Topic: Your thoughts .

[joshallen2k]

Emin-J, your local takeaway that you refer to, seems friendly enough to ask them for a portion of their base.

That would be a good way to compare yours with a proper head to head (tasting the base only).

No tomatoes or garlic is quite a departure from the usual base recipes we've seen so far...

[emin-j]

Emin-J, your local takeaway that you refer to, seems friendly enough to ask them for a portion of their base.

That would be a good way to compare yours with a proper head to head (tasting the base only).

No tomatoes or garlic is quite a departure from the usual base recipes we've seen so far...

Yes joshallen2k I don't think they would mind  Yes I was a little shocked at the ingredients of the base after what I had used previously ,but all the meals from the T/A are delicious  ;)I, like most members on the Forum have spent many hours researching ( and cooking ) : to find that 'certain taste' that you find in many T/A and when I stood there and watched the Indian Chef make mine and the wife's Madras Curries with simple ingredients and a simply made base I reckoned this was the way ( for me  )to go. I cant believe a T/A would make Base / Curries using such a list of ingredients and complicated cooking methods like some are on here  My T/A has shown me you can make a delicious Curry with the basics but it is all down to personale taste at the end of the day I suppose  :
ps - we put Garlic and Tom in the Curry tho dont we 

[joshallen2k]

Oh and when you (hopefully) get a portion of base, test a bit of it with the Madras recipe you got, to see how close to BIR it is.

I always remember a comment that Haldi brought up some time ago: he said that a homemade curry using restaurant base was 100% BIR quality.

Looking forward to see how you get on.

[JerryM]

emin-j,

the rajver is a base i know well and love to bits. it's an interesting choice for the building blocks of your base though as it's what i'd call complex spiced. i'd be interested in what changes u've made particularly on the spicing.

i'd add that i know there is a threshold for a base to produce a top notch curry. once passed the threshold then it's impact on the final dishes is limited to a certain extent. i've been revisiting my fav bases recently now that i feel i'm sorted at cooking stage to make sure this was the case. so far i've made the rajver and saffron both producing top notch curry. surprisingly no better or worse than my adapted CR02 base (no tomato either).

i guess what i'm saying is it's all about the thinness and balance not necessarily down to specific ingredients although i do believe the proportions to be important ie carrot for example.

the no garlic in base is a real suprise and maybe down to personal preference or more probably cost. i tried taking ginger out of base for example but have now added it back in. garlic could be along the same lines (it is in normal cooking but i guess u don't add it twice though - meaning u know when it's not there but not necessarily when it is). in fact i've recently started to x2 the garlic.

[emin-j]

emin-j,

the rajver is a base i know well and love to bits. it's an interesting choice for the building blocks of your base though as it's what i'd call complex spiced. i'd be interested in what changes u've made particularly on the spicing.

i'd add that i know there is a threshold for a base to produce a top notch curry. once passed the threshold then it's impact on the final dishes is limited to a certain extent. i've been revisiting my fav bases recently now that i feel i'm sorted at cooking stage to make sure this was the case. so far i've made the rajver and saffron both producing top notch curry. surprisingly no better or worse than my adapted CR02 base (no tomato either).

i guess what i'm saying is it's all about the thinness and balance not necessarily down to specific ingredients although i do believe the proportions to be important ie carrot for example.

the no garlic in base is a real suprise and maybe down to personal preference or more probably cost. i tried taking ginger out of base for example but have now added it back in. garlic could be along the same lines (it is in normal cooking but i guess u don't add it twice though - meaning u know when it's not there but not necessarily when it is). in fact i've recently started to x2 the garlic.

JerryM , The Rajver base I used listed 2dsp of Turmeric,1dsp Chili powder ,1dsp ground Coriander ,1dsp Cummin ,1dsp Garam Masala but as I did not want any ' heat' from Chili powder in the base I left this out.

[JerryM]

emin-j,

very similar but slightly different to the rajver i use (as spec:1 tbsp turmeric, 2 tbsp currypowder, 1 tbsp chilli powder - see below, 1 tbsp coriander, 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp garam). when i look at this spice i can't believe that it would work but it does (i've tried it in some bases and it doesn't work). in the base the spice is around 4% by volume (3.2L finished to which i thin to 4.0L with water) and for me at the top end of the desired range.

i feel it important to put a little chilli into the base. on the rajver it calls for fresh green chillies and powder - i limit it to 1 tsp worth of either.

link for info : http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,2041.0.html
(i picked out the recipe from the text and can add it to the end of the post if u need).

[emin-j]

Hi JerryM ,I think the rajver recipe I found was from another site
probably one of the early recipes. As you know I have been trying to find a base recipe the nearest to the T/Aways using the same ingredients and the rajver seemed close ,unfortunately I didn't get the list of Spices that goes with the T/A base  so I used the Spices from the rajver base ( except the Chili Powder )I did put in 2 green chili's as per the recipe and you can just taste them in the finished base.I did taste the T/A base ( twice  ;D )and could only taste ( just ) Onion and Coriander ,It was very thin and yellowy/green in colour.

[JerryM]

emin-j,

i like u're style.

keep us posted on how u go on.

i make the adapted CR02 base most of the time as although it was aimed at replicating BIR i ended up adding in some of my preferences from other recipes ie the coconut block. i'm currently trying to get my top 5 down to say 2 but it's proving difficult. i've recently revisited the rajver & saffron and have the ifindforu and Ivan Gough's left to re try.

so far although the rajver and saffron are very different the finished curry was impossible to decide on. in fact too difficult without doing a side by side which i've done previously. if i can't decide i'll just rotate for a while.

the reason for trying to cut them down is purely for ease - i like to be able to just chuck everythin in almost from memory.

[emin-j]

JerryM ,
       Made my Madras tonight and I think I f*$%^d up  In my attempt to keep the base thin I think I over diluted it  :-[Although the flavours were there and the colour was right it was obviously to watery.I could have kept it on the heat for longer I suppose to steam off some of the water but the Rice and Bhajee's was ready and the Mrs was starving  ::)so I served it up.The Mrs doesn't like Curry to rich so she reckoned it was fine , but soon as I had the first taste I could tell straight away what the problem was  Ah well life's a learning curve . :-[

[JerryM]

emin-j,

it's happened to me - i just keep it on the heat longer.

to get it right i started putting the un thinned base (300ml) into a jug and then adding extra water for ea curry and adjusting the water until it cooked well (ie enough water to cook but not too much to evap off).

depends how much u're into maths but i also try to add a bit of simple calculation to it. i aim for a "thinness" of between 55 & 60% bulk veg in the finished base (based on the wt of the onion etc in the base c/w the finished volume).

for some reason i have your base in my spreadsheet and it seems to fit the bill fine (1650g bulk veg in 3.0L finished base giving 55%).