a chef spoon of chili powder? I hope it was from a mild chilli powder and even then I still admire your tolerance to pain and your ability to speak the truth about your cooking.

Any tips and tricks for pre-cooking/cooking the prawns?

Quote from: Stephen Lindsay on February 20, 2013, 06:29 PM
gagomes - just caught up with your post - I am making a Taz base tonight using 2 kilos of onions. Once it has started bubbling away I tend to turn the heat to as low as I can just to keep it on a simmer. This should avoid burning, and an occasional stir helps also. Let us know how you get on this evening.

Thanks ! I've just put it on and I have kept the flame low enough to just simmer ;-)

If I were to guess, the burning only happen in the last 20 mins after throwing the tomatos in, but it's just me guessing anyway

So, you are using 2kg instead of 1kg of onions, do you scaled any other ingredient up?

Yeah. It was stuck to the bottom. I blended it, but... I just didn't like the smell or taste and as such I've not really done any food and threw it away. I'm remaking it tonight

Quote from: RubyDoo on February 19, 2013, 10:55 PM
Well getting 'it up'  before the weekend is always a bonus if manageable. 

I see what you did there! ;-)

Quote from: Stephen Lindsay on February 19, 2013, 11:20 PM
Not something I've experienced gagomes but having made it why not scoop a jug's worth off the top off the base and blend it to see what it tastes like - you may be able to salvage some/most of it?

I'd imagine I may have ruined that chance when I scooped/mixed it. What would you think?

If only I had peppers left, I would straight-away make another. Unfortunately I'm short of and it's unfortunately too late in the day (no 24 hours shops nearby either :-()

Alright, being confident in never having over-cooked/burnt the ingredients I left the pan on its own, with only a few checks here and there, I think this time I may have over-cooked them. There is a caramelised-dark paste stuck to the bottom of the pressure-cooker. Has anyone ever got parts of the base caramelised? I never noticed this before and I must be honest, I don't really like the smell all that much. It's bit like smoked toffee, without actually having smelt smoked toffee, but that's how I can best describe it.

I'm just wondering if it's worth the effort  to go ahead and blend it still

I guess I'm not gonna add anything that hasn't been said about how great that report and pictures are, RubyDoo!

I am making another batch of taz base to give life to curryhell's proposed challenge. I am not sure I'll be able to have it up before the weekend, though :-)

Quote from: Axe on February 18, 2013, 03:32 PM
That really is food for thought and an interesting comment on the salty water being used on salads. I think I should try and make some the traditional way to set the bench mark flavour, before trying any shortcuts.

What is the dish traditionally served with?

Roast potatoes, which have generally been par-boiled along with the meat in the wine/pepper sauce. I didn't do this yesterday as I didn't have enough space in the meat's pyrex for the amount of spuds I was working with. But I did take a few chef spoons of the sauce to "shower" the spuds with to infuse some flavour. :-)

That was a very interesting read DP! Are you going to apply these ideas?

I'd be a tiny bit afraid of doing something wrong and causing a fire and/or explosion by going the DIY route.

Quote from: Axe on February 18, 2013, 12:37 PM
Thanks Gagomes, i've Googled this and it's thrown up some interesting dishes. It's going on my list of recipes to try, found a version using pig cheeks which I also want to try, I feel a 'two bids with one stone' coming on.

The pepper paste is interesting and again Google has thrown up a few variations. I see some mention slow roasting the peppers as a shortcut and other boil as you have done. Am I right in thinking the original Massa de Pimentao is a paste made by salt curing the pepper to remove the water which you then drain off? I'd be interested in the original recipe if you have it.

My granny said the original way, as my grandmother learnt from her mother, was to do as you said: cure the peppers over several days with salt, however, she stopped doing it that way because she couldn't find a huge amount of difference in palate and could manage to get food done  faster.

She also added that "salty water" would be used to season the salads, which is something I didn't thought of but if you are a big fan of pepper like me, it can be an interesting replacement for salt.