I agree with those 3 stages.  and i belive major factors are; not too much of any one spice; use lots of oil; A curry should fry, not boil...if you can hear bubling...your boiling, if you can hear sizzling, your frying!  Dont fry the onins until they brown, fry them till they're transparent. I dont precook meats other than lamb, i generaly add them after the spices have been added and cooked, just before adding the base.  Has any one done a youtube vid on curry making?  I fancy having a go sometime!

Steve

Wow!  I'm very very happy

A further modification to Darths base, taking into account the interesting differences in other bases and some of the interesting folk law recipes i thought I?d move forward again.  So Darths base, with 1 tbs of turmeric, curry powder and garam masala, all the onions fried at the beginning in 3 batches then plonked into the boiling carrots and celery.  Cooked for twice as long- this finaly got rid of that rawness i can detect.  Then at the end, after blending and adjusting the salt to taste, i added a block of creamed coconut, then tasted it, i could just detect the coconut and it was nice and the perfect amount.  Then i decided to incorporate tomato, so i added a tin of Heinz tomato soup, tasted it...its getting that slight sweetness i can detect in my local bir base.  Then 3 tbs of tomato sauce and a tbs of tomato puree.  I made the first masala with it today ...Absolutely fabulous!.. It has a smashing caramelised smoked taste ;D that is so much like our bir.

I'm in heaven!

More as it happens... :

Steve

Yep those quantities seem about right & defo agree with the 1-2 tsp of spices per person (but not including the spice in a mildly spiced base, or the dried fenugreek leaf or fresh coriander leaf).

what does 150g of cooked rice weigh uncooked?  i use a nearly full tea cup per person.

Nice post, very useful for peeps!

Steve

Quote from: stephen west on April 20, 2005, 03:40 PM
After eating a takeaway or restaurant curry, my hands always have a BBQ smokey smell. When reproducing curries at home, they never seem to have this smell.

Has anyone else managed to reproduce this smokey smell and taste in the curry? Any ideas what could be causing it, or whether it could be linked to the missing taste? I don't think it can be from the meat being cooked in the tandoor, as from what I can gather in the forum, the meat isn't usually cooked this way except for Tandoori chicken, etc. Could it be a missing ingredient such as BBQ sauce, which seems to have a smokey smell and taste?

The smokey taste is either by toasting or burning garlic, or from the curry leaf fried at the begining of cooking your curry.  Black Cardamom pods also have a smokey taste due to thier being dried over smokey fires, so a combination of all these could produce the flavor we are looking for.

steve

Our local bir calls these "purees" as in pureed tomatoes!  I cooked these and a richer version called battura on a cookery course in India.  They blow up like balls when dropped into the hot oil and you splash them with oil to keep the top cooking then flip them over to brown the other side.  The batura version had ghee in too.

steve

This is one dish i make time and time again, i discovered it in south India in the Kerala area.  This dish is cooked by the muslims and sirian-christian setlers with minor diferences.

Dead easy to make too!


2 small-medium white onions thinly sliced
6 chillies - i use tescos bog standard chillies-6 is way to hot for me so i use 2!
4 garlic cloves sliced thinly
1 inch ginger finely chopped
20 curry leaves

1 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp black peper (interestingly, the muslims dont use pepper, so they omit this)
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
4 more cloves of garlic

1 400ml tin of coconut milk (not the low fat version)
1 lb of fish - i use Cod
2 tomatoes sliced

first fry the curry leaves in 2 tbs of hot oil for a few seconds,
then chuck in the garlic, ginger and onion and turn down the heat low,
cook until the onion is well softened (15 mins)
add the spices (mixed in a little water) and fry for 5 mins more,
carefuly add the fish and pour in the tin of coconut milk,
put slices of tomato on the fish and cover for 10 mins.

Dont forget to season with salt to taste before serving.

Serve!

Yum!

Steve

[/quote]

I cook my rice with a pinch of normal cumin, a pinch of fennel, a couple of green cardomom pods and sizeable piece of cassia (sometimes yellow food colouring). I do this simply because I have rooted around in my favourite BIR's rice and that's what they put in. Mine's not as good though - their grains are really nice and dry, and there's another flavour I can't establish.
[/quote]

Could it be Black Cardamom?  Itys like a smoked taste, i have been experimenting but have some way to go.

Steve

Quote from: Bobby Bhuna on January 03, 2009, 01:06 PM

Quote from: bighairybloke on January 03, 2009, 10:32 AM
i fry the onion with the garlic etc, at the frying stage, principly to remove the raw taste of the onion that persists in all boiled onion bases i have tried.

I really don't get what you mean with this. However I have gently fried the onions before with success. I'm not sure exactly what difference it made though. Maybe just the placebo effect

I think not all can detect it, someone earlyer in this thread also noticed it.  If you dont notice it..no probs!

Steve

Cheers Panpot, i look forward to hearing your opinion mate.

steve

In another post, i said this base has to be the best one i have come across so far, but i omit the chilli, reduce the curry powder and garam masala, and i fry the onion with the garlic etc, at the frying stage, principly to remove the raw taste of the onion that persists in all boiled onion bases i have tried.

However i have just found by trawling the net, that if you soak the onion in water for 15 mins then discard the water this is also suposed to remover the raw onion taste too.  Another experiment coming up!

Steve