There's a few BIR near me that use aniseed/fennel in their madras. Depends what you've experienced. I like the addition and have known it being used since the 90s but wouldn't say it's essential or part of a classic nationwide madras. Some do some don't and I use it on and off and still get the lovely cooked BIR madras flavour without.

Fenugreek powder is another nice addition, I think it adds a certain smell and smokey flavour of BIR in general and I also use leaves mostly. In my mix powder I use kashmiri powder.

With aniseed I just use the hard spice in the ally pan and remove it at the end. I've tried aniseed ground bought in a packet to save me the time of grinding it but the flavour gets very diluted even with a lot in so one or two star aniseed whole do a better job. You could also bias your spiced oil with aniseed/fennel.

Madras is my fav and it's pretty basic hot but tasty curry really with room to put your own distinguishing note on it, some like lemon, lots of coriander, aniseed background and so on.

After 8-10 years I've got a consistent BIR flavour coming through even with just a standard madras mix power. I've been down the road of trying this and that many times in the early days.

Thought I would touch base as it were. Been about 4 years since I logged in.

Still making lots of curries a week all year round using the chewytikka base. I'm a curryholic and never get bored of making/eating curry.

I guess not much has happened on the forum since, people are still on this mythical missing 5% still and nothing new has come about. Not sure what's going on elsewhere but I would've thought if any eureka moment had occurred it would've been posted at some point.

I'm happy with mine and would like to thank the forum, chewy and everyone else again in case the site closes, thank you. 

Cheers curryhell. I thought that maybe the case.

The appearance is the same to me when I've experimented with a little coconut milk and more turmeric than I normally do. Gets a bit orangey and milky. Tasted decent though.

Things like coconut, larger amounts of turmeric and use of full tins of tomatoes which you see on other bases posted is not something I suspect is common in a curry base where I live though.

Decent enough curry but my feelings are nothing really new or anything extra special.

Thanks for sharing and the effort jb

I've just cut more into the coconut block to see how much more yellow there is and it does look to be one third white and two thirds yellow or off white.

The store just has the KTC blocks on the shelf, no refrigeration. best before is 2016. Question would be do some of you have these blocks without separation or just didn't notice? Are two thirds for the bin or do we need to add a bit of the solidified oil?

Got jb's base on the go done to spec.

Going back a few pages, I have the same coconut block at my local Asian grocery as jb shown.


two thirds is more yellow looking. I used the quarter of the more white bit. Don't know if on the next base I cut some the yellowy outer bit?

Would be good if jb could do a video of him doing the base. More so the high heat bit, would like to see how high you really get and peak how much the base/onions are rolling/bubbling. Full high heat seems a bit much on my cooker. Anyway I've got it on a fairly high heat and is bubbling away quite ferociously.

Also could show on the video show what is considered by you for melting onions.

Quote from: Secret Santa on July 27, 2013, 02:43 PM
I use the chicken breast from Farm Foods - 3 x 1kg bags for a tenner (?3.33 per kilo)! The chicken has added water content and tastes very slightly salty, so they must be processing it in a brine solution. It's perfectly fine for curry. I tried the Morrisons' cheap equivalent to this a while back and it was rank by comparison.

The morrisons near me is pretty rank for chicken, also looks and feels a little harder as if its been stood in open air longer, kind of a plasticy feel.

Aldi I've found is best of the supermarkets for chicken.

Also Morrisons, Tesco, Asda are a bit pricey on too many things. I would urge people check out Aldi or look for some asian shops. Even stuff like chillies or flour has a huge mark up at these three stores. more bemusing is many poor people go to these shops.

packs of bird eye chillies are getting pricey and you get less in a pack that I don't even by these at the main stores on a whim anymore. I can get the equilavnt of 4x 1 quid packets worth for 30-40p at the asian store.

Since I do a lot of curries a week I always get 20KG bags of rice. I save over a tenner plus its much better rice. With the cost of chillies and many other things it runs into hundreds of pounds saved a year.

I normally put my onions in whole and check if a knife slips through with ease I know they're done, as shown in chewys video, and go for 90% onion. Chopping them up would make you get more in the pot and lessen the time but I've got a largish pot.

I've tried adding a little more of each veg, pepper, just to see if it enhances or detracts but I start to taste them in the curry and detracts the taste for me.

Hour and a half sounds about right, usually how long it takes for mine or a bit less. Not sure about for example adding 15-30mins waiting for a vinegar smell that Julian may of said. 

Anyway, if you're sure the receipes are followed correct I'd go along with what Stephen Lindsay posted, and probably say even stick to one base and one curry and be a little patient. flip flopping won't make things clearer

Well, not much has changed, still to seek out some some pans for a pan style pizza. Also need to source a decent mozzarella block that's grateable. Still using the ball of mozz in a watery bag. Not bad and much better than supermarket grated mozz.

Anways, thought I'd add a pic of one of my recent efforts.


Only thing I'm trying is adding bird eye chillis and chilli powder to the sauce. not authentic to the more serious guys but it really hits the spot.

on a side note
Curries/base making still going strong. I'm a Madras Head, and have 3/4 a week.

Got any pics Jerry?

The one on seriouseats looks fantastic. Will any thickness of cake tin do, do I need a heavy duty type tin?

I definitely want to try pan pizza, I'm sure my family would prefer it if its like your usual pan pizza at takeaways ie more soft and cripsy where the oil cooks the underside.

Also, no sugar in the dough for that pizza recipe?