Curry Recipes Online
Curry Base Recipes => Curry Sauce, Curry Base , Curry Gravy Recipes, Secret Curry Base => Topic started by: Bobby Bhuna on July 13, 2008, 01:36 PM
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Hey guys,
Here's the latest base I'm using. This base takes inspiration from several good bases, all from this site, hopefully using the stong points and disguarding the weak ones. I rate this base very highly and especially like the improvement in texture, offered by the Mooli radish.
Also, with the recent trend in less commonly available spices, I'm trying to keep it real here (apart from the Adjwain seeds, which I wanted to try but I don't think make much difference, although I didn't use much).
Ingredients
8 medium sized onions
1 mooli radish
1 large bulb garlic
1 2 inch piece ginger
4 green chilies
2 medium sized tomatos
1 red pepper
1 tbsp coriander stems
1 tbsp salt
1 tin tomatos
1 dsrt spoon turmeric, paprika, coriander and cumin
200ml oil
1/4 tsp adjwain seeds
(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/gallery/3840_13_07_08_1_17_59.jpg)
Method
Roughly chop and add all the fresh veg, coriander, salt and oil to a stock pan. Cover with water, bring to the boil and then simmer until the onions look cooked (transparent and very soft - takes about an hour).
Add tinned tomatoes and spices and blend thoroughly. Gently simmer for 40 minutes. Done.
(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/gallery/3840_13_07_08_1_18_46.jpg)
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For me, this is the purpose of the site.
Members taking "best practice" from each others efforts to build upon and improve the experience of the community as a whole.
BB's base seems to take a bit from the Saffron, the original BE, and the new BE (and probably some others I'm not recognizing) in terms of ingredients and method.
I will probably give this a go once my fridge and freezer yield some room.
Great contribution BB!
-- Josh
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Oh yeah, where did you find the "mooli radish"? Is this something you can only find at an Indian grocery? Does it go by any other name to your knowledge?
-- Josh
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Oh yeah, where did you find the "mooli radish"? Is this something you can only find at an Indian grocery? Does it go by any other name to your knowledge?
-- Josh
Mooli can be purchased in Tesco ,well I can buy it in our 24hr one, however I've used it and IMHO it made no difference at all.
Matt
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Thanks Matt, but unfortunately I'm several thousand miles away from my closest Tesco. :(
But I did do some digging, and found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daikon
I've seen these in my local grocery store in the chinese vegetable section.
So, for anyone outside of the UK, you may find Mooli Radish in your local grocery called a "Daikon".
-- Josh
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Members taking "best practice" from each others efforts to build upon and improve the experience of the community as a whole.
BB's base seems to take a bit from the Saffron, the original BE, and the new BE (and probably some others I'm not recognizing) in terms of ingredients and method.
I will probably give this a go once my fridge and freezer yield some room.
Thanks very much Josh! I totally agree that people on the forum trying this and that and reporting back helps us all progress faster!
It does indeed take inspiration from Saffron, and SnS's base June 2008 and BE's original curry house cookery base (if you look at the date on the picture, BE's new base wasn't posted yet :P) and ifindforu base (which I think took inspiration from BE's original base). Learning from my own failures, I tried to keep it minimally spiced (4 dsrt spoons total) which I think helps a lot. Also by keeping to the plain and simple rudimentary curry spices, I think the base has a very solid flavour, nothing you wouldn't expect.
The mooli radish does nothing whatsoever for flavour that I can notice. However it really aids the texture in my opinion. I always felt that a BIR madras had more body than the ones I knocked up at home. Saffron did a little for this with the addition of potatoes but I could taste and smell them in it and I didn't like that. I think the mooli adds the body to the base, without affecting the taste and smell. For me it's soley in there for the texure.
This base is no holy grail or anything like that - I don't think they exist. I think many of the bases on this site are up to BIR standard, hopefully this one included. But if your looking for something no nonsense, with a great texture and good standard taste then I promise this base won't disappoint. It's the favourite in my freezer atm, but we'll see what others think.
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inspirational Bobby.
the ajwain needs to be 1 tsp or getting towards it(1/4 is not enough for 8 onion).
i like the addition of coriander but again would add more (all the stems of a bunch)
the oil vol looks pretty good.
the one part of your recipe i've not tried is the green chillies - you've chopped them up and added (no fork puncture) - how did taste and heat work out.
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inspirational Bobby.
the ajwain needs to be 1 tsp or getting towards it(1/4 is not enough for 8 onion).
I think you're right - I was a bit scared having never used them before and have heard it said they can dominate the flavour quite easily.
i like the addition of coriander but again would add more (all the stems of a bunch)
That's certainly worth trying. I'll do that next time around.
the one part of your recipe i've not tried is the green chillies - you've chopped them up and added (no fork puncture) - how did taste and heat work out.
That's right. I keep trying to get that green chilli flavour to my curry but have yet to succeed. They hardly add any heat actually. They could probably be left out altogether.
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thanks BB,
how are the resulting curries turning out c/w previous.
very disappointed "gutted" on the chilli comment - i thought this might just get us there (and u've added enough to adequately test for sure)
ajwain seeds - they can dominate the flavour quite easily
this is definitely the case - it's a tricky call to get it right - too much and it's lost (overpowers) - too little lost no taste - get it right and it adds that little something - it's not the last 5% though.
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how are the resulting curries turning out c/w previous.
The curries are turning out well. The base tastes just as good as the other good ones we all know IMHO but offers that little something extra as far as texture goes. Even if you don't want to make this base, trying popping a mooli radish in whatever other base your knocking up. That's the only real difference this base offers over the other contendors on this site.
Cheers,
BB.
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Bobby,
have made the base but the mooli has got me.
With hindsight I should have tasted it before trying out this recipe. I also should have confirmed the weight/proportion having used 400g mooli in 1200g onions - I feel this is far too much. If I had not been following this recipe I would have ditched the mooli after tasting it and gone shopping for carrots. The mooli tastes like turnip but with a hot after taste just like English radish. For me mooli is not mainstream BIR. It's location and stock level in the supermarket bear's this out - there being big piles of the other ingredients.
The ingredients were the best looking that I've ever bought for a base (see pic). Looking at the recipe ingredients which I've used all before (except the mooli) I'd expected this base to be top notch ? the mooli spoilt it for me.
The final curry will be interesting for me as I believe once a base gets past a certain threshold then it doesn't have that much effect on the final curry. I will try to cook as soon as poss and use my std madras for comparison.
I followed the recipe spot on in terms of ingredients except for the ajwain where is used 1 tsp (c/w 1/4 tsp). The changes were some of my standard practises: puree the garlic/ginger in water before adding (as per BE), cook 1st stage for 2hrs (c/w 1hr), blend and add extra water (aiming to get back to the same vol after the 2nd stage ie evap off the added water), cook 2nd stage for 1 hr (c/w 40mins), thin with water.
Observations:
1. smell during cooking was not good - mooli
2. mooli taste well overpowers the rest
3. 4 off chilli?s were too much (say 2 off)
4. oil qty seemed about right - based on amount on surface at end of stage 2. I did not add extra oil or reclaim during this recipe (I'm switching to yellow oil from red)
5. yield was excellent producing 4.6L
Conclusions:
Anyone liking mooli will love this recipe. For me it's a No No.
Spec (peeled/chopped):
Oil 200ml, onion 1200g, mooli 400g, red pepper 260g, coriander stalk 15g, fresh toms 280g, garlic 40g, ginger 70g, green chilli 40g, salt 15ml, cumin 10ml, coriander 10ml, paprika 10ml, turmeric 10ml, adjwain 5ml, initial water 1.5l, tin toms 400g. volume after blending 4.0L, 1.1L water added after blending, 0.5L water added for thinning, finished volume 4.65L.
I have more pics if needed.
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Looks just right to me Jerry - I wonder if you have a bigger mooli than me? ;D
Thanks very much for trying. I'm surprised the Mooli made a taste difference because I couldn't really notice the taste, in the final curry at least... Let me know what happens with the final curry.
Thanks again,
BB.
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Having had a look at the picture of your mooli, I would say that yours and mine are of similar size. I guess we'll just have to see how your curry turns out. I've still got hope this one will produce a good curry for you. If not, thanks very much for giving it a shot and at least you will be able to eliminate mooli.
Interestingly enough, I wonder what it's used for, it doesn't taste great alone.
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Bobby,
my feeling having cooked with it is a "what might have been" as i'm always reluctant to miss a trick - what i mean is that say 100g might just be OK. I need to cook with to say more.
hoping to cook tomorrow night. other than the mooli everything else is spot on the texture the colour etc. the mooli just overpowers the rest of the ingredients.
it's a bit like celery - which i'm not a fan of generally. i tried it in ronnoc's base and felt in the right proportion it might just have it's place.
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Bobby,
have cooked 3 sauces (1 LB spice, 1 DD spice and the 3rd LB as a consistency check) - thoughts have not changed on the mooli.
everything else was upto spec. i had to use fresh oil to fry but it was the taste that overpowered even through the final stage albeit very much reduced compared to tasting the base.
a much smaller proportion maybe what's needed although we did not feel the mooli closed that last 5%.
well worth a try and all part of the learning.
i used my chef's spoon for the 1st time and it felt good - will add in new post
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Well thanks for trying it Jerry! I am however surprised that it made much of a taste difference, as I didn't notice it, more just the texture. Oh well, onwards and upwards!
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hey
is there any way i can make these bases in bulk and store it for later use. or does it loose its taste when used after some days.