Topic: "Less is more", revisited

[Peripatetic Phil]

Some (long) time ago, I started a thread entitled "less is more", and this theme came back to me this evening while eating a Chicken Madras from a take-away in Paddock Wood that I had never had the opportunity to try previously (it has never been open at a convenient time).  Whilst the curry was nothing special, there was something about the sauce that intrigued me, and at first I could not identify what it was.  Then I suddenly realised -- there was no evidence of /physical/ spices in the sauce at all.  There were spice flavours (a few, not many) and heat, but no evidence of actual ground spices at all.  Which made me think.  Because when I make a curry, there is most definitely evidence of physical spices in the sauce, and even my thinnest curries (I do prefer them on the thin side) have far more physical spice in the sauce than could be found in the Saffron version.  And as a result, even though the Saffron sauce had no real depth of flavour, it was nonetheless far more "moreish" than many of the sauces that I have produced.  So the next time I make a curry, I am going to try to achieve this "no physical spices" effect, possibly adding a /potli ka masala/ to the base to try to infuse it with flavour.

** Phil.

[littlechilie]

Fair point Phil, I'm also not a fan of over spiced curry.

[Invisible Mike]

I've said it for a long time Phil. For example, where a lot of recipes prescribe 1 tbsp of mix powder I find 1 tsp to make a far more palatable curry. I've not made a curry that relies solely on the spicing in the base yet though. Maybe I should..

[RobbieC]

Funny you mention this. Went to my local TA and watched him cook me and others curries. He was using minimal spicing as well as little salt.. But had big flavour..

Maybe the key is to have the fuller flavour in the base. This hence when hitting the pan you've got lots of flavour caramelising.


Going to make another base tomorrow with little water at the start. So the sweating onion juices cook in the oil developing a richer flavour.