rick, its called tomato puree in canada and the states.  dont go buying any italian sauces or anything!  just tomato puree

cooked up the curry last night.  i cooked it for a bit longer, maybe an hour, and changed the spices slightly to suit what i had and to get some extra heat.

the verdict was that it was absolutely delicious.  by far the best curry i've made to date, with far more depth and flavour than when i just use passata and onions.

i'd take a picture but it's all gone.

thanks darth!  i'll be making this base sauce over and over.  my English friends have had plenty of curry and they were incredibly pleased by this curry.

wow!  it was delicious!

made the base sauce last night, scaled down to 1/2 the original recipe.

it turned out a nice golden yellow like you said.

on it's own, it tastes like some kind of strange vegetable soup right now.  not quite a curry, that's for sure.  is that right?

do you simmer it covered or uncovered?  i had it covered for about 1 1/2 hours until the veggies were all soft.  tonight i'll be inviting friends over for beer and madras, so i'll let you know the results!

will add fresh coriander to the curry as well as garnish.

thanks, although daunting to look at initially, it wasn't actually so difficult or time consuming to make the base sauce!

in your experience, how much of a difference does it make when using freshly ground spices as opposed to powders sitting on the shelf for a while.

i know with coffee the difference is night and day.  there's nothing like the aroma and flavour of freshly ground coffee in my opinion, but do i stand to benefit as much when using freshly ground spices in my curry?

taking the plunge...

hey guys, i'm living in poland right now but from Canada.  As curry is virtually unheard of where I'm living, i've taken it upon myself to create my own.

i've been using the recipes off of http://www.curryhouse.co.uk/ and was very pleased with the results.  most of these are very simple and don't require making a base, just adding some passata.  other teachers who i work with, mostly English, told me the curries where great.

however, this past week i was in london and stopped by Notting Hill Tandoori and was blown away by the Madras.  i'm not sure how to describe the difference, but it was just 'fresher', more complex than my curries.

i want to take the next step, and produce such a curry.  is this base what will make the difference?  is this what will give it that extra punch that my curries are lacking?

and importantly, do i really need to make it in such large quantities.  has anyone had any luck reducing say by half the ingredients?

thanks!