Topic: CA's Curry Base (aka "gravy"/"sauce")

[Razor]

He he CA, you certainly know your onions (tomatoes in this case)   ;D

I get what you pointing out, I really do but, the biggest difference between paste and puree is consistency, and thus depth of flavour. 

Tom paste is basically tom puree but double or triple strength.  The consistency will obviously be dictated by the strength of the paste/puree.  Paste is also better value for money and is why BIR's/TA's use them and dilute it to a much runnier consistency, more like ketchup or thin puree.

The Tomato Puree and Paste differ by the amount of Natural Tomato Soluble Solids. Tomato puree must contain 8% to 23.9% of "Natural Tomato Soluble Solids" , the paste must contain minimum of 24% "Natural Tomato Soluble Solids"  So the high end spec of tom puree differs by 0.1% of that of the low end spec tom paste!  So I will concede that the variances can be very different.

If we being honest, we're splitting hairs, paste or puree of a certain concentrate will work very well in your recipes.  I would only be concerned if you started specifying "sun dried or roasted Tom paste"  Then it would start to get complicated.

Good to see you active again CA. long may it last

Ray

[Cory Ander]

The bottom line is that I use the thick, (double or triple) concentrated tomato paste.

I usually water it down, in main dishes, to form, what I would call, a puree. 

Therefore, in my main dishes, I would say that 1 tbsp of the concentrated "paste" I use equates to about 3 or 4 tbsp of "puree".

It is good to be aware of this to achieve the same "concentration" (depth of flavour) of tomatoes if using "puree" rather than concentrated "paste".

[Cory Ander]

For those who prefer to use one or more additional frying stages, when making their base, I suggest the following (for this base):

• Heat oil (medium heat)
• Add coarsely chopped onions and pepper and gently fry, for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened
• Add garlic and ginger and gently fry for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally (without burning)
• Add curry powder and spice mix and fry for 1 minutes, stirring continuously (without burning)
• Add fresh tomatoes, tomato paste, carrots and 100ml of the water and continue to fry for 2 minutes, stirring continuously
• Add remaining water (i.e. 1400ml), salt and coriander and stir
• Bring to a simmer and gently simmer, for about 60 minutes (lid on), until carrots are soft
• Allow to cool
• Blend to smooth consistency

I specified pre-frying as an option in my recipe but, I don't generally do it, because I don't believe that BIRs do it (i.e. go to all the trouble of the additional frying stages).  I believe they simply lob all the ingredients into a pot, bring the whole lot to a simmer for some time, then blend ready for use.

[Cory Ander]

I specified pre-frying as an option in my recipe but, I don't generally do it, because I don't believe that BIRs do it (i.e. go to all the trouble of the additional frying stages).  I believe they simply lob all the ingredients into a pot, bring the whole lot to a simmer for some time, then blend ready for use.

As an addendum to my previous comments about pre-frying curry base ingredients as an option; I've done it before and I've done it again (using my curry base - as per my above comments on pre-frying - and with other's curry bases where pre-frying the ingredients is specified in their recipe). 

To me, with one-on-one comparisons, pre-frying the ingredients (particularly the spices) is detrimental to the quality of the curry base and resultant curries and, I believe, is undesirable.  It is also more involved/complex.

As an aside, it's probably one reason why a collaborative effort on developing a "cr0 curry base" is unlikely to work.  I, for one, would not be persuaded to pre-fry the ingredients in the curry base.  Throw in different ingredients, spice mixes, etc, and it's probably a none starter (as demonstrated when it was tried before).  There are simply too many diverse opinions and "personal preferences" for anything to be unanimous.

Just my opinion(s) of course......

[Peripatetic Phil]

As an aside, it's probably one reason why a collaborative effort on developing a "cr0 curry base" is unlikely to work.  I, for one, would not be persuaded to pre-fry the ingredients in the curry base.  Throw in different ingredients, spice mixes, etc, and it's probably a none starter (as demonstrated when it was tried before).  There are simply too many diverse opinions and "personal preferences" for anything to be unanimous.

I agree with Cory Ander : much as it would be nice to have agreement on "the perfect base", I also think it is a pipe dream, but that doesn't mean that we could not get some agreement to use a particular base for a test.  Clearly we could not hope to get universal agreement to continue using it in the future, but I would have no problem in being persuaded to ditch my preferred KD1 base and make another one so as to be able to participate in a trial, particularly if the test base could be made in modest quantities (1L / 2 pints) rather than having to be made in bulk.

** Phil.

[rosa15]

This curry base is perfect every time, thankyou very much.

[moezus]

Made this base over the weekend. It was my first ever base sauce and foray in to restuarant style curry cooking.
As I mentioned in an old post I've been wanting to create a base but worried about the quantities.
I just halved CA's base and followed his instructions to a T. The base looked exactly like CA's photos.

With the base I made a Chicken Methi curry (as that is what I always order at my local). It was pretty much spot-on, the only thing I'd say was missing in the dish was some pre-cooked almsot caramelised onion which i'll be sure to add next time.

I ended up going through the entire (half qauntity) base in one day trying different combinations of spices and ingredients much to my mrs dismay I trashed the kitchen but even she loved the curries I was churning out.

Confident to go ahead with the full quantity of this base next week and freeze some up. Wish I hadn't left it for so long.

Thanks CA.

[Razor]

Well done Moezus, oyur life will never be the same from now on ;D

[Unclefrank]

Hi Moezus, i have been using CA's base and recipes for a long time now and they always turn out great, its the versatility of the base and recipes also you must try CA's Madras recipe.
Post some pics next time you do a curry.

[moezus]

I was intending on taking photos, but just got carried away with the cooking as it was my first time.
I'll certainly take photos next time.

It was quite suprising how easy creating the base was. Just glancing at the ingredients looked a little overwhelming at first, especially when you take into account the extra bits and pieces you need to make the final curry. When I wrote down the shopping list it turned out I had the majority of ingredients in the cupboard already. Was only missing a few things. Chopping up, peeling and weighing only took around 20minutes. It was quite nice to just be able to sit down and fire up the PS3 while the base was slowly bubbling away.
The cleanup was a killer though, splattered sauce all over the place during the making of the final curries. Well worth it though.