Topic: BIR Base variation - is there anything to learn

[JerryM]

rsholme123,

hope bbq goes well. decent book ISBN 0-7513-2719-0 by Eric Treuille might be of interest.

we on TA. the heat for sure has put a dampener on the cooking front. in no rush as you know hoping for breakthrough fingers crossed.

best wishes,

[rshome123]

Thanks Jerry, will look into that.

[JerryM]

finally got round to making base and trying out the idea of Fryer Oil. have added 10% fryer oil of the plain oil ie 30ml fryer, 150 reclaimed, 150 fresh.

have also adopted the 2:1 ginger:garlic ratio suggested by iffu. had no carrot but made good with extra onion (have made previously with and without so not fused).

aiming to try out No3 Vindaloo with it being motivated by madrasandy's ultimate vindaloo post.

[Madrasandy]

Excellent jerry, I'll look forward to your results

[JerryM]

quite ironic given Kai's post - onions were far too sweet. i also still got too much oil in the finished dish (only added 2 tbsp at dish fry).

have done 2nd stage cook on the base to try and remove the sweetness. will get another dish cook on monday. there was not much oil on top so the excess oil is from added at dish fry.

for background. the basic base used at the restaurant does have water added but was not clear when or how. i've adopted the nottingham idea of adding it at dish fry ie missing out stage 2 re heat (this happening at the dish fry). i've also been trying to adopt mashing and this needs the onions cooking typ 5 hrs. over a few goes i've now got this right but ended up with very sweet onion. the base tasted much sweeter than the base i tasted in the restaurant - so i feel i've gone too far.

it might just be the case that my sauce mix is not right ie to balance the sweetness.

i'm well out of my comfort zone "base knowledge" on this but hoping to learn more of the why.

only real progress is the coriander root - the restaurant does not add to the base. i find if mashing it makes the look of the base naff. in short going to dele the coriander from the base and add more at sauce.

the sauce method works a treat. i used the no3 vindaloo sauce - not bad still work in progress but base needs to be right 1st.

[JerryM]

have cooked the 4 off no 3 vindaloo using the base.

i ended up blending it - the mashing is what i need for "best" - it looks good but too many other problems need sorting 1st.

the main problem was the base was just too sweet and in the mashed form the "chunks" were just out of balance in the finished dish. felt like a traditional dish.

forgot to comment on the inclusion of the chip fryer oil - i don't feel i added enough. i was looking for a sort of "cardboard" flavour and in short don't see this happening (as Haldi said) until the fryer oil is right - i just don't cook enough bhaji to produce the effect.

going to abandon it - have greater areas of need. i actually hope it caused the sweetening as i've never had this problem before.

on next batch going to reduce the cook down to say 3 hrs from the 5 hrs in effort to kill off this sweetness which i really don't gel with.

part of me also says this basic base is not right - thinking of upping the turmeric. its currently at 0.6% of onion g where my norm would be more like 4%.

i'm also not sure how long i can hack this basic base idea - beginning to question my original thought - why on earth. it does expose problem areas though and for that is worth my effort. need to sleep on it.

[Madrasandy]

on next batch going to reduce the cook down to say 3 hrs from the 5 hrs in effort to kill off this sweetness which i really don't gel with.

 A while ago I experimented with the onion cooking times to obtain the correct sweetness, if you take them too far they become too sweet and not far enough they dont have enough sweetness, I did a slow simmer for around 5-6 hours and they became too sweet, almost sickly sweet, 3 hours on a gentle simmer sounds about right Jerry

[JerryM]

Madrasandy,

Appreciate that puts my mind at rest.

I'd never gone past 2 hr in past on stage 1 and was not aware of the rubbish effect of going too sweet.

Lesson learnt albeit hard way.

[Madrasandy]

 I made 7 bases in 7 days all with different variations of heat and timings for the stage 1 onion cook. Its hard to give timings on this matter as everybodys heat output will differ, onions will differ in type and age also.
 For me its just getting them to the completely soft stage, where they could just be easily squashed to a complete smoothness with no resistance . Cooking them past this point and they become to sweet  especially as there are all the other base stages still to complete.

[noble ox]

MA at last your getting to" know your onions"