Topic: CBM BASE from book

[Petrolhead360]

Hi all,
just bought CurryBarkingMad's BIR book and made his gravy (from the book not the same as the videos)
Wow! The flavour is great and although still mild, same as all the others I've made, it has a distinctive one.
I watered it down to the correct, I believe, consistency and it produce a beautiful silky, golden coloured gravy with a loverly aroma.

I used a 450ml portion, in the vindaloo from the same book, although it calls for only 300ml.

This is my problem.
Recently I've noticed that all my curries seem to use up all the gravy I pour in, usually 350ml.
So I decided that the gravy portions were not large enough to produce a finished saucy curry.

I made the vindaloo and had to keep adding water after the gravy (450ml not 300ml) because the sauce was so thick.

If left over night then virtually all the sauce dried up. Maybe this is to be expected. Although my usual take away always has remaining sauce the next day.

I wonder whether I should check the measurements I'm using for the spice mix and other spices.
I could just be adding too much.

Any comments welcome.

Regards James
PS: CBM PDF book loaded on to the iPad (pictured)

[PaulP]

Hi James, the cooking technique usually involves reducing your first half of base, either in small amounts or the whole lot at once. When you add the second half of base you are then aiming for final consistency and probably don't want to reduce the second and final addition too much.

Maybe your base is too thick to start with? I figure on 800g to a kilo of onions to a finished volume of about 3 litres of base. Are you using enough oil when you start your vindaloo? Are you using watered down tom puree?

Cheers,

Paul

[ifindforu]

Hi all,
just bought CurryBarkingMad's BIR book and made his gravy (from the book not the same as the videos)
Wow! The flavour is great and although still mild, same as all the others I've made, it has a distinctive one.
I watered it down to the correct, I believe, consistency and it produce a beautiful silky, golden coloured gravy with a loverly aroma.

I used a 450ml portion, in the vindaloo from the same book, although it calls for only 300ml.

This is my problem.
Recently I've noticed that all my curries seem to use up all the gravy I pour in, usually 350ml.
So I decided that the gravy portions were not large enough to produce a finished saucy curry.

I made the vindaloo and had to keep adding water after the gravy (450ml not 300ml) because the sauce was so thick.

If left over night then virtually all the sauce dried up. Maybe this is to be expected. Although my usual take away always has remaining sauce the next day.

I wonder whether I should check the measurements I'm using for the spice mix and other spices.
I could just be adding too much.

Any comments welcome.

Regards James
PS: CBM PDF book loaded on to the iPad (pictured)

a base must be cooked to a minimum of 2 hours at first stage to break down the onion then at leasr another hour final stage,dont try to make it curry tasting,you just need stew taste

[chewytikka]

Hi James
Both curry cartons Ali or Plastic are 500ml, a Restaurant full portion curry ladle is 500ml.
A recipe calling for only 300ml gravy is accounting for the displacement of the meat and veg in the finished dish.

In a Vindaloo or any curry, make sure the base gravy is thin enough and on the heat.

Adding plain water too a curry can kill it completely, especially towards the end of cooking, i.e. to make more sauce etc..
In the worst case, the water will separate and flood your plate. Always use base gravy, not water.

If you watch a good curry chef, he will juggle the amount of oil and base gravy to create the correct consistency for that particular dish.

cheers Chewy

[Petrolhead360]

Thanks to all for the replies.
I have taken all advice on board.

I actually think and proven that I made a fundamental error with my measurements.
I have reset my opinion of what a tablespoon measurement actually is.
Having bought measuring spoons from Tesco I was shock to see my mistake.

All the videos I have been watching over the last few months gave me the impression that the chefs were estimating spice levels.
Well, my estimations have been growing, to a level where I've been doubling or tripling quantities thinking that it is a about right. Wrong!

I made the the vindaloo again last night using carefully measured amounts of spices and tomato paste. Adding the gravy worked out to be almost the correct amount. (That chefs ladel (500ml) mention by Chewytikka)
The recipe does call for 300ml though.

I also increased the oil which helped frying in the early stages too.

Anyway the large amounts of spices I was adding was probably soaking up the gravy.
Another lesson learnt.

Regards, James