@chewytikka: it's been years since I was in Singapore so I can't study he curry. The flavour's to singular to even guess what's in it. But it's the same recipe EVERYWHERE in Singapore and Malaysia: if you've eaten Prata there, you've had the brown curry sauce. It's only eaten for breakfast.

It originates in a part of Souh India, maybe Chennai given the Malaysian term for it, and that almost Singapore's Indians are Tamil. It's a fish curry but doesn't have a fish taste at all: my dad won't eat anything with a hint of seafood taste or smell yet he loved it (without knowing what it was). I've googled fish curries but they use real fish chunks, but street food curry prata couldn't sell such a cheap dish using real seafood in it.

It's so cheap and ubiquitous in Singapore that no one even comprehends the concept of making it at home or even knowing what's in it. I never did, until now.

I'm in a debate with someone who says that chilli can be excluded from every dish that calls for it because it's no big deal as food always tastes better without chilli. Her theory is that chilli is overpowering so if you use it you can't taste anything else just like if you add enormous amounts of salt, even when it's a mild amount of chilli. It's rather strange that Iran borders Pakistan and yet most Iranians can't stand chilli in their food.

What do you think about all this?

Roti prata/channai are chewy Indian flatbreads served with an amazing brown curry dip. I've googled it without success. I can make approximate the bread but have no idea how to make the sauce for it.

Funnily enough the 'chappatis' I ate in Kenya were similar to Roti Prata, and way better than the dull brown chappatis I ate in India. Made from white flour with lots of vegetable shortening, they're rich and chewy and enjoyed even by all classes.

I haven't had a good bread+curry as the textures and flavours just don't match so well as rice always does: except for the pungent curry sauce given with roti prata, which matches it perfectly.

Hi all,

Been browsing through the forum for hours and I'm overwhelmed!

As the cook of the Castle, I'm always trying new recipes. I'm pretty good at Italian and Chinese food (I make my own handmade noodles and pastas from scratch), but for some reason Indian curry and cuisine is always bland whenever I try. I've tried numerous Indian cookbooks for home cooks (like Madhur Jaffrey's) but they always come out insipid, bleh.

The aroma that wafts from Indian restaurants is so amazing, so enticing, I'd love those flavours and redolence at home. I had a downstairs neighbour who made exactly that kind of fragrance every Sunday, so it can be done at home.

Chicken korma is my favourite curry. There's an amazing popular restaurant in Singapore where I'd order it every visit. Ironically the korma I had in India, like all other food I tried in India, was utter crap- watery, bland, insulting. It's the first curry I'd like to replicate at home. I don't know what UK Indian curries are like but I've had some outstanding ones in Singapore; mediocre ones in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and China, and the worst in- ironically- India.

Just a few questions, in case you have the time to answer:

1) how many toddler-friendly curries are there, and what are they? Even the Pakistani parents I speak to say their children refuse to eat chillie.

2) Are Indian bay leaves important? I can't access them. Spices like clove, cardamom and turmeric are obviously essential most of the time, but I don't know about tej patta.

3) I never thought of 'base curry paste' until this site. The concept sounds like Thai food, where you make a pungent base and then build many other dishes from a few spoonfuls taken from the base. Is this the normal for Indian food or just an Indian restaurant technique? None of my Indian cookbooks mention a base sauce.