Thankyou Phil for your pilau rice recipe,i did it to spec last night and like you i wont be looking back,it as got pretty much the same smell and taste as the rice from one of my local takeaways,couldnt be happier,cheers

Thats the one mickyp

Sorry george, just a term i picked up from  some were,basically boiling your spices in the balti sauce to cook out the rawness of the spices before adding your base.

I used a chefs spoon of the balti sauce to cook out my spices rather than using the watered down tomato puree method before adding my base,i still make the curries bir style,i feel it is a tad closer to tasting like a bir than i have achieved before,sorry for not making it more clear Livo i hope this helps

A mate of mine was making us a curry with a jar of pataks balti sauce,i asked for a taste of it out the jar and the first thing that sprang to mind was that it tasted similar to a bir kitchens tomato sauce i once sneaked a taste off,it tastes mildly tangy and quite tomatoey,so as i like to experiment i went and bought a jar and liquidized it and i made some bir curries using the same amount of the balti sauce instead of using the watered down tomato puree version to cook the spices in ,the curries i have made are so much tastier,i feel it was a big step forward and i wont be turning back,maybe the purists may not like it so perhaps they could look at the ingredients on the jar and have ago at making your own