and frying the onions might speed up the process a little.

I doubt, though, that it will ever become a 20min operation (or indeed, a 2 hour one).

[Muttley]

You say four hours but I reckon longer will be even better.

Actually, the onions were cooking for 6 hours all told.

What I've done now is reserve some sauce, and put the remainder on to simmer for another four hours.

I'll report back on any changes I notice.

If I can notice a difference, I'll probably give it even longer!

[Yousef]

I was going to give this a go tonight, has anyone made the sauce is it ok, all i want is madras and vindaloo styles.

S

[pete]

I made the sauce last Saturday
I used it with some leftover frozen curries
It was excellent
I added a little more salt, a pinch of dried fenugreek and a little garlic ginger puree.
The combination of fresh cooked ingredients with old was one of the best I have had!

[Muttley]

Phew !

That's a relief.

Although I've used it to cook a couple of large meals for two different groups of people I was still? slightly apprehensive about someone else trying it.

Funnily enough, I tend to add just the same extras as you when starting a curry (always the extra ginger/garlic, because I think a dish benefits from some that has not been cooked for as long as that in the sauce, and the methi usually when I' making a chicken curry).

The next batch of sauce I make will probably use the recipe from "Curry House Cookery" that you posted, because I really like the idea of having some celery in the sauce. I'm fascinated by the addition of the radishes though - I might just try making batches of my sauce recipe with one of the extra ingredients at a time to see what difference they make.

[Yousef]

Hi,

I made a batch last night i am impressed with the simplicity, flavour and colour.
As you say all i will do for the Madras is fry the ginger/garlic in oil, add Chilli, Corriander, Cumin, curry powder mix, bit of Methi and thats it.

Maybe this is the winning sauce as its very simple, easy to make and not too flavoured as to over power, therefore making it very versatile in application. ;D

S

[gary]

I'm cooking up a batch of this right now, and I have to say it definately seems to have that smell about it - in fact I'm quite loath to add tomatoes to it now as it looks/smells so good.

Ok I just added tomatoes (passata) and the smell seems to have gone a bit now, but still good

Browning the garlic/ginger DEFINATELY has something to do with it.

One thing that has occured to me is to boil the base as whole ingredients for as long as possible, I'm sure this will bring out extra flavour and sweetness of the ingredients, rather than blending then cooking on?

I'd also hazard that this is what BIRs do: tomorrows base is left cooking whole, until the day of use - then it's blended, ready for use. Any thoughts on that?

Gary

[Curry King]

I think it may vary from BIR to BIR but from what ive seen and heard the sauce is prepared either the night before its needed or cooked during the day ready for that evenings orders.  I tend to do the same and leave it to sit over-night out of the fridge as I find using a freshly made base doesn't taste quite right, a bit to fresh