if dont want to faff with a base at 11pm 

here a link to a quick curry
http://www.curryhouse.co.uk/rsc/quick.htm

you can thin it out with tin toms or passata whatever

spice kit pleassssssse! eBay beckons.

If it was 11pm, and I was "out of it" (not so unusual) the FIRST thing I'd do (and often do) is to take a portion of precooked curry and a portion of precooked rice out of the freezer, defrost it, reheat it and serve it..all within 15 minutes or so...from start to finish.

Failing that, if I didn't have any precooked curry in the freezer, I'd take out a portion of precooked curry base, defrost it, reheat it and cook a BIR-style curry with it.....all within 30 minutes....start to finish.

If I didn't have any precooked curry base in the freezer I'd have cheese crackers.

Isn't this what BIR-style cooking (using pre-cooked ingredients) all about?

I reckon Julian might be better off advocating a similar approach for people buying and using his spice kits?

Had to give it a go  ;D: my base has turned out a bit more orangey than Julian's as I put some passata in, not having a tin of diced tomatoes handy. I marinated some chicken overnight and currently precooking it Julian's method, and I'll whip up a Madras tonight.



I'm not limited to AIR cooking as I made up a big batch of Chorley style dry mix and his Garam Masala some time ago.

One thing that does impress me is that I've clearly ended up with enough base for four or more single portions, and that's not including the chefs spoon I put in the chicken precooking pan.

So for a quick BIR style gravy that can be knocked up in 20 minutes then put away for a few curry nights (SWMBO doesn't like curry much except for the odd no-chili butter chicken) it seems like a great compromise with cooking up a massive pot of base. 

On another point, the liquid that I drain off the precooked chicken, can that be used ladle for ladle as "chicken stock" or would it be a bit spicy and possibly "over egg the pudding"?

Edit: another thing that you can probably see in the photo, I got a really nice oil "break" in the gravy which would have taken me a lot longer using the "trad" method.

Sounds and looks good BB. So the gravy on the right is the finished product. Whats the pot on the left the pre-cooking chicken? Keen to hear how it finishes up. Take some pics? I thought it was a good idea for a beginner in BIR style dishes (such as myself).
Cheers
Steve

P.S. Oil "break" !! You're such a homebrewer  ;D

Turned out great, but I resisted dressing it up with coconut cream OZ style and therefore find it, as a Madras to be a bit sharp and tomatoey to my taste, but very pleasant. Taking the rest to work tomorrow for din dins. 



Edit: no coriander, got home and found that the snails or some other wildlife had reduced my coriander plants to skeletons