Finely chopped onions resting in the spices.



Gram flour added and rolled into balls.



After first fry and 24 hours resting.



Insides cooked well.



Chicken Madras.



Poor attempt at cooking Naans on a pizza tray.

I'm trying to get rid of the rawness of the onions. The thicker the slices, the longer they need to cook. When I fry onions for hotdogs I cut them in 5mm slices and they need at least 10 mins to cook through at a high temperature. Once you add in the spices and batter you cant cook the onions for that long - it just burns. Maybe once I get better at the method I'll be able to increase the width of the onions but for now I'm keeping it as small as possible.

The same reason goes for the walnut sized balls. The smaller they are, the more likely they are to cook through. Something I feel is plaguing us all.

Get in the hole!

I'm planning on cooking a Vindaloo on Saturday night so rather then my usual plan of quickly knocking up Bhajis on the day, I thought I would plan ahead and see if I can get close to BIR style.

I'm using the CWG 1.1 ingredients. Annoyingly there weren't any potatoes in the house so I had to make do with jsut plain old Onions

Last night (Thursday) I quartered the onions and sliced them as finely as humanly possible. Using Global knives, this was very fine indeed! I added the spices and salt to the onions and stuck them in the fridge for an overnight marinade / soften.

This morning at about 6:50am I added gram and rice flour in very small quantities until the onion was just about covered and very sticky. I didn't add any extra liquid apart from a small squeeze of lemon dressing. I rolled these into walnut sized balls and deep fryed them for 4 - 5 minutes at 130 degrees.

When they were jsut starting to colour I removed them, put them on a plate and stuck them in a cupboard. They will remain there until this evening when I am planning on squashing half of them flat and leaving the rest round. I'll leave them in the fridge overnight ready to be cooked tomorrow evening. I'm also considering putting 1 of each type in our warming oven for a few hours prior to cooking. This will help replicate the how BIR kitchen environment that their Bhajis sit in all evening before being cooked.

I can't think of anything I'm not trying with this batch. They looked great this morning after their first cook through. I'm still concerned that 1tsp of ground coriander and 1tsp turmeric might be too much spice for 7 bhajis. I'm more interested in the texture from this method than the taste. If this works I can reduce the spices next time to get that balance right.

I have some pics but cant upload at the moment as Im at work.

Those Bhajis look good from the outside. I'd be keen to see the middle of them. My onion normally stays quite white whereas the BIR bhajis get their onions ot go yellow. Were they once cook or twice cooked? Im guessing if on a whim you didnt get a chance to dry them out.

I started some yesterday for Saturday's curry. I'll post at lunch what I'm doing and hopefully some nice results on Saturday.

Axe

If it's your local and presumably you go there a lot, just ask them about the stock / base. If you go at a quiet time (Monday 6pm for example (assuming the head chef doesnt have a day off then)) ask if you can meet the chef. You could grease the wheels first by sending a pint of Cobra to the kitchen for him. It works wonders!

Once you are in the kitchen you'd be amazed how helpful the chefs can be. Make sure you drill them down on their exact Onion Bhaji recipe / method while you are there! If the owner is lingering he might not give so much away.

This looks like a job for my Curry in a Hurry recipe. The base is here and should only take 30 mins including prep:

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3720.0

Once you have this made it's simply a case of choosing your favourite main dish and followign that recipe. If you like a bit of heat try my Madras recipe which accompanies this base:

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3721.0

If you prefer a creamier curry go for a fairly basic Korma or Tikka Massala recipe but make sure you dont add extra spice mix at the curry cooking stage - there is more than enough in the base.

Also workt noting, the base itself has a little kick to it. If either of you dont like any heat at all then leave out the fresh chillies and / or chilli powder.

Let us know how you get on.

A stock would imply lots of veg are boiled up in water with some spices, then the veg is removed leaving you with a slightly spicy vegetable stock. The BIR base sauces are definitely blended with all the veg to produce more of a sauce - this provides the body of the curry, a stock wouldn't work.

I understand you comments on the various spice mixes. it's a point we think Mikka might have tried to raise once before in his own unique crazy way. There is nothing wrong with having a spice-less base and adding exactly the right spices at curry cooking time. The speed comes from the fact most of the BIR curries will contain ground coriander, turmeric, cumin e.t.c. From a speed point of view it makes sense to have these at least partially added to the base.

Hi Jamie

For a proper base its hard to go wrong with the SNS base:

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,2271.msg20262.html#msg20262

If you don't have time you could us my quick base recipe here:

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3720.0

Just make sure you don't add extra spice mix into the final curry, with this recipe the spices are already in the base. It is also quite a spicy base if you add the fresh chilli and chilli powder. It should give you a nice platform to create a hot chilli massala.

Good luck

Hi Axe

Great to have you onboard. The more experimental chefs we have here the better. The forum will take over your life but the results are well worth it!

Chris