This is much nicer than typical BIR rice in my opinion, and can be adapted to your needs - for example, add pre-cooked meat, toasted almonds, pre-cooked mushrooms, chick peas or pre cooked potatoes. This is just a basic starting point. The brown strands of onion create a nice contrast as well as giving some nice pockets of onioniness.

Requires a wide based (ideally) non-stick pan with a sealed lid. I use one from Aldi in the Crofton range which I've had for years. I noticed it back on the shelves again a couple of weeks back if anyone wants to hunt one down.

If the lid on your pan has a hole, stuff it with scrunched up aluminium foil.

Ingredients:

1 cup (250ml) basmati rice.

430ml hot chicken stock (make with 2 chicken stock cubes if you don't have fresh stock. I use Aldi stock cubes as they are nice and yellow so they give a bit of colour)

1 medium onion cut into thin slices

1 heaped tsp garlic/ginger paste

1 cup of frozen peas (or any other fairly dry additional ingredient)

Large piece of cassia bark
1.5 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1 large bay leaf or equivalent

4 tbsp veg oil or ghee

1/4 tsp clove powder
1/8 - 1/4 tsp green cardamom powder (depending on preference)


1 - Soak the rice for at least 30 minutes in cold water. It can be left to soak for a few hours if you want. When preparing to cook, thoroughly wash the rice with cold water and a sieve over a large pan or bowl until the water runs completely clear (most starch is gone). Leave the sieve to stand over the pan and continue with stage 2.

2- Add cinnamon, cumin, mustard seeds and bay leaf to hot oil and sizzle. Add onion and cook until golden and heavily caramelized.

3 -While onion is cooking, make up the stock. Add the clove powder and cardamom powder to the stock and incorporate*. Taste the stock for saltiness - it should be much more salty than you'd want for, say, a soup, because it will be incorporated into the rice.

4 - Add the rice, and toast in the onion and spices until golden and giving off a delicious aroma.

5 - push the rice to one side and throw the frozen peas on to the pan. Aim the flame at the peas and warm them through. Add other ingredients at this stage, as desired.

6 - Add the hot stock to the pan, quickly bring to temperature and stir briskly to incorporate everything, then place the lid on the pan and transfer to the smallest hob on the smallest flame. Set a timer for 17 minutes.

Pick the whole spices from the pan, separate the grains and then replace the lid and rest for a further ten minutes.


*You can use whole cloves and cardamom pods at the initial oil stage if you want, but this is my preference

Although I have made plenty of different base gravies, this is a very good go-to in my opinion as it allows the ingredients in the curry preparation to speak for themselves. I believe the secret ingredient in *some* restaurants is MSG in some form (even if they don't, or won't, tell you this). It is prominent on the shelves of Indian supermarkets, is the major component of other condiments known to be used in base gravy recipes (Maggi seasoning for example) and it lifts all the flavours you put in your curry. Try it and see what you think.

The volume of water isn't all that important in the IP, as long as the resulting blend is split into 6 equal portions. This is a well-seasoned gravy so you might want to cut the salt content in your curries, according to taste.

I have acquired some recipes from a local 'posh' restaurant, which I'll post at some point. The chicken tikka is very interesting but there's also a nice desi lamb recipe, which is simpler than it sounds - although they use mustard oil, so it's hard to replicate the taste exactly without this.

INGREDIENTS:-

1kg onions (no need to chop)

60g garlic paste or whole garlic cloves
60g chopped ginger or ginger paste (or Lidl style jarred ginger strips work fine, as the vinegar cooks out)
1/2 small green pepper
420ml rapeseed oil - cold pressed has a bit more depth if you have that available
2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp msg powder
1 tsp sugar
1 very small carrot

4.5 tsps turmeric
4.5tsp bold cumin seeds
4.5tsps coriander seeds, ground coarsely in pestle and mortar

400ml water
2 tbsp tomato puree

Put ingredients in instant pot, stir and set to 25 mins. Allow to natural release.

Blend with a stick blender, split into 6 equal portions to be diluted to consistency of whole milk for each curry.

New member here but I've been making BIR and desi style curries for quite a few years, as well as being a bit of an amateur chef. It's a pleasure to join this site and I'm happy to share my experience and recipes - some of which I have acquired from a local 'upmarket' restaurant in my home town.

I just wanted to chat about base gravies, and ask what people's thoughts were:

I'm always a bit confused by the separation of spice like paprika and turmeric from the initial stewing process - I'm of the understanding that incorporating the spices early on will at best infuse the flavours better, at worst do nothing - particularly when using a pressure cooker method.  There are one or two culinary herbs and spices that benefit from being incorporated before serving but in a process like this with robust spices like turmeric, paprika, cumin and coriander I feel that cooking them as long as possible will be better for melding the flavours.

On a similar note tomatoes are invariably used in most base gravies, but often seem to be added as a separate 'dump' at the end of the stewing process (usually with the spices). Any Italian will tell you that there is no harm in stewing  tomatoes for as long as possible, so this (again) confuses me a bit.

I have tried a few bases online and through various tests I was unable to see any advantage to not just putting everything into the pan at once. This is not to undermine any restaurants who do it, or any users on here who do; but I would be interested to know what people think this is doing. It seems like a means of taking more time than you need to take. I could understand if people were caramelising the onions or roasting the spices to increase the 'umami' taste but this is rarely the case

I am not meaning to seem condescending or disrespectful to users here; I would just like some other people's take on this.

Many thanks