Quote from: kid curry on October 15, 2008, 03:25 PM
They dont do this in the resturant.The point he said was you can make a curry without a base.

Ok thanks, that makes total sense and was thinking about that, I will try this when I fancy making a quick curry with no base to hand.

Do they just use this method for the Madras only, I take it you've had this Madras, is it good. Even though it sounds straight forward to make it seems like quite a long cooking time for a restaurant. Do you have the base recipe that was written down.

Quote from: kid curry on October 15, 2008, 01:37 PM
Amazing,What can i say!!

Last night was my second night i was there for about 1hr so much to take in.And when the chef said i should have brought a video camera i could not believe how enccomadating, and friendly, and how much they wanted to show me.They also should me their way of making the madras with no base!

I'm making the base right now,with their spice mix which they gave me in a large curry carton.Also a carton of their fresh garlic and ginger mix.

When i have finished i will report with all the ingredients for the base and the mix,fingers crossed .

Nice, well done, would love to do this myself one day, look forward to hearing more. So have you been in the kitchen two nights running.

Quote from: joshallen2k on October 15, 2008, 02:54 AM
Today I made a new batch of base gravy, based on the BE recipe, with the following changes:

- Significantly more oil
- Twice the carrots
- I fried the onions in the oil first for about 15 mins before adding the other ingredients. The garlic/ginger puree was added about 10 minutes into the onion frying period
- After blending, I continued to simmer the gravy for about another hour, adding water to maintain the original level

Everything else was per the BE recipe. I reclaimed about a cup of oil at the end. Having seen the discussions on the use of spiced oil, and realizing that some BIRs do it and some don't, I decided to return to that practice, having preferred my own results using spiced oil in the curries.

Observations:

- This twist on the BE recipe created significantly more gravy scum that I had to remove - Bruce's original produced no scum at all
- The taste of the finished gravy was noticeably sweeter - not sure if this was down to the added carrot, or pre-frying the onions

I knocked up a quick Madras sauce afterwards and it was very good. I will try again tomorrow once I'm a bit more objective. I can't smell curry at all having been at it for last few hours.

-- Josh

osh, what type of onion did you use? First thing that hit me when tasted the base was the sweet factor but I did not fry, have you made it before and not fried the onion. I ask because I have started to wonder about the types of onion (seeing there was 12 onions in my last BE base) this side of the pond could be sweeter. I used Vidalia yellow onion (grown in Georgia, maybe just originally) which I've researched to be a very sweet onion.

Great stuff, that all makes sense to me, I do enjoy my curries but think like many others I'm just to critical of my own stuff, guests that come to my house think it's the best food since god knows what and do not shut up about it, even when I bump into them on the street and asking when we going to have more etc.

I always find food I've cooked better the next day, same with a simple chili yesterday, just thought, ah this ok, eat the next day and thought this is actually quite good, not very often curry is left for the next day and if it is the wife eats it early.

Like I've said before I'm sold on these bases unless I see anything drastically different but I feel I'm getting better with techniques  
and qty's etc on every curry so I'm going to keep plugging at the Chicken Madras and base (1st thought adding little more carrot and oil) until it suits me, will be looking forward to your updates in the new year, Thanks Bruce.

Quote from: rdlbooth on October 14, 2008, 04:44 PM
Hi, I have read with interest all the posts about this curry base and thought I'd give it a go for my first attempt at a base, one question though and probably a stupid one..........but the spice mixture is listed as "SPICE MIXTURE. Coriander / Turmeric / Cumin / Curry Powder 8:7:5:4 parts by volume." what does this mean and what quantities do the relate to?

Thanks

Les

The Spice mix is just that a mix, so the 8:7:5:4 means

8 Coriander powder
7 Turmeric powder
5 Cumin Powder
4 Curry Powder

Plus I think Paprika is optional, so I made this up in a tub-a-ware container with the above a whole batch using a dessert spoon as the measurements, if you don't want that much try using tea spoons.

I doubt they are all Kormas, some others on the menu could be these

Chicken Pasanda
Mild, creamy and nutty dish of tender pieces of grilled chicken tikka cooked with coconut, almond, piastachio, cashew nuts and cream with a hint of masala sauce, seriously rich and sumptious.

Butter Chicken
Seriously rich and sumptious dish of tender pieces of grilled chicken cooked in a thick, creamy and buttery sauce.

Chick Peas for this as well as veg sides

Chana Paneer Masala
Chick peas and cheese cooked with garlic and reefs special masala sauce, medium hot and deliciously spicy and nutty.

Looking through the menu a few other ingredients used are;

Aubergine
Okra
Taramind
Peri Peri Chillies
Green Beans
Bahar sauce containing Bangladeshi citrus fruit.
Lime Pickle

The Thawa Dishes are interesting

Chicken Tikka Thawa
Spicy with lots of vegetables, Butter beans, green peppers, olives, pickled onion, mixed herbs and coriander.

Chicken Tikka Dhaniya
Roasted whole coriander, mixed herbs, ajowan, jatri, jayfal, star seed and curry leaves.

Never looked through the menu before, but iy does make me wonder if any of the above ingredients are in the base.

Quote from: Unclebuck on October 11, 2008, 09:46 AM

Quote from: chowie on October 06, 2008, 10:11 PM

Quote from: Graeme on October 06, 2008, 10:02 PM
Hi,

Quite a few posts and threads about this but i will post here and hope
it gets read/moved...

The first two containers in the video are not coconut and sugar,
but Cocount and Almond powder.

I have seen the two sitting together before
in other BIR kitchens.

yes/no ?

That's interesting, I'll go with that. As I posted in the recordings thread, but thought one was sugar, so what do you think the clear bottled sauce is that's added and do you think it's cream added when he turns?. If we can work that out we almost have a BIR Korma recipe on our hands plus the video to go with it.

Most definitely its single cream chowie also agree with Graeme about coconut and almond powders unsure what the clear bottle is mind.

Someone mentioned Kewda Water, sounds plausible to me.

Quote from: JerryM on October 10, 2008, 05:26 PM
the "young chappy" restaurant manager would be an ideal contributing member for me - fingers crossed.

there's no way the feed will be shut - he's been working on it for years (bbc video is much better quality though).

Agree, and like his comments they have nothing to hide...

Quote from: currytester on October 10, 2008, 04:55 PM
Thanks to both Haldi and Chowie for trying out this base. I think the taste is a personal thing and I am sure that part of our problem in replicating it is quite obvious.

Simply look at how many different bases there are on this site and I have to say I havent had a bad curry from any of them but the point is that imho everyone is trying to emulate the curry taste either from a restaurant a long time ago or to be the same as their own favourite BIR. Hence the number of bases.

I too am giving up on base development now unless someone comes up with something amazingly diverse as this one suits me. I am now going to concentrate on the individual recipes to create my perfection.

Yep, very well put.