Topic: BIR Base variation - is there anything to learn

[Gav Iscon]

[ELW]

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.

Boiling them to they turn brownish is going towards an unwanted flavour. There's a smell they give off when their just right, but you may need to go outside & back in to smell it. Its virtually impossible
to tell the difference in a finished gravy, which made the whole bir thing at home so tricky.

[Madrasandy]

MA at last your getting to" know your onions"

Yes I sure am thankyou Mr Ox

[JerryM]

A further thought prompted by madrasandy's trials.

In contrast to this 5 hr cooking for a mashed base my norm is to adopt the Shortest base cook time.

When i kicked off a search for best BIR a while ago Axe gave me good pointers. One of which got me onto the concept that heat destroys flavour.

In short I tried out how much I could shorten the norm 3 hr base. I ended up at just under 2 hrs. Stage 1 split into 1 hr dense veg, 30 mins light veg and flavours. Stage 2 after blend reduced from 1 hr to 20 mins.

I also use low flame ie slow simmer ie not boil as standard for stage 1 and a light boil for stage 2 (so I can still skim the scum)

[DalPuri]

Hi Jerry,
Have you or anyone else put any thought into this when adjusting your base timings?
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,12988.msg105827.html#msg105827

[Madrasandy]

Good read that Frank, so cut the veg larger for a longer cook to keep the flavours. The onions would have to be cooked whole then as if they were cut in half/quarter they would break apart anyway and become small

[DalPuri]

Not necessarily. Halved or quartered will still hold some shape if not messed about with too much compared to a fine dice.
Unfortunately I don't have the space anymore (or a 2nd curry freezer  ) to do any large side by side trials.

[JerryM]

Dalpuri,

amazing how posts can go under the radar.

yes for sure 100% on this one. it's a famous turning point i believe in French cooking some years ago.

in a nut shell for me for base don't dice or anywhere near. i rough cut the onion (in half then thk slice 3 cut max).

i have seen BIR video with onion whole. given what i've seen in my recent 5 hr work i going to adopt just cutting in half. same for carrot lengthways.

appreciate the prompt.

[littlechilie]

Great topic to discus, I always use a very watery base! So my finished curry has two ladles undiluted base sauce remaining once the water has reduced out. My base sauce is always at the consistence of a finished curry for freezing or storing.

The method I use is 50/50 water to base,so by adding 2 ladles of base + 2 ladles of water b4 cooking = 1 pint of diluted base per pre-cooked portion of curry.
This also = 2 x ladles of base in remaining cooked portion at original consistency, taking into account the dry spice,oil and diluted tomato pur?e added to curry in the cooking process.
This works well for myself but we are all different.

Regarding the onions I will make a base this week and usually chop my onions medium, but after reading the last few posts will now try cutting in half on your recommendation,  I'm now Hoping to retain more flavour in the finished sauce from the larger pieces.

Are we still all agreed 3 hours is correct cooking time for  the onions? Before blending and simmering?

Thanks.