hi,
Thanks Gary,secret Santa and Rai for replying. You gave me some useful tips there.  Yes i meant the spices like cinammon cardamons and bayleaf, I thought i'll have to get it out before blending otherwise i will end up with woody bits in my curry!!!.now that my questions have been answered i will attempt to make the 'Balti'.Thanks Guys.

But guess what?i have already made a jalfrezi. It was ok my partner gave it a generous 8/10!!! he was just being nice me thinks, i rate it a 7 out of ten!
here are the pics.

sarah

Hi All,
I am new here and my name is Sarah. I am going to attempt to make my first curry soon. I am a good cook in general but never made 'real' curries simply because i did not have any recipe.  This Blog is a treasure of recipes, thanks to all the Guys who've contributed.
I quite like Balties so i'm gonna make some. But i need a little help.  I am thinking of following the 'Belting balti' recipe but i am unsure of 2 things. 

Firstly on top of the ingredients list for the base it's mentioned cloves, is that the little flower type spice with a strong smell? and

Secondly after cooking the, cardamons,cinamon,bay leaf and the other whole spice do i have to remove them before blending the sauce?

I would be grateful if anybody could answer my questions.  i will be posting pics of my curries soon, so watch this space.

Many thanks,

Sarah