Guys 'n' Gals, although this site is predominantly BIR cooking don't forget there are also sections for Traditional Indian Cooking,Chinese and Thai, perhaps Sam could post in the Traditional Indian section if at all possible 

Quote from: George on June 04, 2012, 08:39 AM

Quote from: Cory Ander on May 05, 2012, 10:27 AM

Quote from: Madrasass on May 05, 2012, 10:06 AM
with absolutely no hint of bitterness at all

Bizarre.  I wonder what we did differently then (besides the scale)? 

The difference could simply be 'bad luck' and a bit like some of my attempts at various curries when I make the same recipe and,

Quoteon one occasion, it tastes brilliant and on another occasion it's rubbish

. So all factors seem to be constant (recipe, chef, ingredients, method) and yet there's an inexplicable difference. If that happened on trying a new recipe, like this Little India base, I probably wouldn't try  it again, and it might well be my loss.

George, most of our local T/A produce good and sometimes not so good curry's so we must be doing something right 

Hi all, had a busy day yesterday which didn't really leave me enough time to do our Saturday Curry etc so opted for a local takeaway, once again another disappointing Curry with little flavour and a quite watery sauce  , you would think that making Curry for 7 days a week they would have got it right by now  : my own Curry's would knock spots off last nights efforts,just go's to show we are not that far away from that Holy Grail  ;D

Quote from: natterjak on May 20, 2012, 09:17 AM
Mick, sounds like a good experiment and I hope no other random variations creep in to threaten the validity of your result.

QuoteEmin-j after your well cooked base experience did you notice a kind of sediment at the bottom of the pan?

I'm not sure I've read on here anyone else other than myself experiencing this but in my mind it's synonymous with the base reaching this "fully cooked" stage, when the oil rises. You will see it if you reach a long spoon down to the bottom of the pan and scoop what's there to the surface.

Hi NJ, yes there was some not expected sediment at the bottom of the cooking pot so I just re-blended the base.

Recently made a Zaal base and after about an hour into the second simmer (after blending) could see the oil starting to rise to the surface so turned off the gas.
What I actually did was set the gas to minimum and not off  : so the base continued to simmer,after about another 1 1/2 hours I realised the gas was still on and looking at the base couldn't believe the amount of oil on the surface  completely covering the top of the base in some depth.

Don't you just love it when a curry comes together  ;D

I've got to be honest and say I'm not over keen on using well used Bhaji oil in curry's but of everything I have tried over the past few years making curry's this oil is the only thing that produces that BIR aroma almost spot on.
I know Julian from curry2go uses this oil and states '' this is what gives BIR curry 'the taste' '', it seems that because of the repeated use of the same oil the depth of flavour cant be matched by boiling whole spices in oil for ten minutes.
As an experiment I have added some Asian bay leaves,green cardamom,cinnamon,and star anice to my Bhaji fryer just to see what affect it has -

1, On the Onion Bhajis
2, On the aroma/flavour of the oil

 

ELW, many of the forum members can no doubt produce wonderful looking and tasting curry's but probably most would also agree there is still that missing ' something '. As George recently found the oil that remained on the paper carrier he had from his takeaway had this ' something ' which is in the form of an aroma and a certain flavour that is difficult to describe and despite all my efforts using different recipes for base gravy,spice mix,etc and different technique as in high heat,low heat that certain ' something ' is still missing 
The aroma from my Bhaji oil had that ' something ' and I had dismissed Bhaji oil due to a poor attempt on my part some time ago,this oil is the only product that gets very close to that missing elusive BIR aroma.
With the amount of Bhajis etc BIR's fry in their oil it must have a very intense flavour and maybe just a ladle or two in a base gravy is all it takes  I wish someone could prove otherwise as I am not overkeen on using recycled oil but Bhaji oil seems favourite to me at the moment.   

Just walked in the door from work to a lovely curry cloud wafting around the house BIR ? very close and close enough for me to be convinced the BIR taste/aroma is brought about by the oil, the flavour of the curry definitely had the BIR flavour about it but the flavour was a little too strong but as I used the oil in the base,precooked chicken and final dish I'm not surprised  : the only thing that seemed to be missing was the fragrant spices and maybe I should have used the Zaal base which I had added the whole spices,instead I used curry2go base.
My next plan is to put Asian bay leaves,green cardamom,cinnamon and star anice into my mini fryer,this should flavour the Bhajis plus give me a flavoured oil with the fragrant spices playing their part.
Next time I will only add the Bhaji oil to the base gravy and see how that goes,I do think this is worth investigating ..again  :

I have recently delved into the world of using whole spices hoping to achieve that certain difficult to describe aroma that comes from a good BIR curry and although I have produced some cracking curry's that lingering aroma is still not there  my previous 'Bhaji oil' attempt was a bit of a disaster but that was due to the rancid state of the oil  :
From that point I had dismissed Bhaji oil as being part of the 'Holy Grail' until I again today took some 'Bhaji oil' from my mini fryer,this time it was instantly recognisable  my Wife who is also a curry nut agreed that it was definitely the T/A aroma so this afternoon I made three curry's using the Bhaji oil which will be tomorrow nights tea  it's now 10.30pm and the house is still filled with the aroma of the Bhaji oil.
If this does prove to me that this is the flavour/aroma I have been striving for I then need to work out how the BIR's get this oil into their curry's and my guess would be the base gravy.