Ok, after about ten years of this malarky, and about two months of really trying to get it right at home, I finally give up! Well for now at least

We got a takeaway tonight, nothing special, just a bog standard takeout from a wee tandoori place.

A couple of dishes took the about 15 mins to prepare.

We are definately missing something here.

Dunno what.

All I can call it is the sicky burp flavour.

There's something you can taste afterwards when you burp.

Even the finished plates smell of it...

Sicky burp smell

Please feel free to completely ignore this post, just letting off a few frustrations

Gary

I think this maybe a typo, it looks like it is in fact Jaiphur curry, as opposed to Jalphur

I was pretty sure I'd seen the name before

Anyway, lots of recipies on google:

http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=jaiphur+curry&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Hope that has heped,

Gary

EDIT > Actually I'd do a search for Jaiphur, Jaipur, Jaipoor, and Jodphur as they all seem to be varying Anglicizations of the same word

Wonder if it could have been Nihari? A traditional Pakistani dish, never had it with chops though, usually just with 'random meat carnage' on the bone.

Was the sauce quite thin, very savoury, but very unlike a BIR, and with perhaps a touch of fennel/star anise flavour? If so it could be Nihari.

You can buy Shan's Nihari Masala from most good Pak/Indian grocers, well worth a go

Gary

For scoopable, pourable chutneys and dips, simply buy ready made chutneys - and thin down with generous quantities of cold water before serving.

I'd say a normal jar of thick, poppadom breaking chutney can be multiplied up to three times volume without losing anything by thinning down with water, in fact all the better for it

Gary

Thanks Pete,

One thing, if you are going to add tomatoes to a small quantity base, I reckon it's best to give em a good fry (to the point of destruction!) before adding to the curry base - same for tomato puree & passata. Tomato puree I usually water down a fair bit before frying - mainly I follow my nose on this: when the tomatoes actually start to smell sweet like fruit, I stop frying. I do this for curry, bolognaise, chilli con-carne, whatever.

Unlike onions on the boil, which start of smelling awfull, but then mellow to a nice sweet smell, tomatoes seem to go the other way - my experience anyway (and I've been at this curry base business since about '95-'96 now)

One thing I have noticed with all the bases that I've tried: After blending, cooking on for too long can really ruin them - you can cook them forever before blending, but once blended they are best used fairly soon IMO.

Anyway, glad you liked I made a chicken tikka biryani and a veg curry using this base (with no extra spicing) and it was not very far from a BIR at all.

Take care,

Gary

As per Muttley's base - differences marked with a *

Ingredients

4 Large Onions (or 8 small ones - probably better, but hard to get hold of at the moment)
200ml vegetable Oil
aesofetida - just a wee touch of this stuff: I just dabbed a teaspoon handle into the tub
1/2 tsp Basaar Masala *
3 tsp Turmeric
3 tsp Ground cumin
1tsp ground Fenugreek seeds*
2-3 Black Caramoms*
Teaspoon of Fenugreel leaves*
1 tbls peeled/chopped garlic
1 tbls peeled/chopped ginger
NO tomatoes - Muttley already commented on this. *
Small-medium carrot sliced
A thumbs length of Mooli sliced*
A normal sized jar of spiced water - my wife taught me this trick, she never lets anything go to waste if there's possibility of it adding extra flavour!

Spiced water is simply collected water that has been used to rinse out empty curry paste jars - you can use this to top up bases & currys in addition to plain water.


Method

Heat oil until garlic and ginger just sizzle quietly
Cook garlic and ginger for about 8 mins until almost browned
Add aesofetida, turmeric, cumin and chilli and continue cooking for 2 mins
Add onions, sliced and stir to coat with oil
Add enoughg water to nearly cover the onions
Boil on a gentle simmer for an hour
Puree with a hand blender (or in a food processor if you haven't got one)
Cook (covered) on a very gentle simmer for 4 hours. This sauce is sufficiently runny that it will not gloop or stick, so just needs a very occasional stir - in fact, I'm not sure it even needs that.

The result is a lovely creamy tasting (no cream went into it, but it tastes like it did!) yellow sauce, very very similar to the sample I got from a local takeaway the other week. It has the same smell, and that 'Picallili' aftertaste that I mentioned.

Ok I know most of this is't new to anyone on here, but what about the spiced water? Really I should have thought of it earlier - the Mrs and I do it with everything else, from pesto to bolognaise. Any thoughts?

Gary

Yes it had the taste definately, though I think it was a very fresh batch (having bought it on a Sunday) - indeed it looked very fresh.

Picallili: I think that may have been my eyes playing tricks on my tast buds, as it did basically look like thinned down Picallili, but without all the bits of veg in it. However it did have a distinctive aftertase of pickled onions to it, one of the main ingrediants of Picallili.

Curry paste? I can't really seeing that being economically viable for producing huge pots of curry base? Considering what you pay at a Pakistani grocers for the powdered spices.

Anyway, it was lovely, you could have used it 'as is' as a dip or sauce, with nothing extra added.

I made up a batch of Madras sauce with it tonight, with the following recipie:

2 TBSP veg oil
1 desert spoon tomato puree
1 tsp restaurant masala
1tsp basaar masala (instead of chilli powder)
Splash of lime juice
1 tsp asoor methi (rubbed between hands)
1tsp salt
Palmful of chopped coriander leaf
Small tub (about 3" tall, of takeaway curry gravy)

It's nice, but wether it has the taste or not I dunno.

I think if as many of us can try to get samples of curry gravy - then cook our recipies using the authentic bought gravy, then maybe we can narrow things down a bit?

I'm finding my method of being a bit disingenuous when askink for 'plain curry' is working quite well

I'm sure if I'd have walked in there demanding they give me a sample of curry gravy would have reaised a few eyebrows among the propriertors.

Hope this helps.

Kindest Regards,

Gary

Managed to get a small carton full of curry base tonight  friends GF went to the takeaway, so I asked her to get a carton of curry sauce with no extra spices etc. That's just what I got! Straight from the big pot!

No pictures unfortunately, but what I can say is, that it smells a bit like Muttley's base sauce - it's YELLOW, it's got bits in it, presumably ginger & garlic - it smells oniony/vegetably - and, the wierdest thing: it's got a vague Picalilli aftertaste to it - kind of sweet but sharp.

No green bits in it, no oil floating on the top (been resting for a few hours now) but by gum it tastes nice  ;D

Gary

well I'm glad to say that it's worked out great, in fact the sauce looks as near as d*mmit to this authentic one https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=347.0

Tastes & smells good too. I added a medium carrot to the mix and half a green pepper - tastes great on it's own, and I reckon even minimal spicing would produce a good resaurant style curry with this sauce.

Chicken Madras and methi gosht for supper tomorrow, will post the results.

Thanks Muttley

Gary

I'm cooking up a batch of this right now, and I have to say it definately seems to have that smell about it - in fact I'm quite loath to add tomatoes to it now as it looks/smells so good.

Ok I just added tomatoes (passata) and the smell seems to have gone a bit now, but still good

Browning the garlic/ginger DEFINATELY has something to do with it.

One thing that has occured to me is to boil the base as whole ingredients for as long as possible, I'm sure this will bring out extra flavour and sweetness of the ingredients, rather than blending then cooking on?

I'd also hazard that this is what BIRs do: tomorrows base is left cooking whole, until the day of use - then it's blended, ready for use. Any thoughts on that?

Gary