Regarding cuts of meat my Indian work buddy says chicken legs and thighs are considered the best part of the bird and chicken breast is not so highly valued in India.

I do like a Tandoori thigh/leg combination from a good BIR but haven't had one for a while.

Nice work 976bar.

Any reason you chose the saffron base over the SnS 2008 base?

I only ask as SnS puts fresh corriander in the 2008 base but the Saffron recipe doesn't include this. I feel the fresh corriander adds a nice extra aromatic dimension to the base and final curry dishes.

I'm still trying to choose what base to cook next from this forum.

I've just ordered a 17 litre German stainless steel stockpot for ?35.49 from Amazon.

Looks pretty good with thick bottom and glass lid with vent hole.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I don't like the idea of uncoated aluminium either - the thought of the acid in the toms dissolving the pot is too much for me.
But then I find the heat distribution on my non-stick ali pot is great.

So it's stainless steel for about 18 quid or coated (non-stick) ali for about 60, both for about 11 litres capacity. I still might splash out on the latter - it should last me years.

I already have a pressure cooker given to me by an Indian work mate. This is around 3 litres and I only use it for cooking lentils.

Paul.

Hi,

I currently cook my bases in a 4.5 or 5 litre aluminium non-stick stock pot with a glass lid.
This is fine for making a base with a finished volume of 2 to 3 litres but I'd like to double up on my base production in one go and was looking at pots twice as big.

Question is, I don't get any sticking problems with my current pot. I have seen that stainless steel pots are quite cheap whereas a 10 or 11 litre non-stick pot can cost 60 quid or more.

Do people here have any problems with stainless steel stock pots (or plain aluminium) with regards to sticking? I imagine after blending there might be more chance of sticking and burning. Or is it just not a problem and I'll buy the cheaper option.

Any advice or experience for me? - thanks.

PaulP.

So do tell us 976bar, did you ever find the missing oil ?

Hi JerryM,

I only posted the original post as a bit of a life/cooking story - I'm not knocked back at all over this as I usually cook tasty curries. Maybe I had a few too many last Saturday night and was overstretched with the weird Beef Badami recipe.

Once again, thanks for your tips. I'm quite fascinated by this forum as members strive to reach 100% BIR and I know you put in a very special effort. 

Hi JerryM,

I usually like some onions in my curries preferring Bhuna/Korai/Jalfrezi type creations, although I do like a madras my missus doesn't.

I used to cook the garlic first and as you say it sure does get sticky!

I've also tried onions first then garlic/ginger then tom puree etc.

I found the final taste identical so I'll probably stick to onions first then garlic/ginger etc.

In my bad curry night I had cooked the onions far more than I normally do and think that was my mistake with the garlic. I suppose I like my onions fairly well done but I went past the stage where they become translucent, and they were almost getting crispy at the edges.

Thanks for the tips.

Hi JerryM,

I've never tasted a TA base so can you describe the differences you find between your TA base and your own creations in flavour terms? Sometimes I wonder if we strive to make our bases taste too nice - possibly too rich and expensive tasting as you say.

I feel that there is enough information gleaned from real takeaways and restaurants over the years (both from this forum and other sources/books/forums) that we can't be that far off the composition of a real base. I do appreciate that some ingredients and certainly ratios of ingredients can be lost in translation both from a language point of view and also the scaling down factor of a 60 litre base down to 2 litres!

Are you thinking of simplifying your base recipes now?

On the spice amount front I'm still experimenting but I'm probably using closer to a tablespoon (including the chilli powder) of spice mix per 350 ml of base at final cooking stages. I may try to reduce this to see what happens.

Cheers,

PaulP.

Thanks for the nice words guys - I won't be giving up any time soon! 

JerryM - I know about the water idea and have always relied on the presence of the water in the frying onions to "protect" the garlic from burning by regulating the oil temp.
So far this has worked for the previous 40 or so curries I've made.

I think last night my onions were so damn well cooked when I added the garlic that there was little water left in the onions hence my oil temp went too high. The spices weren't burnt, just the garlic.

Thanks guys - things can only get better!