Hi guys,

Really struggling to get somewhere with my bases. I'm on my 4th attempt now over the space of 6 months or so. The first one I attempted was Julian's, then Dipu's, then Taz's and finally I've gone back to Julian's again after buying the e-book.

The thing about all bases is that they taste noticably of vegetables. I don't know why, I follow the ingredients to scientific accuracy so I'm reasonably confident it's not my ingredients. Julian suggests the secret is in the length of time the onions are cooked for. I usually do mine for between 1.30 and 2hrs. At the end of cooking onions are always soft and mushy so I think I'm doing it right. The problem I have is it tastes absolutely nothing like a takeaway, and not really any better than something out of a jar. It always has a vegetable undertone flavour to it, which carries through to the final curry. The flavours lack any depth whatsoever and I'm struggling to figure out what I'm doing wrong, as I've tried 4 recipes and each one has a very similar lack of flavour and vegetable taste?

I've tried dutch/spanish and english onions etc also but struggle to notice a difference in the finished article. Any help or advice is appreciated.

Cheers

Hi all,

I'm embarking on cooking curry just like my favorite restaurant. Certainly my local restaurant manages to achieve really rich flavours and really thick gravies with their currys, something which I'm struggling with, and I'm pretty sure it's down to both ingredients and technique.

Currently I'm using Taz Base with Taz Mix Powder, as I've read that it's best to match the powders/spice mixes with their respective bases. Here's a few questions that I'm hoping you guys can answer to get me on the way.

1) What would a restuarant use for "tomato paste". I've read it's probably just puree mixed with water 50/50, so I've been using Asda/Tesco tomato puree (in a squeezy tube) mixed with water, 1tbsp each. Is this acceptable?

2) How do I achieve real richness of flavour, my partner and I regularly go out for indian meals and agree that my attempts, whilst "taste nice" lack real flavour and richness.

3) How much of a difference does ingredient quality make. I'm realistic in the sense that I doubt all restaurants and takeaways purchase the highest quality ingredients, it's just not economically viable. At the same time I doubt they use crap obviously. I've been purchasing my bags of spices, usually "Indus" or TRL (I think) from asian supermarkets near me, is this OK?

4) Any other tips... I've now tried 3 difference bases (Dipuraja, C2G and Taz) and whilst the bases seem "OK" (I don't know how you tell, I followed the methods to the letter) my currys don't taste like a restaurant. I understand it takes time but I've probably done 10-15 currys over a couple of months with little progress seemingly being made.

Cheers!