Topic: That Natural Sweetness

[DalPuri]

Hi all,
It occured to me the other day after watching a few vids and reading recipes that most people are trying to put a natural sweetness into their bases.
 In one of Mick's bases, he fries down the onions for while before adding water.
Chewy leaves his onions whole.
Someone else wraps their onions in foil and bungs them in the oven for a bit first.
Now this new guy Julian has come onto the scene and is doing a similar fry down. to which some members over at RCR are raving about (and saying its new??)
  I also saw Maliks do this one night with a FULL pot of onions with only oil.  THAT  seemed like a bad technique because the pot was way too small for the amount of onions and they would steam down rather than fry down.
So with all this in mind i thought... why not just put all the veg into a big roasting tin with the oil and roast it down in the oven first for an hour or so. then transfer to the hob and continue as normal?

Roasting veg always brings the natural sugars out

Cheers, Frank.

[natterjak]

There's another possibility, putting all the whole ingredients in a slow cooker with oil and giving them a good stew overnight before adding water. What effect all these different approaches has on flavour who can say without trying each in turn?

Hope someone has the time and patience to do a group test with the same ingredients and different cooking techniques.

[noble ox]

Hi All
There is a good debate for baking your veg to retain and not evaporate some important sugar
If you have had a roast Parsnip compared to a boiled one You should notice the difference,this is what some top chefs do ,when I pickle beetroots I bake them first,and what a diference.
If you can get fresh veg ( I mean hours old straight from the plot) you will not need to add sugar as some do
Carrots and tomatoes lose loads of sugar which turns to starch within hours so how long have they been at the supermarkets ?
As with spices quality freh veg are  just as important to get that sort after flavour