Base from Zaal Restaurant in Fleet

[jb]

This is the base gravy Az(chef/owner) kindly showed us on our recent lesson.I've re-checked all of my notes and I'm pretty confident they are accurate but there was a lot of information being given,if anyone spots any glaring errors please feel free to point them out.We tried to ensure we got the correct measurements in everything we prepared,Az is not used to a desert spoon of this or that and usually relies on his experience in judging things by eye.

The gravy is essentially the same as Az uses in his restaurant.Same ingredients and technique albeit on a smaller scale(I spotted one of his pans and it was huge).He pointed out the outcome is the same no matter how big the pot is.After two days the gravy should be discarded.Interestingly he said it's better fresh than leaving it to stand overnight.

First you need a pot roughly about eight litres in capacity.Fill it just over three quarters full of English/Dutch onions which have been chopped.Az said he would not use milder Spanish onions.Also he would not leave the onions whole in the pot.Chopped onions cook more quickly if he's busy and it makes no difference to their sweetness when cooking.Then add one chopped carrot,one chopped green pepper and one sliced potato.Add one desert spoon of salt and also one desert spoon of ginger/garlic paste.Az actually blends this with more ginger than garlic in a 60/40 ratio.Then add about two litres of water and two chef spoons of vegetable oil.Put the lid on and bring to the boil.Boil it for at least an hour,making sure the bottom doesn't catch.If it does add a little more water.Az explained it's not an exact time as to when it's ready.Like most things he does it by eye and when the onions begin to 'melt'.When it is ready take it off the heat and blend.

(continued...)

[jb]

(continued)

Next get a medium saucepan on the boil and add a few Cinnamon sticks,a small handful of green cardamon pods and about six bay leaves.Leave to boil for about ten minutes then strain the mixture and put the strained water into the original onion and carrot base.Az explained you could just add the whole spices to the original mixture but you would have trouble trying to fish them out.It actually looked like the spices had been roasted but amazingly Az said they reuse these same spices in water for up to a week.

Then get a frying pan on.Add one heaped chef spoon of veg ghee,one chef spoon of ginger/garlic paste and cook until the mixture goes slightly brown.Add half chef's spoon mix powder(will post this shortly),a tiny amount of chili powder,three quarters chef spoon of turmeric and four chef spoons blended tomatoes.After cooking for a couple of minutes add to the blended onion mixture.Bring the mixture to the boil and then leave to simmer.As it simmers on the stove top oil will gradually rise to the surface.

Hopefully that makes sense.Not much difference to base gravies already discussed on this forum.The spiced water is something new to me as is the revised ginger/garlic ratio.The gravy we made was slightly sweet with just a mild curry flavour so it could be used in everything from Curryhell's phal to a tikka massla.There was no bhaji oil,spiced oil or coconut.

[PaulP]

Thanks for the post jb. Interesting the 60:40 ginger/garlic ratio as the base posted by Terry (ifindforu) from his TA also used more ginger i.e. 2:1 ginger/garlic. When the final curries are cooked the g/g paste used is then 3:1 garlic/ginger. You wouldn't think they would bother to make up 2 different g/g pastes.

Cheers,

Paul

[ifindforu]

(continued)

Next get a medium saucepan on the boil and add a few Cinnamon sticks,a small handful of green cardamon pods and about six bay leaves.Leave to boil for about ten minutes then strain the mixture and put the strained water into the original onion and carrot base.Az explained you could just add the whole spices to the original mixture but you would have trouble trying to fish them out.It actually looked like the spices had been roasted but amazingly Az said they reuse these same spices in water for up to a week.

Then get a frying pan on.Add one heaped chef spoon of veg ghee,one chef spoon of ginger/garlic paste and cook until the mixture goes slightly brown.Add half chef's spoon mix powder(will post this shortly),a tiny amount of chili powder,three quarters chef spoon of turmeric and four chef spoons blended tomatoes.After cooking for a couple of minutes add to the blended onion mixture.Bring the mixture to the boil and then leave to simmer.As it simmers on the stove top oil will gradually rise to the surface.

Hopefully that makes sense.Not much difference to base gravies already discussed on this forum.The spiced water is something new to me as is the revised ginger/garlic ratio.The gravy we made was slightly sweet with just a mild curry flavour so it could be used in everything from Curryhell's phal to a tikka massla.There was no bhaji oil,spiced oil or coconut.

This is called bagar in bengali

[natterjak]

This is the base gravy Az(chef/owner) kindly showed us on our recent lesson.I've re-checked all of my notes and I'm pretty confident they are accurate but there was a lot of information being given,if anyone spots any glaring errors please feel free to point them out.We tried to ensure we got the correct measurements in everything we prepared,Az is not used to a desert spoon of this or that and usually relies on his experience in judging things by eye.

The gravy is essentially the same as Az uses in his restaurant.Same ingredients and technique albeit on a smaller scale(I spotted one of his pans and it was huge).He pointed out the outcome is the same no matter how big the pot is.After two days the gravy should be discarded.Interestingly he said it's better fresh than leaving it to stand overnight.

First you need a pot roughly about eight litres in capacity.Fill it just over three quarters full of English/Dutch onions which have been chopped.Az said he would not use milder Spanish onions.Also he would not leave the onions whole in the pot.Chopped onions cook more quickly if he's busy and it makes no difference to their sweetness when cooking.Then add one chopped carrot,one chopped green pepper and one sliced potato.Add one desert spoon of salt and also one desert spoon of ginger/garlic paste.Az actually blends this with more ginger than garlic in a 60/40 ratio.Then add about two litres of water and two chef spoons of vegetable oil.Put the lid on and bring to the boil.Boil it for at least an hour,making sure the bottom doesn't catch.If it does add a little more water.Az explained it's not an exact time as to when it's ready.Like most things he does it by eye and when the onions begin to 'melt'.When it is ready take it off the heat and blend.

(continued...)

My video of the first part of this recipe is here:

Indian Restaurant Base Sauce Lesson

No video of the final stages sorry.

[Whandsy]

Hi JB / Az curry chefs

When you make your own Zaal base sauce, is there any chance you could video/photo the end process, ie the spiced water and the G/G tomato frying and the blend. This will then give us an idea of the final quantity the gravy produces.

thanks

W

[curryhell]

Hi JB / Az curry chefs

When you make your own Zaal base sauce, is there any chance you could video/photo the end process, ie the spiced water and the G/G tomato frying and the blend. This will then give us an idea of the final quantity the gravy produces.

thanks

W

I think Solarsplace may have some footage of the finishing of the gravy.  He will confim and no doubt post in due course.
I think we agreed the pot we used was about 8 litres in size.  Time we'd finished we ended up with a full pot minus and inch of so from the top ;D.  You can see it bubbling away in the phall video

[emin-j]

Really surprised how little veg oil goes into this base considering the 400 - 500 ml that goes into many base recipe's on the forum.

[ELW]

Really surprised how little veg oil goes into this base considering the 400 - 500 ml that goes into many base recipe's on the forum.

Hi emin-j, I noticed hardly any oil going in as well, although it does get 1 x heaped chefs spoon veg ghee to fry the tomatoes to 'bhagar' the gravy. Not sure what that makes the total equiv?
ELW

[jb]

You're right there wasn't a lot of oil in it,although when it was cooked and simmering on the top I noticed the oil started to float to to surface.Note there were no corriander stalks in the gravy either.I asked Az about this and although he didn't say it's wrong he didn't use them in his base.It's interesting that Ifindforu recently mentioned the bagar technique of the gravy,this is exactly how Az did his.