I very much doubt you'll get anywhere near the desired effect using the soup on its own as it's all about the magic of the onions and lots of them! That said, You could always use the soup as one of the elements. Say 10-20%.

I've always wanted to add a tin of Heinz tomato soup to a base instead of tinned tomato to see what that was like. Not got round to it yet but will do eventually...

Do they even serve it in BIRs??? You can have my version. It's the Heinz replica lol.

I have had base samples from many places. The good ones are depressingly good, in as much that I couldn't copy them.

There was one sample I got though that absolutely blew me away,it tasted incredible,it had a deep savoury taste that I've never been able to duplicate.It knocked my confidence in my cooking abilities,

Yes there is a sense that everything you've learnt about making a base is not quite the full story when you've seen the real thing first hand. I had one other sample and that was also very different from my own creations. The curry I made from it was a lot better than what I could make from my own bases. Depressing! 

Anyway I've drafted a veggie base recipe. I might knock it up for a bit of fun if this sample turns out to make a decent madras. 

MM

I went to a new curry house on Saturday night. It was quiet at the end of the night and before asking for the bill I asked the waiter if I could buy a portion of base gravy. (This is my new standard thing when going for a curry. Not asking is a wasted learning opportunity in my book!). Anyway, he was a bit surprised so I explained a bit about my fascination with restaurant style curry and we got chatting... Anyway to cut a long story short, after a lengthy bit of banter I got a bit more cheeky and asked him if it was also possible to get a bit of mix powder to try which he agreed to. He didn't even end up charging me any extra for them! 

Anyway I got my treasures home for analysis and although there are probably no major game changers to some, I thought I'd share my findings anyhow.

The base is quite watery with a small amount of oil on top. The flavour of onions is obviously there but it's not as dominate as you'd think. It's more "vegetably" than "oniony". A flavour a bit like a vegetable soup stock which I was surprised by, and well seasoned with salt. The spicing was also very light, the only discernible flavour being cumin.

Also they didn't seem too thorough about the blending. Loads of whole capsicum seeds, veg fibres, bits of carrot, odd bit of rice etc.

No base recipe I've ever tried has had that level of "veggie" flavour. It's something I'm going to work on to try to recreate at some point.

The mix powder was very standard in smell and appearance. The dominant aroma, again being cumin, but very similar to most. Although quite red compared to some of mine.

I've froze the base as I'm saving it for best lol. Can't wait to putting it and the powder through its paces. There was certainly nothing wrong with the murgh capsila and biryani sauce we ordered that was made from it!

Can anybody else relate to the veggie stock flavour I'm talking about?

MM

MBC

I've used garlic powder in mix powder (kushi spice) before and certainly does no harm in small quantities. But hey if your recipe works for your particular taste then why change it!

I'm definitely going to put 1/2 a tsp of ground methi in my next curry though. I think it's well worth investigating.

MM