Topic: CBM Little India Base Gravy

[curryhell]

Not sure if you spotted my other post Mick but I've got hold of a portion of curry gravy from my local favourite restaurant.The thing is in terms of both taste and smell it's almost identical to the scaled down version I made from the Little India.It's more oily,maybe their base had been sitting around for a while I don't know.I was very impressed with your video already,but now I've got a genuine base to compare with the Little Indian one I've no doubt it's the real deal.

Think i'd be freezing it in ice cube and doing a few comparisons.  I'd be interested to know how you think it compares to the Zaal base which i rate quite highly.

[Derek Dansak]

Hi curryheads , just a quick question if i may. I made the cbm little indian base the other day, but the video was not available, so had to use the recipe posted in plain text.  The water content was not specified so i made it with less water than i would normally use. The base was good for rogan josh and bhuna, not so good for madras IMO . 
My question is , what consistency should this base be?  Did i guess right that it should be medium thickness? 
should it be:
1) very thin like safron base
2) very thick like ashoka base
3) or medium thickness , like kd base

cheers, this has been bugging me as i had to guess the water amount as the video was removed when i checked it out .  thanks guys

[Derek Dansak]

I almost forgot to add, did anyone have the cbm vindaloo recipe to go with this cbm base, as the video for that was also missing when i last checked ?  cheers

[natterjak]

Hi Derek

The video is here : CBM Base Gravy on Vimeo

[Peripatetic Phil]

Vimeo embeds have stopped working on CR0, NJ : it's better to give the Vimeo URL in plain text :

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http://vimeo.com/45213828
** Phil.

[natterjak]

Vimeo embeds have stopped working on CR0, NJ : it's better to give the Vimeo URL in plain text :

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http://vimeo.com/45213828
** Phil.

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Thank

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you

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Phil

 ;D

[Peripatetic Phil]

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Thank

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you

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Phil

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Y o u   a r e   w e l c o m e (to be pronounced in a Dalek-like monotone

[ELW]

Whats happened to the only video of a chef making a full batch of gravy for service?

Regards
ELW

[curryhell]

  ;D ;D ;D
Don't panic ELW.  The Youtube vid has been removed and replaced by the Vimeo link on page 7 and just up this page a little 

[curryhell]

Bit of a bump.  This base has been on my radar since it first appeared.  Having had great success with the Zaal base after our visit to Fleet, the Little India base dropped in the priority list, but it was always going to be cooked.  As it's been fairly quite over the last week or so on the forum i've re-read a few threads looking for answers to questions.  One of the threads was jb's on a comparison between the LI base and that from a local BIR we both frequent.  It also mentioned the use of spiced oil which had been taken form IFFU's bombay potato preparation.  The combination of the two certainly impressed jb.
Another driver behind my desire to try this base is that another BIR i have used for years produces  a unique tasting vindaloo.  I watched it being cooked several times and the ingredients are nothing unusual.  Therefore, the only possible answer as to where the taste comes from has to be the base.  The dish has a tomato "twang" to it but not from the paste used in the cooking stage.  It also has a lovely smooth flavour which takes the edge off the tomato.  I remember speaking to the now owner, who was the chef when i first started using the restaurant and i remember him saying cream was added to the base.  I have read several threads where the use of carnation evap milk is mentioned.  When i see this video, the penney dropped.  This must be the cream Ali was talking about  .  The use of this plus the quantity of tomatoes used, not at all unlike Abdul Mohed's enhanced base, made my mind up.  This was just reinforced by what we learnt at Zaal's and what Abdul had told us.
So tonight i set to and made the base according to Micks scaled down recipe.  It's cooling down now and smells and tastes absolutely great as bases go.  And it has that tomato background flavour with the edge taken off by the evap milk  I am hoping tomorrow that i will get closer to my favourite vindaloo dish than ever before.  I do have a secret weapon though  ;D  I made CBM's pre-cooked spuds which i ensured provided me with some lovely spiced oil, which i filtered today.  Tomorrow evening is going to be very interesting.  Here's a pic of the base.  I just can't stop myself from having a spoon of it every time i go near it