am now clutching an empty glass of water.

i tried my asda cayenne pepper (ingredients: cayenne) - tasted very nice - not hot - a bit of a woody/smokey flavour.

so i got my La Chinata smoked paprika out - always a pleasure to taste - it's similar to the cayenne but more woody/smokey.

i then tried my Natco chillie (ingredients: chilli - nothing else) - it's definitely 100% chilli powder

like Brum says best to buy from Asian shops or online.

this i feel is a very good question and worthy say of a poll to find out who is frying and who is boiling.

i also feel "bitterness" is being inadvertently used when "neutral" is possibly a better description.

all the bases i've made on every occasion (rajver, saffron, ifindforu, Ronnoc's, ivangoughs) don't taste bitter at all. they don't have an "underlying sweet tone" though.

if i make CTM for example the sweet tone does not matter - the CTM tastes as good as BIR for me.

if i make the more standard curries ie madras and compare it side by side with BIR/TA the BIR is clearly much sweeter.

the question for me is where and how do BIR's add this "underlying sweet tone" - is it:

A) - in the base by frying the onion
B) - at the cooking stage by using previously fried onions
C) - by adding some other ingredient in the base
D) - by adding some other ingredient at the cooking stage

i am planning to cook the jalfrezi tomorrow night. i'm going to use green pepper as i feel this more like BIR/TA.

i've made the kushi spice mix which i had/have high hopes for. i need to cook with it to confirm my thoughts.

it's crying out for paprika for me and i miss the small addition of La Chinata smoked paprika that i put in my standard LB spice mix. i'm afraid i reduced the turmeric to 1 tsp (3 tsp).

saying all that - it does taste pretty good. i'm particularly interested what effect the inclusion of garam has - I?d stopped including it at the frying stage a while ago but the qty is quite small overall and may just add that little extra bit of spice without overpowering.

Me too for a book. this man is the king of BIR cooking - forget the imitators

SNS,

both small (class 2) & large (class 1) bought from ASDA - english cooking onions

NB

i've got 1 large onion left - will boil it all evening (say 3 to 5 hrs) until either the onion flesh is sweet or i'm sure it's not going to sweeten any further.

forgot the pics of the onions

from top left clockwise: reclaimed oil, with salt, with cardamom, large onions, small onions, boiled in oil

Bobby,

QuoteHave a look at my post in SnS simple Madras recipe thread

it's got me now not knowing which recipe to try 1st - i've got stews's jalfrezi in the heart but SNS's madras in the brain.

going to have to try both. ;D ;D ;D

link https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,2603.0.html

results are in.

i found this onion cooking "basics" very good in terms of learning and would say a very good lead-in to BIR cooking.

i made 5 onion batches to SNS's spec (200gm peeled in 400ml water but boiled for 1 hr):

a) small onions (typ dia 1")
b) large onions (typ dia 3")
c) large onions boiled in 300 ml sunflower oil
d) large onions + 1 tps salt
e) large onions + 3 off cardamom

observations:

1) the onion liquid tastes very sweet (best in the large onions)
2) the onion itself when cooked just in water does not taste sweet
3) both the salt & the cardamom increased the perception of sweetness in the onion itself
4) the onions cooked in oil tasted the sweetest
5) 290ml of oil was reclaimed (so not much absorbed)


conclusions:
1) i loose the sweetness when the cooked onions & cooked water are blended
2) in future when making bases i will use more salt and add cardamom
3) the boiled onion even with salt & cardamom does not alone give the sweetness I crave
4) the fried onion may give the sweetness I crave (I would need to try it in a base)

I hope I find the jaggery in my local Asian supermarket as boiling onions in oil does not gel well with me in terms of how I perceived BIR?s make bases.

SNS,

much appreciate your thoughts.

i've ditched the 3 hr boil for the mo.

i'm going to repeat your experiment to make sure my onions are ok. then i'm going to expand (to use my 4 hobs) to include say :

a) SNS spec
b) SNS spec + salt
c) boil in oil
d) SNS spec + salt + cardamom seed

will report back.

yes going to boil all for the 3 hrs.

i'm not sure that the method (fry or boil) makes a difference. i think the end result from both methods will be the same. saying that if the boil does not work then i will try the fry on the next base.

i don't get any bitterness with any of the bases - they just taste sort of neutral (dare i say it - like soup).

you've put the finger on it "underlying sweet tone" - that's in words exactly what i too am missing

other things on my radar are reclaimed oil, adding whole cardamom at the start of the base cooking & the kushi spice mix (to compare against my norm LB)