i've gone and bought a packet.

each time i go in the shop i keep seeing em.

the chappy (who knows me as a regular) at the shop said they are good and to use them at cooking stage when adding the spices. i tried to pin point sort of when but he doesn?t cook so i'm none the wiser.

my gut feeling is to add after the sauce goes in. they are very crispy and could be put out in posh little bowls along with bombay mix if they turn out no good. so garnish is definitely thumbs up and pre fry myself may be on the cards.

going to give em try in next curry.

have made this base as per spec and probably a little disappointed. this because of the high expectations and the significant differences in recipe and technique to the other bases i've tried.

it most certainly does pass the threshold for me. i can't rate it for sure till i've cooked with it and will post again. i put it up there with rajver (parker21) & saffron.

i think if you?re not too keen on coconut then you might take issue with the base but as i am a fan then it suits my pallet a treat (i did reduce the cream coconut via tasting from the spec 200gm to 100gm).

a couple of observations:
1) bitterness of onions - i had none at all and the onion cooking stage only lasts 15 mins or so - amazing
2) spice cooking stage - this seemed a lot of phaffing for me (used to just chucking it in and letting the boiling do its magic). putting the pots in and then taking them out has really got me perplexed
3) rajah gold madras curry powder - obviously i too could not buy the gold but the rajah hot madras tasted the best i've tried/made (i'm simply devastated that you can buy such a good powder off the shelf)
4) tamarind - very interesting. not used it before and find there is a trio of flavours which work this base into such a good taste (coconut, tamarind, ajwain)
5) i used ajwain for adjowan which i think is a typo
6) the rajah all purpose seasoning - no longer gutted on the odd bought item being good. this lived up to expectation just as much as the rajah curry powder with one big exception - salt. the taste of the seasoning is 100% spot on - it even has that dreaded celery and yet still tastes brill. the salt does not though - it's weigh ott.

conclusions (so far)
1) it is pretty good and up there with the rest. it's certainly slightly different to what i've made so far ie rajver, saffron, CRO2 base, KD, LB. i need to cook with it now to establish if the difference is significant or not (i don't think it will be - i think the remaining step to BIR is not in the base but in the cooking stage)
2) some bought combination spices are much better than i thought. Some however disappoint hugely due to the addition of cheap unnecessary ingredients ie salt.

QuoteI imagine the sugar (in the spice mix) would quickly melt and burn at these temeperatures

i am pretty sure this technically would happen.

all i can say is when i add sugar to the dish later ie when the base is in i feel i get a sickly sweetness.

when i add to the spice mix i don't get the sickly sweetness. i am only using an electric hob so i don't know what would happen with propane set up. i do heat the pan  till the oil is smoking and keep it on full while i cook the garlic/ginger paste, then the spice mix paste (spice mix, curry masala, tom puree all dissolved in 1/2 cup of water). the biggest problem i have is in stopping the pastes from burning by knowing when the water has almost gone. having the sugar in the spice mix makes no obvious difference during the cooking but does seem to solve my aim to get sweetness without the sort of pure sugar sickly taste.

the only answer is to give it a try if you have a problem on sweetness. if not don't use the LB+ version.

smokenspices,

Quoteor should I make one with salad spuds and one with starchy white potato - compare results

to make all 3 bases would give the complete picture but probably ott on effort compared to value.

making the base was the 1st time i'd used pots. i was sceptical on using the posh salad pots but having tasted them they are clearly in a league above the std.

i started out thinking best to make the base with std pots but now think perhaps better without them. you are perhaps best to complete the test as you know what the sauce tastes like normally.

i use std pots to make gravy and it works well as a thickener. i don't think the base needs a thickener so std pots are out on that count. so i think the question comes down to "do the salad pots" help make the base. they certainly taste pretty good before cooking but is this extra taste lost in the rest of the ingredients.

i also ask as i'm puzzled on the ifndforu base which puts pots in (i presume salad) and then takes them out.

Secret Santa,

inspirational post. this site keeps getting better and better

Quotewhere I think the wrong turn in the road has been taken.

i think the turning was right but we've travelled along a bit to far and forgotten to take on the right provisions.

i think once a certain threshold of base is achieved then "adding? more gives diminishing returns. Soup is definitely not good - a form of stock yes.

For me more concentration needs to go into base spices, recipe spices and cooking technique

Rai,

very much appreciate your thoughts and input as that's what we here for ie to learn off each other.

QuoteIt 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%!)

i must admit one of the reasons for doing so much cooking myself is to be healthy. i only normally put salt on chips and that's it for my diet. unfortunately i find sometimes you can't avoid something and this is one of them. i don' know what the salt does but i feel it's crucial. the 17% is straight from Lynette Baxters book. when you taste the spice mix powder the 1st thing to hit you is the salt. but it does seem to be crucial in getting towards the BIR taste. trying to achieve a balance i've left the salt qty unchanged in the revised recipe ie 9% which is getting more healthy but not loosing the taste it brings(don't forget i'm only using 1 tsp of the spice mix per person so the salt in each curry is small). All of the bases that i've made have around 1 tbsp so again not a lot when divided into 200ml portions.

QuoteAnd 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?

i came to this via CA and the development curry work. i used the tomato sauce in the CRO development madras and found the sweetness was ott. i've also tried adding sugar once the base has been added. both give a sort of sickly taste for me which is not like the sweetness i crave in the BIR. i put the spice mix in the tom puree/water paste and i think as Secret Santa suggests adding at this stage brings about some caramalisation and a different type of sweetness. as for the hot temp i did not see any difference in cooking the LB to cooking the LB+ albeit i am using an electric hob on full.

hope this helps a little and please keep posting as the timeline of the RCO site suggest this is a difficult one to crack and we need everyone on their toes and putting their 2p in.

i been experimenting with several ratio's of "spice mix" and have adopted the LB spice mix to a slightly modified version as follows:

Balti Spice Mix (LB+):

20 ml (4tsp) paprika
2.5 ml (1/2 tsp) chilli powder
5 ml (1tsp) salt
20 ml (4 tsp) ground coriander
5ml (1 tsp) ground cumin
5ml (1 tsp) sugar

background

in making a curry with the LB spice mix alone i found the curry still lacking compared to a BIR in what i thought was depth of spice. i thought the answer was to add more spice and have therefore explored the effects of various curry powders.

i used the same base and same cooking recipe/technique and tried various ratio's and even complete substitutions of various spice mixes (CA's Curry Masala, Chris303 Balti Masala, Chris303 Madras Masala, Chris303 Rogan Josh Masala). i also compared the finished dishes with leftover curry from my local TA.

results:
1) the masala's on their own were worse than LB on it's own
2) a ratio of 50:50 LB:Masala was a big improvement
3) the choice of which masala was best to use in the 50/50 mix was too close to call with all producing very good curries
4) the 50/50 LB/Masala spice mix was not as sweet as the TA
5) the cumin was detectable in the 50:50 but not in the TA

conclusions:
1) the LB+ spice mix gets closer to TA taste
2) the LB+ is best used with another curry powder typ 50:50 ratio
3) this still does not quite get to BIR taste which i now feel is down to not having one of those hot live flame burners (for my next trial i am going to try to use by gas bbq and try to cook directly off the burner)

for info the recipe i used was 1 tsp garlic/ginger paste, 1 tsp LB or LB+ (plus 1 tsp of Masala or 1+1 tsp masala and no LB ie 2 tsp total in various ratio's), 2 tbsp tom puree in water per 200ml of base and for final testing a splash of worcester sauce.

surely this must have crossed someone else's mind.

my thinking is at cooking stage when a recipe calls for fresh onion. because i am keeping the pan as hot as my hob will allow and being petrified of burning anything i always tend to under cook the onion.

what i was thinking was to replace the raw onion with the shop bought dried pre fired and add to the recipe after the bulk of the base has gone in.

i will ask at the shop next time i'm there in case they know. but would appreciate any thoughts or experiences on the shop bought fried onion.

is it worth looking into or a straight no no?

Domi,

well said. i'm glad we all remain friends.

CA just an aside input

Quotenot unlike the cr0 base in fact

the same thought crossed my mind. had got it on my to-do list to add carrot & green pepper to CRO2 to observe what the extra veg does.

also interested on your comment re the Infinforu's which convinces me to try it next.