Quote from: Cory Ander on September 25, 2009, 02:34 PM
Interesting to note we've followed similar paths ADVB

I've noted you comments about using home made stock and will give it another try (I've never had much joy, in the past, but I can see how it can undoubtedly add depth, savouriness and flavour).  I'll try your recipe for the stock.

I normally make about 5 litres of base in 'one-go'  The stock from the remains of one whole roast chicken (not much meat left on it after a roast dinner!) goes in it.

I usually boil it up with enough water to cover the left-overs completely (at least 2 or 3 pints), for a couple of hours or so; during the last hour I add some star anise, peppercorns,  a couple of bay leaves,  one  or three cloves (that's cloves, NOT cloves of garlic ), cinamon; I don't bother adding the other traditional stock ingredients: onions etc, because they'll be plenty of that in the base anyway!

After is simmered for a couple of hours (3 max), I filter it through a culender , then a kitchen sieve (failing that, an old tea-towel would do).

I WOULD say tha at this stage you are likely to be put-off the whole thing by the somewhat discusting site of a  pile of nasty looking bones and slimy debris in whatever you've used to filter the stock: please don't be; it's worth sticking-with it for the results!

You should end-up with a couple of pints of watery-looking 'broth', perhaps with the odd dropplet of oil floating on top.

If it was allowed to cool at this stage a thin skin will form on the top, skim it off and chuck it - I don't normally allow it to cool before using it so this dosen't apply!

Use all of this stock, making it up to the required volume with water.

You may have to make a real conscious effort to do this as the sight of what's left of the chicken after it's removed from the stock really does seem a bit off-putting!

! REALLY recommmend anyone who hasn't tried this to give it a go: it's got be closer to BIR that most other things I've tried!

I've found that 3 day old base from the fridge ( A BE suggestion) is easily the best; next best being fresh; and least good, frozen.

I freeze too, a necessary evil, and whilst not as good, I find it does not make such a huge difference as to warrant making smaller batches and not freezing, IMHO 

Not hugely different to mine CA.

I too, have tried many variations that did not seem to make a huge difference:-

     Pre frying ('tarka-ing') the tomato/tomarto paste (a la KD)
     -------ditto--------------  the onion & garlic (home made puree)
     -------ditto--------------  the spices
     -------ditto-------------- all possible combinations of the above three

I've finally settled on a simple boil/simmer approach; spices, tom paste & corry stalks 5 mins mins before end, just like you & BE.

I use home made chicken stock in place of water; and personally I've found this makes a BIG difference:  remains of a roast chicken boiled up with a little bay, star anise, cinamon & peppercorns; filtered and skimmed after a couple of hours cooking.

I also add a stick of celery.  Like you, I don't go overboard on the carrot - I find it makes it a little 'heavy'.

I discovered a while back that my bitter results were simply due to too much ginger, and had nothing whatever to do with the onions.

So thanks for the post CA!

Quote from: jerry
the fenugreek is certainly different. is there any background to it's inclusion.

Only that I've been trying to replicate the savouriness of typical BIR curries and figure that fenugreek goes some way to helping do this.
[/quote]

I intend to give the fenugreek a try in the spice mix,  I already include ground fenugreek leaf in most of my dishes; I love the flavour and will certainly try adding some of the ground seeds to the spice mix.

I made my usual base on Saturday, with onions I got from a local Asian 'cash-&-curry'.  I got a big bag of onions, a bag containing about 10 bulbs of garlic, a couple of huge pieces of ginger and loads of chilies (as many as you could hold in both hands cupped together), all for ?4-47p !!!

I notices too, that a base made from these onions tasted like a sweet onion soup (not at all 'French Onion Soup), pale gold sweet and tasty enough to serve as a soup in its own right!

It's madras night tonight, can't wait!!

Keep up the good work!

I'm interested, Surrey based close to M25 J8, so most of Sussex in easy reach!  Where abouts is it?

Having started this thread, a while back now, I feel I have to meekly admit that I found out why my bases were bitter and it was nothing to do with onions!

Too much ginger was the problem, or possibly ginger that was not in some why 'ripe' or in tip top condition???

I cut back on the ginger and now everything's fine!

Worth a try......

oil both sides with a light olive oil season with freshly ground black pepper and corse sea salt.  Use more salt than you think it needs, something that seems counter intuitive these days, but steak really needs it!

Have you tried rib-eye steak, the flavour of sirloin and often as tender as fillet, YUMMY!

Quote from: mickdabass on July 19, 2009, 06:00 PM
The very fact that I (we all) struggle to produce a consistant curry - whether good or bad is evidence enough to me that it is ALL about technique as opposed to "the secret ingredient." Perhaps some members have perfected their technique but don't bother to disclose this - judging by the fact that there are over 9000 members to the site, there are only a very small proportion of people who actually contribute to this site.

I seem to remember Bruce Edwards stating base got better the longer it was kept before use, up to three days as I recall?  My best efforts have often been with 3 day old base ,albeit kept in the fridge.