Topic: Succesful experiment based on Muttley's base & spiced water

[gary]

As per Muttley's base - differences marked with a *

Ingredients

4 Large Onions (or 8 small ones - probably better, but hard to get hold of at the moment)
200ml vegetable Oil
aesofetida - just a wee touch of this stuff: I just dabbed a teaspoon handle into the tub
1/2 tsp Basaar Masala *
3 tsp Turmeric
3 tsp Ground cumin
1tsp ground Fenugreek seeds*
2-3 Black Caramoms*
Teaspoon of Fenugreel leaves*
1 tbls peeled/chopped garlic
1 tbls peeled/chopped ginger
NO tomatoes - Muttley already commented on this. *
Small-medium carrot sliced
A thumbs length of Mooli sliced*
A normal sized jar of spiced water - my wife taught me this trick, she never lets anything go to waste if there's possibility of it adding extra flavour!

Spiced water is simply collected water that has been used to rinse out empty curry paste jars - you can use this to top up bases & currys in addition to plain water.


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
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.

The result is a lovely creamy tasting (no cream went into it, but it tastes like it did!) yellow sauce, very very similar to the sample I got from a local takeaway the other week. It has the same smell, and that 'Picallili' aftertaste that I mentioned.

Ok I know most of this is't new to anyone on here, but what about the spiced water? Really I should have thought of it earlier - the Mrs and I do it with everything else, from pesto to bolognaise. Any thoughts?

Gary

[Mark J]

Ok I know most of this is't new to anyone on here, but what about the spiced water? Really I should have thought of it earlier - the Mrs and I do it with everything else, from pesto to bolognaise. Any thoughts?

Sounds like exactly the sort of thing the BIR's would do

[pete]

I had a lot of success with Mutleys recipe last year
I thought it was very good
I tried this modified one yesterday
and it was even better
I think the addition of the black cardomons really improved it
I was comparing it to a sample curry gravy base from my local curry house
Muttleys base wasn't as red as the sample
So I added a little tomato puree
I know the recipe says "NO" tomatoes and that is with very good reason
It totally wrecked the sauce
It lost it's "taste"
Although I have been given base recipes, with tomato in, I reckon that it doesn't work on a small scale using them.
Before the tomato addition, the muttley sauce was almost perfect
Any redness, in my curry gravy sample, must be from paprika

[gary]

Thanks Pete,

One thing, if you are going to add tomatoes to a small quantity base, I reckon it's best to give em a good fry (to the point of destruction!) before adding to the curry base - same for tomato puree & passata. Tomato puree I usually water down a fair bit before frying - mainly I follow my nose on this: when the tomatoes actually start to smell sweet like fruit, I stop frying. I do this for curry, bolognaise, chilli con-carne, whatever.

Unlike onions on the boil, which start of smelling awfull, but then mellow to a nice sweet smell, tomatoes seem to go the other way - my experience anyway (and I've been at this curry base business since about '95-'96 now)

One thing I have noticed with all the bases that I've tried: After blending, cooking on for too long can really ruin them - you can cook them forever before blending, but once blended they are best used fairly soon IMO.

Anyway, glad you liked I made a chicken tikka biryani and a veg curry using this base (with no extra spicing) and it was not very far from a BIR at all.

Take care,

Gary

[CurryCanuck]

I  have added black cardamoms , methi leaves and more tomato to the Bruce Edwards base and got quite a diverse flavor that is very pleasant - also substituting the restaurant masala with Balti masala can provide an entirely new taste sensation .

CC

[pete]

It's mentioned, in the Bruce Edward's Curry House Cookery, how hot the curry gravy is, when you blend it
I have noticed, on many occasions, that it loses it's aroma and taste when it's pureed hot.
The last time, I had a really successful result, was when I pureed the gravy on the following day.
When, I did that it, kept nearly all it's character (take out the whole spices though, then put them back after blending.)
I reckon that there is still that certain little something, missing from it's flavour
It must be how the onions are cooked before adding water at the start
They must be fried first
Either that, or maybe some pre fried onions are added to the base sauce
We all know that they add "pre fried onion" to many dishes so this is an ingredient they would have around.
I have never seen them pre fry the onions, I wonder what quantities they do it in?
They never seem to have more than half a yoghurt carton's worth next to the cooker.

But this adjusted muttley recipe is definitely one of my favourites.
It needs salt but definitely NO tomatoes though
They ruin it and mask the desired flavour.
I think that, that's what we all are doing
We hide the "taste"
It is something really simple and can only be found by very subtle ommisions and inclusions
Maybe it's only the flavour of turmeric?

I pureed a quarter can of tomatoes and heated this with a couple of ladles of this base and 1 desertspoon of garlic ginger puree.
It was a extremely good result
I can still taste the slight difference, but everyone who tried this was very impresssed.
"Just like a takeaway" they said
I wish......but close

[curryqueen]

Interesting read Pete!  Nice to hear from you again.  Do you think you could possibly post what you actually did and I will try it during next week from start to end.  It sounds extremely promising.

[pete]

I have been getting so many complaints about the smell from my cooking that I have been trying to find less offensive ways to do it.
I shut all the internal doors to my kitchen, and open the windows but everywhere still reeks of fried onions and garlic.
The kids have been picked on, for their clothes smelling like curry
So I have turned to the casserole dish, and although it is definitely NOT the way restaurants do it,
it has produced some of my best results.
I didn't stink the house out either

Ingredients 1:-

3 medium onions roughly chopped
1 medium carrot chopped
1/2 green pepper chopped
1 stick of celery chopped
2 desertspoons of garlic ginger puree
3 black cardamoms split (very, very important)
1 bay leaf
2 inch cinnamon stick
1/4 teaspoon of thyme
1 desertspoon salt
250 ml oil
No tomatoes & no tomato puree


I added this to the casserole dish and it nearly filled it
I then put in enough water to come up to an inch below the vegetables
All these ingredients are familiar enough and I know they DO go into curry gravy
I cooked in the middle of the oven on medium heat for an hour

This gave off an aroma, but it was one that made you feel hungry, not " what are you cooking now?!!!"

After an hour, I opened the casserole dish and stirred
Nothing had burnt or dried out
I then added

1 desertspoon of turmeric
1 desertspoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of East End Garam Masala

Again, I know they go into the gravy
A lot of emphasis has been placed on Paprika at my demos
They call it tomato powder!
I have heard too many people say that garam masala, goes into the gravy, to discount it.
But we all know it can also ruin any curry too.
So only a teaspoon

Cook on for another hour and then leave till the next day.
Remove the whole spices
Remove as much oil as possible
Puree
Water down to a consistancy of tomato soup
Put the oil and whole spices back in
At this stage it does taste very nice
Reheat in the oven with the casserole dish until boiling

Add
Half a tin of pureed canned tomatoes
1 desertspoon of garlic ginger puree

Cook fifteen minutes more and you will have a very fine restaurant sauce
It also looks correct
There is nothing new in the above ingredients, but this was a very successful way of achieving close to what I am after
I tried adding proper restaurant spice mix (which I had been given) and this did NOT improve it.
To get this right it is a balance & very easy to get wrong
One flavour can so easily cover another
If you wanted to add spice mix, then maybe you shouldn't add the garam masala earlier in the recipe
I think adding some prefried onions to the start of the recipe might improve it too

[curryqueen]

Thanks very much Pete for taking the time and effort to post the above.  I shall surely be trying this next time I make some gravy.

[CashNCurry]

Pete, I am going to try this recipe soon and i will post some results. The only thing is that it seems that you won't get alot of gravy with this base. After watering down - how much did you get? How many meals will it make? I'm thinking of doubling up the quantities as I have large dishes.

Thanks,

CashNCurry