Leftover roasted chicken, leftover ratatouille, leftover kale/chard, boiled potatoes, and a salad.

Sorry, no photos.

As I had some of my base in the refrigerator I decided to rescue it.

I thinned it out and put it on to simmer and then added a garlic tarka with plenty of oil which I added to the base. I then simmered it for about half and hour and let it cool.

In the end there was some lovely spiced oil floating on top.

I then used the base and made a quick fish curry (madras-like) and aloo gobi following many of the methods I've learned reading this board and watching youtube videos.

I must say, while not there yet, the results were much, much better than my last effort and even my wife agreed it was my best aloo gobi yet.

I can't wait to make a new base and try more BIR at home.

Thanks CH. Both for the words of encouragement and the advice in general. I've started down this journey to learn BIR curries and have every intention of getting it right.

This board is a wonder of information.

Cheers.

Thanks for the advice mick.

When I look at the curry I had made next to the takeaway, mine looked dry and unappetizing. It did taste better the next day. Especially since all the takeaway curry was gone.

Good tip about the overcooking the spices and the oil.

I realise that I didn't use nearly enough oil at either stage of the curry, but it's hard to break the habit of not using much oil/fat.

It was basically CA's Chicken vindaloo https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,3953.0.html, but I omitted the sugar because the base was so sweet.

Well this past weekend I tried to do a proper BIR curry and failed spectacularly.

First all, the base. I used CT's Three Hour Base as I don't have a pressure cooker https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,5635.0.html.

Here's were it started off wrong. I didn't use nearly enough oil. After cooking and sieving and reducing further the base never split. What I was left with was a very thick, and very sweet base with an almost roux-like quality. This was on Friday.

Sunday, I then proceeded to try and make a chicken vindaloo with the base. I had no problem tempering my spices, cooking the chicken and then adding my base, but remember there wasn't enough oil in the base, so again the sauce would not split. The result was a rather bland and flavourless vindaloo that didn't have that certain BIR quality.

To make matters worse the missus and I went for curry Saturday night and we ate the leftovers with my attempted vindaloo. Night and day.

I'm not discouraged to try again. I know the faults were my own and not the recipe's. I just wanted to share my rather dismal start to really understanding BIR curries.

Thanks!

I've been going through the boards and there is a lot of really great recipes/tips/etc. here. Brilliant stuff, really.

Hi all,

I'm a self-professed curry addict and amateur curry chef. I'm very happy to have discovered this forum.

Cheers!