I think Indian food has changed dramatically....in the early 80's they were trying to get the best mix between Indian food and English tastes, whereas now Indian restaurants are erring either to a more authentic taste or a new type of fusion food, incorporating more internationally recognised ingredients and slowly the old favourites (like I think SS and others like, myself included) are being lost along the wayside.

Like you say, JerryM, things needed to change, but the change is now a constant thing....and it won't be stopping anytime soon.

I think far too much emphasis is being put on the potatoes....if it was so important, why do they not name the exact brand (if any) of spices used in the recipe as it is far more likely have an influence on the final taste of dishes. Potato adds very little flavour- or colour-wise, so it must only be there for texture....and I doubt that there would be a great deal of difference, given that the sauce is blended for 5 minutes, to distinguish one variety of potato from another....a more starchy potato will produce a slightly thicker sauce, but in this quantity of base-to-potato ratio it shouldn't make a great deal of difference

Quote from: Secret Santa on March 15, 2008, 03:13 PM
The trend toward having carrot, peppers, celery, potatoes and cabbage for god's sake, that's where I think the wrong turn in the road has been taken.

Those veg may be being used as it has frequently been said that the base is based on a traditional English stew...? whilst that may have been said in the early days, I doubt it's the same case nowadays given that more varied produce is now available. Again, it comes down to personal taste...to veg or not to veg, that is the question

Personally I think a base should be made by using ingredients which are essential components of most (or all) curries. A base sauce to me is a shortcut used for ensuring that time spent making a final dish is cut down dramatically, meaning that curries can be turned out at the greatest speed of knots.

I have often thought that if you want to make a good base, you should start at the final, finished curry and work backwards.....the spices which make a dish what it is being added after the base sauce which is used as a vehicle to carry the specific spices throughout the whole dish.

I think a better place to start when considering a base to make is exactly which ingredients need to be in a base to cover all curries, chilli, tomato etc, in my opinion would be better added to your final dish rather than at the base stage as not all curries (or tastes for that matter) call for the same amount of either and the addition of both can make or ruin a curry, better to add too little than too much in many cases as it is easier to rectify, whereas a base which is already too hot or too tomatoey cannot be saved as there's no way to take out an ingredient once it's used....In essence, I'd rather spoil one curry than a whole batch of base... :-X

Coriander, cumin and turmeric (the holy trinity?) seem to be present in all curries, and we see from most base sauces that these are used as a basis for any spices used in the base gravy just as garlic, basil and tomato are used in most Italian dishes no doubt if Italian dishes used a base sauce, they'd undoubtedly have those three ingredients as a starting point. Do you get what I mean? or am I talking out me backside again?  ;D

As I've already stated in another thread, I don't like oily bases or curries and I usually alter the amount I add to recipes (unless it's the first time I'm cooking it, that is, in which case I follow the recipe to the letter).

Some people like to add more oil because they reclaim it...I don't use reclaimed oil so this is not an issue for me. Oil separation in some sauces means that the sauce has split, which is not desirable in alot of dishes as it means that something has gone wrong.

It's all personal preference once again : I suppose the same argument can be used for pros and cons on either side....In reality you can't argue with someone when basically their view is "Yeah, butI just like it that way". :

I guess we all have to respect one another's tastes even if they are not agreeable with our own. It does make for some nice debates, but I doubt either side truly sees the merits/ideals of the opposing view. We just have to agree to disagree sometimes.

As an aside, I also think that recipe posters can be a little too over-protective of their recipes, just because someone points out things which they personally do not like, it does not mean that they are slating your recipe, however some debates can sink into personal nit-picking/back-biting, which does nothing whatsoever for the debate, in fact, it can put members off from revealing their views or end with threads being closed.

IF you post a recipe, you must expect to be criticised and questioned about your methods, ingredients, sources etc etc...but it seems that some recipe posters (both now and in the past ) take such questioning as a personal attack, when no insult is actually intended. You can't please all the people all the time and if you can't take constructive criticism, then maybe you should hold back on posting a recipe as I for one am tired of reading a thread, packed with opinion and suggestions for tweaking (which IS very helpful) turns into pages of petty argument and raking up of past events, which helps no-one at all.

Or you could just pre-fry the onion yourself, Jerry. I wouldn't use the shop-bought dried fried onions though, fresher is always better .

blummen'eck! 2 replies since I started my reply lol

For what it's worth I don't think oil separation is important in the base either, but I do from the finished dish....and you can get that without being heavy handed with the veg oil

the spuds I used were Sainsbury's taste the difference vivaldis, but I'm sure it shouldn't make any difference They're ideal for mashing and buttery enough so's you don't need to add butter to your mash or whatever it says on the bumpf definitely not a salad spud anyways.

I doubt that the spuds would be so important as you think SnS, you can't always get salad spuds and I doubt they'd forgo making the base for the sake of using a common or garden variety of potato. I think the potato is there for texture purposes only as four salad potato-sized king edwards wouldn't soak up a great deal of the 500ml of oil in the base anyway.....

It could be that some people don't add as much water to their base, since the recipe says 2.5 ltr, enough to cover the veg (which may not be at the same level for everyone as it depends on how chunky/fine their chopping is) - or lose more of it in the cooking process, thus the vegetable pulp will hold more of the oil than a more diluted base

I don't use much oil at all when I make a curry normally, yet I always (unless following someone else' method) have the orangey-speckled oil stained plate as I get in the restaurants I think that's more to do with the way I cook them though

Mine is a creamy orangey colour, exactly the same as yours....unless it's darkened after cooling, I haven't checked it yet The oil makes it look darker, but I'm sure if I disturbed the oil the base would still be the same.

I used sainsburys vivaldi potatoes (as that's what I had in), I doubt potatoes would make a difference vis-a-vis darkening the sauce though

whatever do you mean, SnS?

I'll have a proper read of the thread tomorrow as I'm a tad stoned atm I'm really looking forward to testing this base though....it smellls lovely, in fact it smells stronger than it tastes. Speaking of taste, it has a pleasant sweetness about it (I used schwartz sweet and smoky paprika as I find it's not overly one or the other). I didn't get as much oil to rise as I was expecting, so I left the pan lid on and more oil rose as the sauce was cooling so there'll no doubt be more tomorrow ;D

Gotta say it's looking good