It's funny you should say that (and sorry for the very late reply) but the one aspect about making base gravy that I don't agree with is the length of time it's cooked for - far too long in my opinion. It reminds me of how veg used to be cooked in the UK when I was a kid - basically boiled to buggery - and all the flavour gone. As long as it's soft enough to get a blender on it, it's ready, IMO - and more flavoursome for not being cooked to death. Controversial, possibly.

Oh dear - too late for photographs I'm afraid, but it was pretty decent - and certainly fulfilled my emergency desire. Thanks again.

Thanks Phil - I have taken your advice and made an amount of base - which is actually plenty for just one.

Hi Folks - haven't been on for a while but I'm still using all the tips and am really pleased with the results.

I'm throwing out a question today and it is this:-

I'm off work, I can't go out - I've no base sauce - and I haven't got the ingredients to make any. I have, however, found a nice bag of prawns, an onion, some fresh garlic and a tin of tomatoes - and all my usual spices are available. Shall I just throw it all together and say "it's ok, but it's not restaurant style" or is there anything I could do to do a cheat's restaurant curry. Advice welcomed.

Harry

Tonight I made the classic beginner's error - I made a great curry - which was the nearest I've got to a "Chicken Tikka Balti" as made by the Hilal Balti House in Formby. I used Chewy's base recipe and Mickdabass's Ultimate Tikka recipe (both tried and tested by myself). I put a ladle of the Tikka marinade in the base sauce and mixed it - that I can remember - but the rest of it was just a mixture of all the usual suspects - but I didn't make a note of the amounts!!! Let that be a lesson.

Yeah thanks Mick - it really was excellent and goes to show, at least to me, that yoghurt isn't an essential ingredient in a tikka marinade. I only had time to marinade for about 4 hours, so a full overnight marination (is that a word?) would have been even better. The meal I made was Chicken Tikka Madras (using both Chewy's base and madras recipe and your tikka marinade).

Tried this recipe yesterday and despite not putting in mint sauce (obviously not popular in Munich), was delighted with the final result - a very authentic BIR chicken tikka.

I can vouch for Chewy's Chicken Madras - it was only the 2nd CRO curry I'd made - and I was delighted with the result - and the excellent way it accompanied a couple of bottles of Franziskaner Weissbier - which I enjoyed whilst watching the Everton/Man Utd game on TV (which was less enjoyable). However, I must declare it was Monday night - but I can't think of any good reason why this curry would not work perfectly well on a Saturday.

... what's the best Vag Oil. Sorry, no more smut - the reason I like this place is because people take their curry cooking very seriously.

... I suppose it depends on whether you're a breast or a thigh man .

The bottom line has got to be what you enjoy eating the most - and I like chicken as tender as can be and I know that overcooking chicken breast makes it less tender but, like you say, cooking chicken thighs is the opposite.