Hi All,
I am pretty certain that I can cook decent curries that are a match for many BIRs and better than some. For dinner, last night, I had the following (home cooked by my own fair hands of course!):
In my opinion (ever so humble, of course
!), my curies have good appearance, good flavour (and good diversity of flavour), and good aroma. Arguably, they have "The Appearance", "The Taste" and "The Smell" of a good BIR curry! But please feel free to beg to differ (appearance wise anyway)!
But!.....
SOMETHING IS STILL MISSING!?...and it frustrates the hell out of me! I'm sure that many of you will also share similar frustrations!
I note (or imagine I note!) the following differences between a good BIR curry and mine (and please don't mention going outside for a breath of fresh air! :
).
Good BIR curries:
- Have a more intense flavour
- Have a greater depth of flavour
- Are richer
- Are more savoury
- Have a generally smokier flavour
- Are somehow sweeter (without being "sugary sweet")
In a nutshell, whereas I feel that my curries have good aroma and flavour, they seem to
simply lack the pure intensity and depth of flavour and aroma that good BIR curries have. "How do BIRs achieve this?", I ask myself! I'm sure many of you ask yourselves similar question!
I have tried so many things. I have tried many different curry bases, many different ingredients, many different cooking techniques and many different cooking sequences. I have read all of the popular BIR cooking books, back to front and even upside down! I've roasted and ground spices and I've bought off-the-shelf spices. I've made masalas and pastes and I've bought off-the-shelf masalas and pastes. I've used whole spices and powdered spices. I've used minimal spicing and I've used substantial spicing. I've boiled onions and I've fried them. I've both fried then boiled them. I've used frozen onions. I've used dry onions. I've used fresh garlic and ginger and I've used bottled. I've used powdered. I've thoroughly browned garlic. I've probably even burnt it! I've added mooli and celeriac to my curry bases. I've used vegetable oil, peanut oil and other oils. Hell, I've even used olive oil! I've used butter ghee. I've even made my own butter ghee. I've used lots of oil and I've used minimal oil. I've used high temperatures and low temperatures. I've used short and long times. I've used fresh tomatoes, tinned tomatoes, tomato paste and tomato puree. I've even used tomato ketchup and tomato soup. I've used salt, MSG, stock cubes and other flavour enhancers. I've made my own stock. I've used white sugar, brown sugar and jaggery. Well, I think you get my drift!
My current conclusion is that, whereas I'm sure that technique is clearly important, I am equally convinced that:
- The Curry Base is THE critical (but not secret!) constituent of a good BIR curry
- The "missing bit" (regarding intensity and depth of flavour and aroma, savouriness and richness) is probably some form of vegetable, fish, meat or chicken stock, and/or some other seasoning and/or flavour enhancer
.
I can see no other way that, particularly the intensity and depth of flavour and aroma, savouriness and richness, of a good BIR curry, can otherwise be achieved.
There are a couple of Curry Bases here that use stock or seasoning or flavour enhancers:
I shall be experimenting more with adding stocks, seasonings and/or other flavour enhancers to my Curry Base (and curries) in an attempt to produce curries which are richer, more savoury, and which have more intense and greater depth of flavour and aroma.
Incidentally, and rather ironically, I find that adding MSG (a major constituent in many seasonings and flavour enhancers....including the above two seasonings) seems to dissipate the flavours and make them blander, less intense and somehow more "one-dimensional".
I'd love to hear of anyone else?s experiences with stocks, seasonings and flavour enhancers.
Regards,
