As some of you know I've been experimenting with sous vide cookery lately, and when discussing it with  Gav Iscon recently I was able to assure him I was close to being able to collate my results into a single post. So here it is! 

As you probably know, the sous vide method calls for prolonged cooking at low temperatures in a water bath, with a final sear to brown the outside of the food. The main advantages are allowing for tender results without overcooking the centre of the food.  As I have discovered though, a long cook in a water bath can make food a little soggy, so be sure to learn from my experience and don't spare the horses when applying that final heat - I certainly didn't!

Starting with my all time favourite, pizza, I was interested to see what benefits tenderising the dough with a long cook might bring.  I actually bought a premade pizza which came in a plastic baggie so as to avoid the problems associated in wrapping a home made pizza base, but next time I will be more adventurous and make my own.  6 hours at 60C ought to do it.  I think it did it... As you can see from the pic below it came out very tender.  Well, it came out eventually, with some scraping of the oven floor...

I then continued my intrepid research, to see what benefits sous vide might bring to BIR cooking.  So first naan, then samosas and finally onion bhajis received the benefits of a six hour water bath cook, followed by a 400C grill (don't spare the horses!!)

I can confirm, as I believe the photos prove, that some truly remarkable results are within reach with this method. I can't actually confirm how any of it tasted as I was too exhausted and frankly a little bit too scared to eat any, plus I had to nip out to work a night shift to pay off the staggering electricity bill I'd just run up.

Nevertheless, if you ask me sous vide is the future - I imagine all BIRs will be cooking their base sous vide quite soon, when the massive benefits are fully appreciated.  Sous vide preparation of the final curry dish would offer the restauranteur distinct advantages, as the patrons would have many hours in which to order and consume drinks. 

Well I hope you appreciate this post and of course your suggestions for my next sous vide experiments are welcome! I do believe the quality of my results speak for themselves and trust they will add to your Friday ;P

Ok fair enough, but again if it needs blending I wonder if they don't blend it at all, but rather just cook it until it's most of the way there. If so, this would indicate a far longer cook than I've ever attempted when making base.

Does the fact that this base is lumpy indicate that they don't blend it, but rather just cook the hell out of it until it's almost liquefied? If so, and if it tastes best than your own base, maybe you can improve your own base by cooking longer?

Mmm....! I'd pay you for that food

Kerouac. Any brand of "mild madras" curry powder will be suitable. Avoid "hot madras" or anything which is more specialised such as blends sold as spice mixes for named curries.

Popular brands amongst BIR takeaways and restaurants would be TRS, East End or Rajah.

Kerouac, you are correct that curry powder already contains the spices which are then added again during the preparation of mix powder. The key point is that by adding those spices (mostly turmeric, cumin, coriander, but often some others in smaller amounts) you are changing the proportions of the overall mix. The spices I've mentioned, which are added to the curry powder, are the key flavours of BIR - turmeric especially so.

Consider for a moment that turmeric is already the dominant spice in any typical curry powder, and then in making mix powder you maybe as much turmeric as curry powder. The proportions of turmeric in the resulting blend are much higher, which gives you a clue as to how important a role this spice plays in the symphony of flavours known as BIR. Others which are added in large measures to mix powder, eg coriander and cumin, also play important roles.

If you were to only use curry powder to cook with, you would not have nearly so much turmeric, coriander and cumin in your dishes relative to the other spices which play more of a nuanced role.

BIR cuisine developed as a low cost "cheap night out", with first generation immigrant cooks providing cheap labour and restaurant owners who always had an eye on minimising the bottom line costs. It's likely they started bulking out curry powder with spices which could be bought more cheaply in bulk and by happy coincidence found that the flavours which resulted were accepted and came to be adored by the customer base. However and why-ever it began, bulking out the curry powders with extra turmeric, coriander, cumin and others is so standard in BIR that we should do it at home if we want to get close to real BIR flavours.

Those look great SR. I'm looking forward to seeing the videos.

I've seen a few traditional Indian chefs use an onion masala gravy similar to this. Certainly Harpal Singh does. Maybe it has always been a part of their traditional cooking and was the Genesis of BIR base gravy back in the day when the first generation chefs arrived in the uk and set up shop?

There's enough cocks in 'ere already...

BALLS!!!

And that's all I have to say on the subject.