Curry Recipes Online
Curry Base Recipes => Curry Sauce, Curry Base , Curry Gravy Recipes, Secret Curry Base => Topic started by: Hugoboss on February 11, 2021, 04:11 PM
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Time for the purists to look away. 5 minute instant base which I use to sell between 80 and 100 curries per week with no complaints - just lots of praise. Many of you will already be familiar with Shaheen. I combine their Onion Massalla paste with an Aldi soup ( I am in SW France but you can probably get something similar in the UK). Here goes :
Base and soup :
(https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/c270fd8f4ea6eb7767bdd0c44870dab1.jpg) (https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#c270fd8f4ea6eb7767bdd0c44870dab1.jpg)
Base in pan :
(https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/6586e68eda2dfd52954a849ab028249c.jpg) (https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#6586e68eda2dfd52954a849ab028249c.jpg)
Add soup and 1 litre of water then blend with electric hand wizzer. 2 minutes later :
(https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/685bb6223a70179728d84714bfb3bd8d.jpg) (https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#685bb6223a70179728d84714bfb3bd8d.jpg)
Makes 6 x 2 person portions :
(https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/8569aa8e866d1115f83fe7cc2a811094.jpg) (https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#8569aa8e866d1115f83fe7cc2a811094.jpg)
Works out at around 15 cents per portion with no tears or mess. trust me, I have been making/researching Indian food for over 45 years and this works. Soup is 30% carrots, 15% onions, 15% tomatoes, 10% leeks with added peppers and peas.
I will post some pics of finished curries later :)
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Sounds good to me
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Sorry about the rubbish photos/lighting - not my strong point !!
Finished curry in pan :
(https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/daebf07a3a6b67b18640a1dca0c6f9d2.jpg) (https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#daebf07a3a6b67b18640a1dca0c6f9d2.jpg)
Serving :
(https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/133376a493248995a30298fd5141e270.jpg) (https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#133376a493248995a30298fd5141e270.jpg)
With Pilau Rice :
(https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/64ce5ef62b763dc802c0fcb61dce19c1.jpg) (https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#64ce5ef62b763dc802c0fcb61dce19c1.jpg)
And a few Nans :
(https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/b61b5b2997126d71d037456536bc4a84.jpg) (https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#b61b5b2997126d71d037456536bc4a84.jpg)
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Good Lord
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Customers do also Phil. They freeze and eat perfectly after defrosting. Happy Chris recipe - never fails :like:
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Well, I am not normally a fan of naan, far preferring chapati (and that preference goes back more years than I care to remember
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Finished dish looks very nice, Hugo, and the naans superb.
May I ask if you are originally from France? The only reason I ask is that I have had curries in quite a few French cities; some good (Montpellier and Bordeaux), some not so good (Lyon). I did find them all a bit different from BIR though - not inferior in any way, just different. This is natural of course as they will be catering to slightly different palates perhaps.
Just wondered about your background and if your customers are French and the food is BIR-style and how the two entwine.
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Hi Garp,
No, I am British, from Manchester and spent many happy weeks along the glorious curry mile in Rusholme in my youth. All our customers are British ex pats missing that taste of BIR they left behind many moons ago. BIR is non existant in France really and the French have never really adopted Indian food - plenty of Chinese restaurants here though.
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:like:
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Has anyone in the UK found a good substitute for that carrot-heavy soup?
Negative recommendations also handy.
Thanks.
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Not yet tried searching for one, but here is the list of ingredients if you want to try to match it for yourself :
Liste des ingr
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Really???. French BIR made with stuff out of packets and you can sell 80 dishes a week to expats craving a good old BIR. Doesn't say much for BIR then does it?
This thread answers many questions in one go.
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Really???. French BIR made with stuff out of packets and you can sell 80 dishes a week to expats craving a good old BIR. Doesn't say much for BIR then does it?
This thread answers many questions in one go.
So who is judging your output ?
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As a US-based expat I would buy that Shaheen instant base in a heartbeat if it got me that BIR certain something. My girlfriend attended Manchester University and her halls of residence were in Rusholme. Very good memories of bus rides from Sunderland and excellent curries.
Maybe I?ll import some Shaheen and give it a bash. The resulting curry looks legit.
Robbo
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I have10 boxes (120 pouches) delivered to France for 100GBP. That may go up on my next delivery due to Brexit/Import charges but its still worth it. The guys at Shaheen are very accomodating so just get in touch Robbo to see if they will send to the USA. They deliver to lots of BIR take aways in the UK - the same take aways that also use Pataks/Nazirs ready made products.
Having tried a million of the bases on here and all over the internet this works as good as any. If you look at the ingredients in the Shaheen base and the soup its what we put in a base gravy anyway. I tend to go for low spicing in my bases and add at the cooking stage as its more controllable. As has been said many times before if you give myself and Atul Kochhar the same ingredients he will make a better curry than me.
Shaheen : https://shaheen.co.uk/index.php (https://shaheen.co.uk/index.php)
If I want my base a bit spicier I use a Balti Massala Shaheen pouch along with the Onion Massala.
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Not yet tried searching for one, but here is the list of ingredients if you want to try to match it for yourself :
Well, I do make base gravy, typically one of the recipes from Dan Toombs' book. I freeze a reduced form as big ice cubes and dilute on use.
I can't see why I would try to fake a soup and then use the Shaheen spicing though, if I'm cooking the veg.
Maybe a mix of carrot and coriander and tomato and basil?
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I was very tired when I posted last night Hugo and sorry, my word choice was poor. Please allow me to improve it. We know that the BIR method is about simplification and expediency. What I was meaning to say is that your method shows just how simple and expedient it can actually be. I did not intend it as a criticism of your dishes.
After now 14 years of base gravies from every corner of this site and others, what I was trying to say was that I'm now amazed that you can get the same, or better, result by combining 2 readily available packet products. Upon reading your original post, I immediately looked into Shaheen Onion Masala. I've seen it mentioned before and doubt I'll find it here but you never know. What I did find is that onion tomato Masala is a very common shortcut in Indian cooking and there are numerous versions presented online.
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Apologies not needed Livo but good of you to explain. I join Forums to explore and glean any amount of information that like minded individuals care to pass on wether it be good or bad. It will always be the same old adage "dont knock it until you tried it" as we say over here !! If your import rules allow I would be more than happy to post you a Shaheen Onion Massala :likeing look:
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No worries at all, Hugo. It really is most unlikely that post costs will make it a worthwhile venture but thanks for the offer. I will have a search online for any chance of Australian supply but I'm a bit doubtful. There are many Indian imports here but the UK stuff doesn't make it to our shores. I will be further investigating other Onion Masala shortcuts in any case. There are many to select from and I'm fairly sure there will be a similar "soup" mix available in some form or another.
I'm all in favour of shortcuts.
Just out of curiosity, what is your most requested French BIR dish?
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"Just out of curiosity, what is your most requested French BIR dish?'
All our customers are Brits so its not really "French BIR" but most popular dish is Chicken Madras. We dont offer a huge range of dishes as we never intended to run this as a business. We just helped out neighbours/friends during last years lockdown and they then insisted we carry on supplying them and they would happliy pay as they were very happy with the product. Word spreads via Social Media and we now have over 250 clients !
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Chicken Madras is my touchstone
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We have supplied French neighbours Phil who were probably just very polite with their reviews. They all found the food too spicy as here in rural France they live off bread, cheese, duck, green beans and meat derived pates/terrines if they can find time to put down their wine glass. Rural French are very unadventetous when it comes to "foreign" food. They like our chicken seek kebabs though !
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Let's agree to call it BIR in France then, rather than French BIR. I also cook BIR in Australia rather than Australian BIR, but I've been taken to task over it before today. I love a Chicken Madras so no surprises there. BIR style curry, made in France, Toronto, USA or Antarctica, is BIR style curry. Unless someone would disagree!!! :Clown: :Clown: :Clown:
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An afternoon of examining online resources. I've examined about 2 dozen variations of Onion Tomato Masala, aka; OTM or Bhuna Masala, and made notes and comparisons. There are many varied recipes but not too surprisingly, they are not all that different. They range from 9 ingredients to 20 and average around 15 including spices. There is a very stable core group of ingredients and then there are a few variables and then there is a small number of not so common tweaks. From this examination I could make a few different batches and decide where to go from there.
Obviously, Onion and Tomato is found in all, but the ratio varies from 2:1 through equal to 1:2.
Garlic and Ginger found in all, as a paste which varies from chunky to watery. 1 example had a considerable amount of extra chopped garlic added to the frying onions.
Green Chilli is found in many, but not all, and always chopped small. There is usually no blending or blitzing of the finished Masala but there was in one or two. Most simply rely on fine rough chopping and cooking down to melting point.
Oil varied from just enough to fry the onions to swimming. One video showed the cook pouring a cup of water into the frying onions.
Whole spices common to nearly all: Tej Patta, Green Cardamom, Black Cardamom, Cloves and Black Peppercorn. Amounts varied.
Whole Spice found in some: Cinnamon / Cassia Bark, Cumin seed (found in several).
Whole Spice found in a couple: Blade Mace.
Note: One or two recipes used Garam Masala powder instead of any whole spices.
Powdered Spices common to nearly all: Turmeric, Chilli Powder (either Red CP, Kashmiri CP or Deggi Mirch) and Salt.
Powdered spices found in some: Cumin (if seeds not used) and Coriander in only a few.
Powdered Spices found in single recipes: Kitchen King, Maggi Masala ae Magic (Indian spice mix by Maggi).
Other ingredients found occasionally: Cashew / melon seed (magaz) paste was added to one or two and in only one I saw there was chopped coriander.
I'll be giving this a try. Now all I have to do is find a soup mix recipe that matches the requirements.
edit: Done and cooking as I sit here.
velout
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I like to try a curry wherever I go on holiday (remember those?). I went to an Indian restaurant in Paris many years ago and it was OK but nothing special. Good experience though. Glace cherries pushed into the top of the naan in Bulgaria was a first, and last, though.
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I went to an Indian restaurant in Paris many years ago ...
So did I (with my wife). The tandoori chicken was very obviously tainted, and we both ended up with food poisoning. Never again.
** Phil.
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Well mine isn't instant because it took about an hour to make the vegetable soup last night and then about 2 hours to do the Onion Tomato Masala this afternoon but once combined and blended, I now have 5 litres of very concentrated Base Gravy, which when diluted could be enough for up to 40 individual curry servings. The time-frame from scratch is not much different to any other base gravy but I see why you would do it from the packets. I can't wait to try a dish as it shows a lot of potential already. This method is a space saver for the freezer as well, as the end product before dilution is very thick. I probably wont dilute too much as I like thicker gravies anyhow.
The good thing is that it is a very tasty base gravy and will no doubt make some very nice curries. The other benefit is that if you choose you can just have some really good veggie soup or some OTM to use in other ways. This time I've just combined it all.
Thank you Hugoboss. Yet another method and I recommend it to anybody who has access to the packets or can spare the time to do it from scratch.
I have some photos which I'll post shortly.
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Good work livo, I await the first results. I too spent some time looking at OTM after realizing the pouches weren?t available here. One of the first recipes I found uses the Instant Pot so may give that a go first, next month.
Robbo
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I didn't photograph the soup but I just boiled all of the ingredients listed above and let it cool then blended it through the OTM once it was done and also cooled. My stick blender reached the end of it's life a few weeks back.
OTM Ingredients
1 kg chopped onion
500 g tomato blended to a puree
Garlic and Ginger paste
3 chopped green chilli
Whole Garam Masala
Cumin seed
Kashmiri CP
Turmeric
Salt
Kitchen King Masala
Oil.
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Has anyone in the UK found a good substitute for that carrot-heavy soup?
Negative recommendations also handy.
Thanks.
Any hints at all? Am I really the only lazy guy here in UK.
(I had to re-register, weird!)