Quote from: Secret Santa on March 03, 2013, 04:14 PM
I think most of us use that technique anyway although not putting the half ladle in before any other ingredients, rather adding a small amount after the initial spices and gg paste has been added. I must try it base first just to see what effect it has.

Hi SS, Yes my normal method would be to start with oil,g/g,spices/chili,tomato paste but don't know whether you would be able to cook down the first ladle of base to the point of caramelising without burning the other ingredients 

Had about one and a bit portions of base left in the pressure cooker after knocking up a quick base yesterday and walking down the stairs this morning noticed how the house had the aroma of a takeaway  the Wife also noticed it without me mentioning it and I commented it was the gravy left in the pressure cooker which she then lifted the lid to have a sniff,'' close '' she said '' but not quite the same'' she then went on to say she thought the aroma came from the base being 'fried' when making the main curry so I put half a ladle of base in the pan and cooked it down to near nothing 
The aroma around the house was caramelised onions  with a hint of spices,there was just about a teaspoon of caramelised base left in the pan which I had to taste and  what a flavour ! It was delicious ! Very powerful flavour of fried onions and spices,I'm sure if you could get some of this flavour into your curries it would be a considerable improvement 
Thinking about how curries are usually started with oil then g/g plus spice mix, chili powder and tomato paste I don't know if once you add the first ladle of base you could cook this mixture down to the point of caramelising without burning the mixture 
Hope this might help in some way to get that savoury flavour we're looking for   

PS, you could start your curries with a half ladle of base and cook this down before starting with the oil and this is how our local t/a make their curries with their ' all in one ' base but without the oil.

Well done Chris  takes balls to stand there in front of us Curry experts  : hope it all goes to plan for you mate,looking forward to the ebook.

Quote from: ligs on February 18, 2013, 07:50 PM
I noticed in my local TA that the fresh onions have some small red and green bits in them,I also noticed this in the video in this post (Unlocking the taste to indian takeaway from h4ppyleader),what is it and why 

Hi ligs, probably finely chopped pieces of red and green peppers,just adds a bit of extra flavour.

JerryM,you should try the Korma recipe posted by George,very simple and very tasty 

(using condensed milk  :)

JerryM, my Mrs recently bought Carnation Condensed Milk in a tube (like tomato paste comes in) I think it was 170gms, handy to be able to use what you want then pop the cap back on, lasts three weeks once opened kept in the fridge.Cost

JerryM, if what you are making calls for it to be sweet and creamy ( Korma/CTM) then Carnation Condensed Milk is excellent,Evaporated Milk is unsweetened and tastes rank on it's own 

I had a similar conversation some time ago when I asked the boss of our closest t/a if he used food colouring in his base gravy to get such a vivid orange colour, he said firmly '' No,we use tamarind for colour we use no food colouring '' I asked if the tamarind was in powder form and he said '' I will show you'' he returned from the kitchen with the container off the chef's rack which was full of .........turmeric  : '' Ah ! Turmeric '' I said '' Yes Tamarind '' he said  : 

Thanks' Phil / Axe 

Quote from: Phil [Chaa006] on February 16, 2013, 06:36 PM
A certain Mr Emin-J wrote this in May 2011 :

QuoteAs an update to this thread just took delivery of this evenings Curry and it was the Boss of the T/A doing the delivery,I asked if they really deep fried their Bhaji's in Butter ? and chriswg was right  they deep fry Bhaji's in Veg Ghee, I'm definitely going to try this but not sure how long Veg Ghee would last in a Deep Fat fryer out of the Fridge 

This is the thread where we discussed all these hypotheses before ...

** Phil.

Never did try it Phil just didn't fancy cooking in all that veg ghee  but  as the menu's say Butter could it be butter Ghee ? The boss of the t/a I spoke to speaks better English than I do ( not difficult  : and he did say veg ghee but if that is the case i'll have to give that a miss.