Quote from: gazman1976 on June 03, 2014, 06:57 PM
i have been using this base for ages now, its all about cooking it long enough to bring the sweetness through, I cook mines for about 6 hrs also . t

Six hours!
The other day I cooked mine for four hours then left overnight
The next day they no longer smelt like ordinairy cooked onions
They really changed and had a light brown look to them

Quote from: Neil_D on June 03, 2014, 04:39 PM
I used this base and  it is absolutely brilliant basic ingredients this makes a excellent sweet base I use a recipe cross between CK's and CBM for madras and I think this matches my local IR I also made a bhuna I can recommend this to everyone

If you interested in my recipe let me know

yes, I would love to see the recipe
This base is really good, isn't it?

The problem I have had with many other bases, is that they had flavours I didn't want in them
Definitely not a problem with this one

Quote from: Secret Santa on June 01, 2014, 11:10 AM
It's certainly not a myth anyway...if you're long enough in the tooth to recall.

No it's not a myth
I was still buying curries of this flavour only a year ago
I know the chef who made them
He's about 60, so he has a lot of experience
I can't make these curries at home, but I know they are very simple
I obviously have not got the whole truth, but the base really comes down to onions and a savoury old oil
The base has "the" flavour
The curries are just variations on the base
A little hotter or a little creamier or a blob of fried garlic puree added at the end
The oil is the puzzle
It's thick, not a perfect liquid
I've seen white tower cans of it, stored in the fridge
I asked many times without a satisfactory answer
"How do you get the flavoured oil, I can't make it?"
the reply?
"fry something in it"
Not very helpful

thanks Jerry & SS
I've frozen everything I made but I definitely think it's a bit wrong
No way could you make a happy Korma with this base
The Korma recipe only requires uht and main ingredients added
It would be way too hot

My current favourite base is still the revised Glasgow recipes by Big Boaby
It's funny though, that despite some threads being very popular and long, not many people actually try the recipes
I guess there are just too many, and you run out of cooking time
I bet there are loads I've not done
I never tried Ifind4u's recipes although, I still want to

I'm going to revisit the curry crunch recipes next
I only tried them a few times and that must be about four years ago!
I seem to remember that they had a very good aroma
At least, that's what my notes say

I thought I would revisit these recipes
I think the measurements may be a bit off
The base I made was really chilli hot and the garlic ginger really overpowering
Did anybody else find this?
I think the gm instruction on spices ,are wrong too
For instance 50gm of Cumin powder is half a small packet
For 3kg of Onions, that's a lot
I was looking for a madras recipe to go with this base
I couldn't find one, have I missed something?
Ingredients:
3 kgs of chopped onions
50 gms Cumin Powder
60 gms  Salt
water to cover the onions
Add 100 gms of Tomato paste
100 gms of the Garlic/Ginger paste
10-20 gms of Chili powder (to taste but he recommended 10 since more can be added when cooking)
15 gms Curry powder
20 gms Turmeric
1 block of Coconut block
250 gms Vegetable margarine (again he uses East End Brand)
250 gms of oil

Method:
Place onions, Cumin Powder, Salt in pot and cover with water and bring to the boil before simmering until onions are soft. make sure the onions don't become dry keep your eye on the water.

Once soft add the remainder of ingredients then blitz with blender and continue to gently simmer for 1 hour

Quote from: Dajoca on May 07, 2014, 06:38 PM
I need to try it for myself, but can I assume from all the positive comments about the recipes, that it's omission is beneficial to the taste?

I think one of the main BIR flavours is onion
And onion which has has been boiled, for a very long time
That is more important than any spice

In my opinion, with or without coriander would make little difference, but I had success without it

Quote from: madrasandy on May 04, 2014, 07:50 AM
Not a clue

me neither
I was sure it was a vegetable, and then I ran out of vegetables to try
It seems almost impossible, that so many people have approached this methodically and intelligently, yet still drawn a blank

Chewy's madras is good, but it's nothing like the madras I love and buy
I know he doesn't believe you add old oil to the curry gravy
Well that's what they do around here, and it makes a huge difference to the gravy and subsequent curries.
If I could make an exact BIR madras, I think I would die a happy man

Really looking forward to what you think

Quote from: Secret Santa on May 01, 2014, 09:14 AM
But if it tasted as good as their usual curries haldi you can conclude that your base must be adequate for the job and so it must be the added extras (spiced oil for example) that are making the BIR difference.

yes, you are right
The oil they used was salvaged from the top of their gravy
I notice in Sam's cooking he adds a spiced oil near the end of cooking
This oil has a lot to do with getting a BIR result