I think it'd be helpful if from now on, we actuallt specified the weight of onions used in our bases, rather than the number. Onions can vary quite a bit in size, and we could all be ending up with quite different amounts on onions in our base if we just go by number.

KD's recipe for example is very precise - there are no 'x cloves of garlic', 'x onions' - its all done in grams.

The first time I came across milk being used in the base was in a Pat Chapman book. I can even remember the name of the chap who contributed it, Ivan Watson (I think). He called it a pakistani gravy or something like that. I have used it way back when, but I think I didn't feel that it added anything.

Apart from something that I'm allergic to!

I've made this dish a few times now, and its been spot on each time. The only thing I change is that I don't add the chilli powder until later on - if you add it too early you get those nasty toxic chilli fumes that have everyone in the house coughing like crazy. I add the chilli powder a bit later in the recipie, after Ive put more base in.

Also, I've taken to putting in a tsp of Paprika to redden it up slightly.

I'm gettin really annoyed. It is getting increasingly hard for me to find local BIRs that still make good curries with classic taste. Crazy given thet I live in central Oxford, but so many BIRs nowadays are churning out tomatoey curries that have got nothing to do with the BIR food I knew and grew up with.

Had a Bhuna from a place called Samads last night - if you closed our eyes and did blind taste test on it, it could have been an italian pasta sauce with a bit of chilli in it. Terrible.

The only dish that I can still get reliably these days is a Vindaloo; most places still do a decent one of them.

The thing we are all  chasing is something that is becoming increasingly rare.

any open plan ones I've witnessed used fresh oil. That's not to say the others don't re-use the oil. Maybe it someting they would rather keep behind closed doors anyway.

The recipies that MarkJ posted a while back after being invited inside the kitchen of his BIR were freshj oil ones.

One thing we all need to keep in perspective is that there is quite a wide variation in taste between BIRs. In central Oxford, there are loads of them and none of them are identical. A few are atrocious, the rest are pretty good and pretty similar, but not exactly the same. I'm sure some use fresh oil and some don't - and this might well result in slightly different flavours.

If the BIR you are trying to mimmick is one that re-uses oil, thenn perhaps you need to re-use oil to mimmick it. The dishes I'm cooking at home now are probably not exactly the same as any one particular BIR in Oxford (but then they are not the same as each other eight), but they're very similar to all of them, and would definatley pass for a BIR dish from any of them.

My experiences are that the BIR taste I'm after is not one that requiers re-use of oil, but perhaps I shouldn't be so dismissive of the need for oil re-use in other circumstances.

However, I really don't think its important. The important things are a good pan, a good  flame, and consistency in cooking technique - adding the ingredients at the right time, not too soon, not too late - and keeping the temperature up. Its important to be consistent with the quantities used as well.