Quote from: CurryOnRegardless on January 10, 2009, 10:14 AM
Hi chinois

The rule of thumb guideline amount of salt in soups and sauces is generally reckoned to be about 1 tsp per quart/liter. Therefore it follows the total amount for the Ashoka base should be 6 tsp or about 18 grams tops not the 60 grams given. Yes I agree food should be seasoned during cooking but the amounts given here are obviously way out so it is easier just to omit the salt and season the finished article to taste, after all you can't take the stuff out once its in.

Yes you obviously shouldnt oversalt as you cant take it away afterwards. The wife's tale about adding a potato to 'soak up the excess' just seems like wishful thinking.
I havent heard this rule of thumb before COR. I thought salt wasnt directly proportional to volume. 6TSP seems to be a lot of salt to go into this base is the only thing i was thinking. I think i used about 3tsp myself, not wanting to oversalt it. 

Quote from: CurryOnRegardless on January 09, 2009, 07:05 PM
What's wrong with leaving the salt out of both the base and paste and then season the finished dish to taste?

The basic answer is that things seasoned during cooking taste better. You'll notice this the more you cook.

From what i have learned from chefs i respect (gordon ramsay, heston blumenthal, alan murchison, the chefs who taught me) you should be cooking with salt so that the flavours are balanced/perfected as you cook. When seasoning you are trying to enhance the flavour of the food so it seems to make more sense that the salt should be used when the flavours are coming together. At the other end, adding salt when the food is on your plate kind of just tricks your tongue into thinking that the tastes are balanced.
It's hard to put in words really but the best chefs do it so you should too! They also seem to do it at BIRs, most importantly!

Quote from: Cory Ander on January 09, 2009, 12:45 PM
Why not simply reduce the salt in the onion paste PP?  I reduced it to 1 tsp (i.e. two thirds of the specified amount) and it didn't seem too salty then to me

I did about the same and it was good. It seemed obviously a mistake looking at the volume of what i was seasoning. 1tsp seems fine, i dont think i measured mine exactly.

Quote from: Cory Ander on January 09, 2009, 12:32 PM

Quote from: chinois on January 06, 2009, 02:08 AM
The bhuna was brilliant and i did a madras and a korma which were just as good.

Hi Chinois,

I notice you've posted pics of your Ashoka curries on "another site"...any chance of posting them here too please?

Yes i did try for quite a while but i didnt seem to be able to upload them. I resized them so they were small (150kb) and the scale was correct (700 x 525) but i kept getting error. What else do i have to do? I read your walk-through and everything seems correct. The files are JPG. Cheers

Quote from: Curry King on January 06, 2009, 08:24 PM
Hi BB,

I was probably going to post the same sort of results as you but I discovered something by accident and have posted it in the lets talk curry thread.  I added the onion stuff into the base while preheating it, made a big difference to the finished curry, if you have any left you should give it a go.

Sounds good. I increased the quantity of the banjura in the finished curry and fried it with the other ingredients before adding the base which worked very well.

Quote from: haldi on January 06, 2009, 05:16 PM
Hi Chinois,
           I have heard people say that BIR's use msg but never come across it at any of the places I've been in.
At what stage are they adding it?
I've tried using msg with the spices but could tell no difference
If BIR's are buying it, then it must do something

Haldi, it's added at/near the end. Maybe a minute before serving. I guess just to give it time to be stirred in. I haven't heard of it being used in the earlier stages.
I think you have to use more than a pinch, say a tsp or so. I haven't done side-by-side comparisons to see how much difference it makes but i assume it will help the ashoka recipes due to the savouriness of the base and the banjura.

Quote from: joshallen2k on January 06, 2009, 05:07 AM
Question though - how big is your chef's spoon? 4 Tbsp? I ask because there is no such thing as a chef's spoon where I am.

Nonetheless, I am highly intrigued and will try these... MSG as well... wow. Curious too about your spice mix - 1/2 a tsp of chilli is nowhere near enough for a Madras.

-- Josh

Yes the chef's spoon's about 4tbs. There's no need to measure the base exactly though, just use as necessary in the final curry to get the consistency you want.
I aim to fill a foil container so it looks the same as a takeaway.
I often add dashes of warm water from the kettle to stop it getting too thick and gloopy. I dont like a thick madras.
The water is also useful in the first stages and prevents things burning if you've used too little oil or your pan's dodgy. Adding a bit of cold water after a typical start of browned garlic, onions, spices and tom puree makes the pan sizzle, steam and (hopefully) catch fire. The smell is amazing.

My spice mix is something like 2 part coriander, 1 turmeric, 1 cumin, 1 generic curry powder, 1/4 paprika, big pinch salt.
The chilli powder i'm using is very strong, in fact i used half of what i wrote, i just tried to ammend it in line with what others may be using. I got mine from a health food shop; it's a nice bright red and tastes nice but is dangerously hot. Many times i've put too much in! I need to get a milder one really.
So you should just use as much as you normally do. I'm sure everyone knows how much they need to get the heat they're after so it's best to trust what you've learned rather than following someone else's recipe where they used a different strength one.

MSG has been used in 2/3 of the BIRs that i've been in which is why i use it. Well, and the fact i cook chinese as well! It was also used in a restaurant in india i learned at (as well as ketchup would you believe).
If you're worried about the safety of it: http://www.whatprice.co.uk/food-drink/MSG.html

Actually i realize i did make a change to the base (other than to correct tne perceived 'scaling down' mistakes previously mentioned). At the critical moment i realized we were out of margarine! I used a small 170g tin of carnation evaporated milk instead. This was a chef's tip i learned from Alum at the light of bengal and is possibly a factor in how my curries were melt-in-the-mouth smooth and just like his. I noticed the margarine was probably doing the same job.

Thank you so much panpot!!  ;D
I've been reading these ashoka threads with interest from the start and this weekend have cooked the paste, banjura, base and curries. Beautiful curries, perfect BIR standard! I reduced the salt and cumin in the base to half and cooked it for about 3h after blending. This was because it wasnt cooked after an hour and it kept getting mellower.
I had got close to perfect recently by using ketchup/chutney/chilli sauce but the banjura can now replace these. I think the banjura is the most important learning step for me as i knew a sweet and savory element was important. I will be using it in most of my curries now.

The bhuna was brilliant and i did a madras and a korma which were just as good.

Madras: on high heat i cooked 1tbs garlic in banjura oil until lightly brown, added 1tbs ginger garlic paste and cooked for about 30 secs. Then added 1tsp methi, 1/2 tbs salt, 1/2tsp chilli powder, 1tbs of my spice mix, 4tbs tomato puree mixed with equal parts water and 2 quarters of fresh tomato. Then i added the marinated raw chicken. Next i added about 4tbs banjura and started adding base after about 30 secs. I didnt use much base (2 chef's spoons maybe) and added a bit of water as i had cooked my base down thicker than normal. I added juice from half a lemon and a bit of fresh coriander after the first bit of base and 1 tsp MSG near the end.
The result was just like my favourite madras from the light of bengal in winchester. Melt in the mouth consistency with a strong savory spicyness that was delayed by a second. Just how i wanted. I had thought that carrot might be used to get that 'melt in the mouth mellowness' for some reason but have now realized that a base like combined with banjura achieves this result.

Korma: I used the fatima restaurant technique. On high heat i cooked the marinated chicken in banjura oil for about 30 secs, then added about 4 tbs banjura and 1/2 tsp salt. I then added a chef's spoon of caster sugar, 2 of coconut powder and then the base (cant remember how much, maybe 2 chef's spoons) and a bit of water as my base was quite thick. I added a chef's spoon of single cream and cooked for a few mins on medium heat until ready. I added 1tsp MSG & 1tbs ground almonds but am not sure how much these help.
The result was perfect. I have found korma to be the easiest dish to replicate but the taste of this base and the banjura did helped. I do not think this base is too strong for a korma.

My base tasted damn good on it's own - Thanks so much for getting these recipes!
For me the missing 5% has been discovered. I have noticed the use of caramelized onions in 2 BIRs (one in romiley and one in bishops waltham) since reading about it.

Hi bighairybloke 
This looks pretty similar to what i learned in a kitchen in udaipur, rajastan. I see you've added base sauce to make it more BIR, sounds like a good idea! The one i learned was definately milder than expected.
My problem with these more traditional indian recipes is the time they take for each one. Having said that i do spend quite a while preparing when cooking BIR style anyway!