I just wanted to comment on this post that a long time Bangladeshi Chef came round my house to teach me and preferred to use the non stick ceramic pan to the ali ones. The flavour was great with both so cant say if it adds an edge just migth be easier to cook with if there are ingredients likely to stick.
regards

Mmm marmalade is a nice idea, which flavour? Im guessing the Lemon over orange..the orange would probably take it too far from its designation right?
Regarding the mutton, I am familiar with what is it just not familiar with what the restaurants buy in, I guess its the uk Mutton sourced from local butchers, Uk Mutton does vary in richness from place to place though.
Goat is very specialist in my part of the country, I would have to pre order it, I would imagine that the case unless you live somewhere with a strong carib community...and then its probably on the bone.
I was familiar with Mutton in india being Goat as Rick Stein cooks a superb mutton Rogan with mace, a curry I replicated from his program and book. It was devine!

Besides Madras, Dhansak is a dish I've been on the trail for replicating for sometime now and find alot of variations in recipes.

As stated in some of the recipes here, Amchur (mango powder) and Mango chutney seem to be used alot which seems to be a norm, the use of red-lentils also seems to be widely used. I have always used a mix of red-lentils and either yellow split peas or chana dall...I've never really understood the difference between the yellow split peas and chana dall though, the chana dall has always been a bit more expensive. When I asked the girl at my local Asian supermarket she said the difference was chana dall is used more is soups/broths?? They both seem to work just as good to me anyway.
When cooking the Tarka dall I normally use ghee but find a normal salted butter works just as well also, I also find that after adding the tarka (garlic fried golden in the butter) adding a little smoked paprika adds even a little more smokiness to the dish. Not sure if anyone else has tried this or maybe it might be wiser adding it later when cooking up the sauce. I find the ratio of yellow split/chana to red lentils about 70/30% 70% yellow split peas.
Anyway other variations include the use of white sugar or brown for the sweetness and also whether to add cream to the dish, one BIR I visited once told me they include carnation milk into their Dhansak, and it was very tasty.

I also prefer King Prawn when doing mine, I notice most the recipes are chicken which is great but the King Prawn Dhansak I grew up on is one hell of a dish.

What other variations are tried and tested by members?

Hi eveyone. I can't believe I've only just found this place as cooking curry or trying to achieve that authentic Bangladeshi flavour has been an obsession of mine for many years. I'm really looking forward into trying a few different things out, it has been a goal of mine to replicate a decent Madras for years and whilst I'm somewhat happy the results I get I love experimenting to trying and get closer to that BIR flavour.
To date my current base gravy has been a mixture of the curry secrets and Pat Chatmans version which uses celery, carrot and radish...so im very intruiged to try a few peeps bases out and other techniques.
hope I can contribute with at least some mouth watering pictures!
Adam