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Author Topic: Cooking onions for a base (advice please)  (read 7,396 times)

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The discussion centers around the method of cooking onions for a curry base sauce. The original poster, Spadge, seeks validation for their technique of boiling onions with oil and water until translucent, followed by reducing water to achieve a golden color. Responses indicate a consensus that boiling onions is preferred over frying for extracting sweetness, with several members recommending established base recipes that emphasize boiling rather than frying to enhance flavor and texture.

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Offline spadge

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Cooking onions for a base (advice please)
« on: January 03, 2014, 08:24 PM »
Help! Am I getting this right?
When doing onions for my base sauce I add the 1/2 cup veg oil, about 4 chopped onions and around 1 tsp salt half way through cooking, keeping everything topped up with water so as not to brown them until translucent. Then after maybe an hour I reduce the water content and send the onions a golden colour before continuing the rest of the sauce.
Can anyone let me know if this would be an acceptable method and would there be anything I could do to improve any part of this first stage.
My plan is to strip things back to basics and get every part just as it should be.

Thanks for any advice..... Spadge
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Offline uclown2002

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Re: Cooking onions for a base (advice please)
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2014, 08:26 PM »
Whose base recipe are you following?
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Offline curryhell

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Re: Cooking onions for a base (advice please)
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2014, 11:11 PM »
Hi Spadge.  I take it you are working on your own base again from your question.  I really can't help I'm afraid.  I have fried onion until translucent during my early days when doing base and found no appreciable difference to the end result.  I tend to follow the accepted BIR practice of boiling the **** out of them to get the sweetness.  There only seems to be one advocate who virtually fries onions, or should i say boils them in oil, and that's Julien Voight.  All the other info available seems to conflict.  Could be regional but I'm not so sure  ???
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Offline Ader1

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Re: Cooking onions for a base (advice please)
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2014, 11:55 PM »
The curry where I've been working at tastes to bland.  I don't think it should actually be called a base.  The herbs and spices are the base in my opinion.  The liquid base is more to provide a kind of texture and consistency noy possible by using a water based stock for example.  I haven't actually asked about the 'base'.  Well, using it, so many different tasting dishes are produced.  I know that the base is reduced once added to the spices through evaporation.  I'll see if I can boil some to evaporate and concentrate it to see how much of a different taste it produces.
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Offline natterjak

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Re: Cooking onions for a base (advice please)
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2014, 08:08 AM »
I would never fry onions to make a base. First boil (onions and water) then add some spices and additional veg and boil again. Then blend and simmer gently till the oil rises. It's a fairly generic sequence which shows up time and again in the more modern base recipes.

Suggest the OP gets himself a better base recipe to follow (eg chewytikka) as it sounds like he's way off at the moment.
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Offline DalPuri

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Re: Cooking onions for a base (advice please)
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2014, 11:54 AM »
When i first joined this forum and found the links to Maliks live kitchen cam, i watched glued to the screen every night for a week or so.
I thought "here we go" when they started a new batch of gravy for the next days service. Unfortunately, this didnt start until about 10pm and the live cam switched off just after 11pm.  ::)
What i did see was a large stockpot being filled with onions, a few odd bits of other veg etc and a litre or so of oil added.
Every few mins it would get stirred in between some mains being cooked. At no point was there any water added during the brief time i was watching before the cam was cut off. (approx 55 mins)

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Offline Ader1

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Re: Cooking onions for a base (advice please)
« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2014, 11:59 AM »
Sorry for digressing a little above.  It's just that I feel too much is made of the 'base' issue.  Just me feelings at this moment in time.
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Offline 976bar

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Re: Cooking onions for a base (advice please)
« Reply #7 on: January 04, 2014, 12:06 PM »
Could you be adding too much water to your base making it too thin and tasting bland?

I am sold on Taz's base now and use it more than any other base sauce. I get excellent results every time whether cooking individual dishes or bulk cooking at the Uni.....
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Offline George

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Re: Cooking onions for a base (advice please)
« Reply #8 on: January 04, 2014, 12:10 PM »
Quote from: curryhell on January 03, 2014, 11:11 PM
I tend to follow the accepted BIR practice of boiling the **** out of them to get the sweetness.

Is it possible to caramelise onions (to get sweetness) by simply boiling them? I somehow doubt it. I thought it can only be achieved by frying.

For years, I've been making 1-2 portion micro base sauces by frying the onions and other veg in the oil until 'softened' but not browned. I then added the water and simmered for no more than 30 mins. In my opinion, any longer is a waste of energy. The end result is delicious and more-ish.

I then tried frying the onions until well browned - like onions for hot dogs - before adding the water. To my surprise, the end result was no better, and probably not as good, as before.

More recently, I add the water and oil at the start, or the water at the start, and the oil later. I don't soften or brown the onions at the beginning. The end result for the base sauce is equal in taste, to my method 1 - delicious and more-ish.
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Offline Secret Santa

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Re: Cooking onions for a base (advice please)
« Reply #9 on: January 04, 2014, 01:56 PM »
Quote from: George on January 04, 2014, 12:10 PMIs it possible to caramelise onions (to get sweetness) by simply boiling them?

You can't caramelise by boiling (by definition) but you most certainly can extract a sweetness from the onions by boiling. And I find this sweetness is very different (and better) to that obtained via caramelisation.

I always boil onions and never fry to get this sweetness. I recently made CT's base and that was the sweetest of any I've ever made. The only difference was that I used some very small onions from Sainsbury's and I'm keen to make a new batch with my normal onions to see whether I get the same degree of sweetness or not.

In my opinion frying onions is both unnecessary and inferior to plain boiling but if you're also frying other veg alongside the onions well that may alter things. BIRs never add extra sugar to their savoury dishes like madras, vindaloo etc. because the base adds all the sweetness that's required - as long as it's been boiled for sufficient time.
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