Bobby, I'm not up on all the modern parlance, but I believe the folowing would be approprriate:  "" and "LoL" !

Farting like a demon's always a good sign!

I tried the kashmiri basaar, the result s were Ok, but not as good as the Bruce Edward's spice mix I normally use.

I found a madras made with 'like for like' measures of basaar had a sort of 'fizzy' taste, difficult to describe, OK but not fantastic.

Sorry found another howler:-

The last paragraph should say 3 or 4 Tps (not tbs) of spice mix to the madras. sorry!

Sorry forgot to mention:-

The veg (other than onion) is finely chopped.

If I've got any to hand chopped up stalks form a supermarket sized bunch of corriander goes in too.

The garlic and ginger is blitzed in some water before adding to the boiling veg.

JerryM

I make enough base to produce about 12 or 13  x 450ml (roughly a pint, or just less)portions. Each produces a dish big enough to feed me and the wife (we're greedy!), in typical curry dishes like madras.  For thing like Bombay spud or bhuna I would use half a 450ml portion.

The proportions are roughly this (all prepared weights):-

1.8kg onion quatered
1 or 2 carrots
2 sticks celery
half a pepper (green or red, whatevers to hand)
50g garlic
20g ginger
1 Full size tin plum tomartos
1 tbs tomarto puree
1 'mug' (about 250ml) oil

1 lev Tbs Bruce Edward's spice mix
1 lev tbs paprika
1 lev tbs turmeric
1 or 2 lev tps garam masalla (CAs I think, from this site)

2 whole star anise
10 (ish) peppercorns
3 or 4 cloves ( I don't like too much of that)
2 or 3 bay leaves, dry or fresh from the bush
1 piece cinnamon bark (about 3 or 4" x half " wide)

First I make a chicken stock by boiling a roast chicken carcass (once most of the meat has been removed), and an uncooked chicken wing or two from the freezer, in several pints of water (britta-filtred in our area), for 2 or 3 hours on a slow simmer.  during the last hour or two ( so as not to boil away alll the flavour) I add the whole spices (nice aroma!).

After that as for Bruce Edward's:  Filter the stock through a fine kitchen seive or muslin into a big pot.  Add all the ingredients except spice mix and tom puree and simmer for an hour or so, add puree and spice cook 5 mins, stand 5 mins then cool pot by standing in sink of cold water.  Blitz.

If I have time I fry the chopped carrot pepper celery and two of the onions in all of the oil until soft and slightly coloured, then add it to the liquid and the rest of the quatered onion and continue as before.

I can't say what the volume of (watery) chicken stock I add is, but you should finish up with the 12 or 13 450ml portions, I just use my pot size as a guide.

This method has evolved from what started as KDs base, using stuff I've learnt from Cr0 since I've been here.  I very happy with it.  the spicing is lowish, so I make up for this when I make the final dishes (eg I add 3 or 4 lev Tbs of Bruce Edward's spice mix to a madras, using 450 ml portion of base, which is proabaly reduced in volume by 1/3 during cooking).

I use some celery in base too, and I put the following whole spices in which I 'fish-out' at the end:-

2 x star anise
about 10 peppercorns
some cinnamon/cassia bark (or quill if no bark available)
2 or 3 bay leaves
3 or 4 cloves

The last base I made (Saturday), I used the 'Bruce Edward's' method (although not his proportions), of putting the tomarto puree and spices in 5 mins before the end, with no subsequent cooking and skimming.  I was careful to scatter the spices onto the hot oil floating on top of the base.  In finished dishes there was no evidence of the spices being undercooked, and the late addition of the puree lent a 'zingy freshness' to the base.  Made a good lamb madras from some of it.

I've tried many permutations in base cooking now:-

   -frying garlic/ginger, OR boiling a 'blitzed' puree of the same

   -boiling the tinned toms, OR frying the in a 'tarka' stage

   -frying OR boiling the tom puree

   -frying Or adding spices to the boiling base (into the floating oil)

   -cooking for ages & skimmming after spice addition OR not


I don't know what you guys have found but none of these variations made a huge amount of difference to the finished base, which, incicdentaly, I always taste before using to make any finished dishes.

I should point out that I've always steered clear of changing more than one thing at a time.

Haldi made the comment recently that he produced a good curry using base bought from a BIR, this suggests that the base IS critical, Haldi has made bases using his BIR's method, but he says it does not taste the same, this could have a couple of causes:-

   -The BIR is holding something back from him (ingredient or technique)

   -For some reason, scaling down the production volume for domestic use changes it

My gut feeling is, that it is not the former reason.

Quote from: Secret Santa on October 26, 2008, 10:42 PM
but you haven't got a bloody clue.

I can assure you I have!  I'm 45 years old and have been eating BIRs for the last 35 years, and seriously, several times a week since 1982!

'seriously mate'. you're starting to sound arrogant!

Never use flour to thicken a curry, it just does not work!  Try one of the many excellent curry bases on this site as your starting point!

I love currys with 'caramelized sweetness', and have tried many madras/vindaloo type dishes in MANY places, so would say that I don't just like sour curry because I have not tried any better!!

As any chef will tell you Hot/sweet/sour flavours work well together!  In fact I would go as far as to say that a sour note hepls to complement the chilie heat!

Mild curry very deffinately should not be sour, but, and it may be a matter of personal taste, hot is better with sweet and sour notes also. That 'caramelized sweetness' is very much still part of the equation however!  Try adding a quarter tps of Worcester sauce or rice vinegar to a hot curry. Also half a tps of brown sugar (caramelized-in, by frying with the spices, at the beginning of final dish preparation), and you'll see exactly what I mean!  The trick is not to add too much souring agent.  The curry should not end up obviously sour OR sweet, but rather these flavours help 'lift' the chilie.

I 'flash-up' curry portions big enough for two adults, using about a pint of base sauce, so if you cook smaller portions I would reduce the quarter tps still further!

Don't knock it 'till you've tried it!

Looks good, I normally do the one in Ali Hador's balti book, which is very good!