Topic: that smell

[Malc.]

Hi Ligs,


I'm glad you got it sorted. Can you say which component ultimately, was the cause of the problem?

[976bar]

Hi Ligs,

I'm glad your heading in the right direction again

Next will be to post some of your recipes with pictures

[ligs]

Hi, it was either the g&g or mix powder not had time to narrow any further yet but will soon, and let you know.I will    post some recipies soon. Here is a quick one for okra:chef spoon oil, 2 cloves of garlic chopped fry, add 1/2 chopped onion fry, large handful okra chopped in to inch pieces fry,1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp mango powder(amchoor) pinch of chilli powder, stir fry for 5 mins done. the wife loves okra and she enjoyed this

[Masala Mark]

Hi,

I tried making a BIR base the other day and I had to throw it, the smell was bl**dy awful.

This is what I did Oil in pot, heat add 1 kg onion, fry for 20mins or so to soften, add half green capsicum, one carrot and then hot water to cover. I let that boil away for a good two hours, the onions were sliced and it had 2 tsp salt in it.

Now while it was cooking it smelt pretty good, like a savory soup of sorts.

I then blended it, and that's when it went awful, the smell is not nice and very distinctive. I've had it happen before and I think why I stopped trying to make BIR and stayed with AIR cooking.

The plan was to then do the Zaal thing and fry the spices with and add it in. I had hoped that by doing this and adding the smell would be gone, but it was there as well.

I know some have described a soapy smell/taste as mentioned in KD's book and another Brisbane forum member has mentioned that underlying smell/taste as well.

Is that normal, or should it taste good as it is, I know it's not a curry as yet, but a vegie soup tastes better then the blended sh*te I'd made!

Got me stumped as to what to do different though as it was just veg. I even kept the ginger and garlic out of that stage to do like Zaal as I thought that might have been what caused me grief in earlier attempts.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The AIR cooking style is so much easier then this, but every British person I know raves about BIR food that I am kept interested in trying.

Cheers,
Mark

[Malc.]

Hi Mark


The base is the foundation of the curry and therefore should taste and smell like a very weak version of a curry. The Taz base is a good starting point as it is very forgiving, the Kushi base is also good and lends itself well to the Kushi spice mix with its Balti origins.

[ligs]

NO spice in the pot.Can only think you may have burnt the onions at the frying stage, put all veg in at the same time and fry on very low gas. also dont add salt until spice stage.hope this helps

[Aussie Mick]

OR

Don't bother frying the onions, just put everything in a pot and boil up as per CA or Chewy's base gravys. I've cooked both quite a few times, and they always smell good (to me anyway) and produce excellent BIR curries.

BTW welcome Ligs. I wouldn't even dare to offer advice to you, as I am new to all of this.

[ligs]

Thanks for the welcome aussie mick. I think that we are all learning, and pulling in the same direction, will we ever get to the end 

[Masala Mark]

Thanks guys, I shall give that a try today. Onions definitely weren't burnt. We fry 10kg onions till caramelized here in the restaurant for our base gravies and the taste is suburb, this is something completely different.

I'll try the boil all method and see how it goes.

Just thought I'd get your ideas as the topic seemed very apt to what I had just experienced.

Thanks again,
Mark

[Secret Santa]

Hi Masala Mark

I suggest you try a couple of different varieties of onions as that's the only factor I can see in there that would possibly create the smell you are getting. Make small batches so that you don't waste too much if the smell persists.

After all, as you point out, you're making nothing more than a veg soup and there should be no unpleasant smell.

By the way, if you want to know what a really bad smelling base sauce is like, try the Kris Dhillon base (unaltered from her first book). Now that's a bad smelling base for sure!