Just a quick question. I've heard a lot of posters on here say that base sauce often resembles and even sometimes tastes like a bland soup. Would I be invoking the wrath of the Curry God if I used Heinz Cream of Chicken with Korma spices as a base?  Would this be doomed to failure?   http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=289622075   

Looking at the ingredients it contains Salt, Tomato Paste, Garlic, Ginger, Coriander, Cumin, Chilli, Paprika, Turmeric, Lemon Juice from Concentrate, Onion Powder, Fenugreek, Black Pepper, Stabilisers - Polyphosphates and Sodium Phosphates.

George I'm sure you have a lot more knowledge on these things than me. I found your comment about the curry powder odd because I had asked on another thread "why add more spices when curry powder was already a mix of spices" and I was advised that it adds a lot more depth of flavour which seemed to be the general consensus.

I've been meaning to post about a little experiment I did based on my task. Thanks for the suggestions. I couldn't follow them though because they required making the base sauce first and I didn't have the time on this occasion (But I want to give it a go with base sauces later).  I ended up finding a recipe and adapting it (probably risky for a beginner I know).

Here's what I did:

1. Heat 2 tbsp of rape seed oil in a pan and add 1 medium diced onion, fry until soft.
2. Add garlic & ginger paste (= 1 tsp ginger & clove garlic mixed together), add spice mixture**.

 cook for 1-2 minutes.  Add 50ml of water cook until the water has evaporated. Add 200g chopped tomatoes.
3. Add 500g diced chicken, cook until sealed. Add 1 can / 400ml coconut milk, 50ml double cream and 1 tsp sugar or pickle; simmer until the chicken is cooked (approx. 15 minutes).

Add 0.25 tsp garam masala

** For the spice mixture I used an approximation of those suggested on this site:
1 tsp turmeric powder
0.5 tsp madras curry powder

0.5 tsp cumin powder
0.75 tsp coriander powder

0.25 garam masala (add at last stage)

Total = 1 Tbsp

I have to admit although the result wasn't awful it was pretty bland. I wonder if I doubled the spice mix quantities it would have been much better.

Does any of this sound like I went wrong somewhere?

On the subject of curry powder I found some Rajah Mild Madras. It might seem an obvious answer but is this really mild as I always associated Madras with being very hot? (My daughter is particularly sensitive to hot curries so I have to be careful) 

Thanks for the replies. I think I understand a bit more now. One other thing. With curry powder does it mean bog standard "curry powder" from the supermarket?