But its before you put the spices in right?

wow, interesting.  Sugar (granulated?) at somewhere in the region of 200C?  Ill have to think about the consequences of that one.

Good point secret santa.  One base doesnt (the full one) and one base does (the quick one) contain salt

The sugar isnt part of the original LB spice mix.  Its a change that jerry has made as I understand it.  I wouldnt be frying sugar with my spices in hot oil.  No ways

Hi jerry, Im a little reluctant to post in case I get called unconstructive and have my posts deleted again, but

It sounds like a shed load of salt in there (almost 9%) although i see there is also an even bigger shed load in the original (almost 17%!)

And sugar in a spice mix?  Is that right?  Whats going to happen to that when you fry it in hot oil do you think?  Melt and then burn I imagine? 

Quote from: Bobby Bhuna on March 12, 2008, 04:39 PM
Ok then, I'll go first

Rai is a... -  ;D just kidding mate

So youre determined to immediately continue where you left off are you bobby? 

Quote from: George on March 13, 2008, 01:34 AM
Is he? How can we know for sure?

Do we really care?

Quote from: Bobby Bhuna on March 12, 2008, 08:39 AM
;D Morning!

Yesssss bobby, theres always one  :

Quote from: bobbybhuna
Yes they are lacking but simple, minimalist and generic, so I would say they would be pretty good for a base comparison

"simple" "minimilistic" and "generic" bobby? 

But if they are crap bobby (and they are crap) the they arent really good for comparing anything are they now  :

Quote from: bobbybhuna
Iterations from a similar sauce? Do you mean variations on a similar sauce?

Let me simplify for you bobby.  I mean that many of the base recipes here are likely to be variations on pat chapmans, kris dhillons, etc, which contain tomatoes.  Get it?  :

Quote from: bobbybhuna
This makes me wonder if you have ever actually read these books, or are aware of the background of the authors..

I have no idea what you mean by that bobby, but I agree that you should probably wonder a bit more before proceeding to argue the toss just for the hell of it

Quote from: bobbybhuna
Not so much... When we say "versatile base" we are talking about a base that when used with most bog standard recipes that require a quantity of unspecified base sauce, produces a good curry without dominating the dish

Huh?  :

Quote
By using no base in such recipes, you would more often than not, have a a few chunks of meat and finely chopped onion swimming in oil, tomato puree and spices.

Huh?  :

Quote from: smokenspices on March 11, 2008, 02:21 PM
A good test to whether a base gravy is versatile or not, would be to substitute it into some of KD's recipes.

Interesting opinion, but I find that kris dhillons recipes are seriously lacking (including her base) so I dont think your suggestion is sound

Quote from: smokenspices
It's interesting to note that out of 36 listed BIR style curry base recipes on this forum, only 2 have no tomato or tomato puree included

Interesting to note, but not particulalry relevant.  Id suspect that many of these bases will be iterations from a similar source (sauce?  ).  That is pat chapman, kris dhillon, or one of the other limited number of copycat curry cookbooks.  These authors use tomatoes in their bases so other people copy them.

Quote from: smokenspices
Should we conclude from this (assuming that all or most are genuine BIR recipes), that there should be at least some tomato or tomato puree in the base recipe to fulfil the versatility requirement?

I think the assumption is flawed, but why an earth would we conclude that anyway?  Clearly the most versatile option is NO BASE.  With the next most versatile option being a pure onion base, followed by a pure onion and garlic base,...etc, etc

I conclude that a base with tomatoes in it is logically less versatile than one without tomatoes in it.  Hard to argue with that logic I imagine, though Im sure someone will feel obliged to try 

Quote from: Bobby Bhuna on March 11, 2008, 02:40 PM
I have no idea what you're trying to address here. Of course if you want it to taste more "tomatoey" you have to add tomato in some form. However, it makes a great Madras from the simple Madras recipe as is, and so obviously can be used with other recipes, although may not perform to it's optimum. However, in this case, we are not testing the optimum performace of the base - we are testing how well it can conform with a generic recipe.

huh? Sorry, I really didnt understand much of that

Quote from: smokenspices on March 11, 2008, 02:21 PM
If a curry base is made too suit one particular curry recipe (eg: a madras) then it probably does lack versatility and should not be classified a BIR base gravy.

You see, I really dont know where this comes from regardin darths base?  

I'll repeat, darths base is a standard base (if you omit optional chilli) without any tomatoes in it (because he adds tomatoes in the main recipe).  

And it is a bloody good base capable of making the whole range of curries.  

Now, granted, if you want a tomatoey flavour then you are going to have to add some tomtoes to it arent you (which I think is secretsantas an domis point about not being able to mix bases and main recipes bobby, though i dont tend to agree totally with it)!  

Bleeding obvious Id say  :