C41 Balti Base Sauce

This is derived from several published balti base sauces including restaurants in the 'Birmingham Balti Triangle'. These vary significantly and this version adjusts the spicing which can be quite dominant. It is quite thick but this is as it should be because it is used in relatively small amounts (compared to BIR) towards the end of the cooking process. This will make 6 to 8 individual curries.

Ingredients

Makes 1200 ml	Continued...
75 ml oil	½ tspn methi (see note 1)
500 gm onion (prepared weight)	½ tspn ground cumin
2 star anise (remove before blending)	30 gm red pepper
2 cloves (remove before blending)	30 gm green pepper
2 tspn salt	80 gm carrot
¼ tspn chilli powder	20 gm ginger (prepared weight)
1 tspn turmeric	30 gm garlic (prepared weight)
1 tspn paprika	200 gm plum tomato (1 small or ½ large tin)
½ tspn ground coriander	10 gm fresh coriander

Preparation

Roughly chop the onion.
Roughly chop the garlic.
Roughly chop the ginger.
Deseed and chop the red and green peppers into about 1 cm pieces.
Chop the carrot into small pieces.
Chop the fresh coriander.

Cooking

Heat the oil, over a high heat, in a 5L stock pot and fry about ½ of the onion, star anise, cloves and salt, uncovered, for 5 min, stirring regularly.
Add the rest of the onion and fry for an additional 5 min, stirring regularly.
Stir in the chilli powder, turmeric, paprika, ground coriander, methi and ground cumin and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 min.
Add the red pepper, green pepper, carrot, ginger and garlic and cook, mixing well and stirring constantly, for 2 min.
Stir in the plum tomato and 600 ml of hot water, bring to a boil, cover, and simmer, stirring every 15 min, for 45 min.
Remove the 2 star anise and 2 cloves and allow to cool a little then add warm water to make 1200 ml and blend until smooth. (It is a good idea to make a 'measuring stick' for the stock pot to simplify the measuring process).
Bring back to the boil and simmer for 30 min, stirring occasionally.
Allow to cool and add the chopped coriander and warm water if needed to make 1200 ml and blend again.
Store in 200 ml portions (strictly speaking most recipes use 150 ml) and keep refrigerated for a few days or in a freezer for future use. (a typical honey jar contains 300 ml).

Notes

(1) Methi is dried fenugreek leaves and can be purchased at many supermarkets or any Asian outlet.
(2) Curry powder and garam masala are shown in the picture but they are not currently used.

I'd like to know if you enjoyed this so please email admin@cook4one.co.uk – also feel free to ask for help.