Quote from: romain on February 01, 2020, 04:54 AM
Alchy - Crazy question - what if you added a tablespoon of the paste to a final curry? With a drizzle of the spiced oil. I'm wondering, for big flavoured curries like madras, would it give it something special?

Yes, something I did think about afterwards. I think it could add something and would be worth experimenting with


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So, as promised I made the 'magic paste' and the base gravy this week, followed by a few curries.

The paste did have a lovely TA aroma to it, so I was almost 'dancing around the kitchen' after making it. I then made the base with the paste as Chris describes in his ebook. The aroma did not really come through in the base once made.

First I made a chicken tikka madras, after diluting the base to the normal milky like levels I have always used. It did not cook in the normal manner, no oil separation and I ended up with a pastey curry, that tasted overspiced.

I tried again, another madras, this time diluting the base to be quite watery and got much better results. The madras was tasty, BUT no better than anything I have made with other bases. I made a few more curries (all made on the high output burner, following the same non-stirring style that Sam the chef at Chris' TA uses) and got similar results.

My verdict is this is a very nice base that will make tasty curries. In no way is it some secret answer to creating a world class BIR style curry. 7 years of waiting and feeling disappointed but not at all surprised.

I will be making a batch of this in a couple of days time so will feedback what I think of the gravy and also the madras I intend to use as a tester for it. I suspect it will not be a game changer...


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I know your photos are stunning, Romain, so am confident your advice will be spot on! Lighting for me it always the hardest thing to get right.

Recently The Curry Guy mentioned in a video that he added the dried fenugreek leaves towards the end of the cooking process, which is opposite to what I have seen in many BIR videos, where the leaves are fried with the other spices. He thinks it helps the flavour to come through better. I notice the traditional recipes I follow seem to add the leaves later once there is more liquid in the pan, rather than frying. Interested to know others thoughts on this one?

Also, made me think about my use of fenugreek leaves, I tend to add to just about every BIR curry I make and perhaps I am overusing it?

This one is from a while ago and posting to try out the new app I

Thanks for the welcome back guys :-)

I am indeed a refugee of the Les Jone forum, won't go into details and rake up bad blood, but in the end I had had enough and was glad to be expelled :-)

Good to see your video Chewy using the whole onion technique. I have tried to look into the science behind it and there is something around a chemical reaction happening once you slice into an onion, so assume this technique relates to not starting that chemical reaction off prior to cooking the onions?

Anyway, although not a game changer in terms of base gravies, it is something I will continue to use, even with the risk of the odd bad onion!

A few weeks ago I tried the method of using whole onions to make my base, where I would normally chop them into segments. Cooked in my Instant Pot for 45 mins on high pressure, to ensure the onions were as soft as can be. The base did come out lovely and sweet, and from memory sweeter than I would normally expect (so not a highly scientific test!).

Given it is less work in terms of chopping onions and the curries I made were lovely I will definitely stick to this method in future.

Looks perfectly edible to me.  I once received a Facebook comment that one of my curries looked like to contents of a blocked drain and on reflection I had to agree!

This is on Julian Voigt's youtube channel.  Tried it today and honestly the best vegetarian curry ever.



Ingredients
1 tsp cumin seeds
Half onion chopped
Tomato chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste mix
Garlic and ginger paste
1 tbsp garam masala
A little chilli powder to taste
2 tsp dried methi leaves
2 courgettes pealed and cut into thin pieces
Lemon juice
Corriander
1 ladle base gravy
Salt to taste
1 tbsp veg oil
Pan of hot oil for deep frying
2 tbsp Pre cooked lentils

Method
Heat pan
Add oil and heat
Once hot add cumin seeds and fry off for a few seconds
Add onion and cook until softened
Add garlic and ginger paste and cook for about thirty seconds
Add methi
Add tomato and tomato paste
Add garam masala, chilli and salt and stir
Allow to cook for a few minutes, adding water to prevent burning if necessary
Meanwhile drop courgette pieces into hot oil and fry for a few mins until soft and slightly browned
Drain courgette pieces and add to pan and mix in carefully
Add base gravy and mix in
Mix in lentils
On high heat cook until reduced, do not stir to allow spices to caramelise on bottom of pan
Add corriander and lemon juice
Cook for further minute

Here's the video of it being cooked in the restaurant in Lanzarote (starts cooking 9:10 into the vid):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8PrE9vlBD4
Enjoy!