Tikka Korma

[Garp]

Oil in a finished dish = bad.

if your dish ends up that way, you're doing something wrong.

[Naga]

...One of my award winning Chef's, which I nicknamed "ESSO" for the amount of oil he uses in his cooking LOL. ;D ;D...

ESSO was what we used to call colleagues who would work 24/7 if they could: Eat, Sleep and Sh!t Overtime!

[curryhell]

Oil in a finished dish = bad.

I only wish i could turn out such "bad" dishes as 90 %  of TA's and BIR's do.  Going back a few years I can remember most dishes being loaded with oil.  But nowadays it's not trendy / healthy is it?  Bring back the old ways.  As said many times before here, don't skimp on the oil when cooking the dish, and remove it afterwards if not desired.  But what do I know :

[Garp]

I'm sure you're way more experienced than me, my friend, but it puts me off when I see oil floating on,  or seeping out of a dish. I tend to avoid TAs and restaurants serving such fodder.

For me - and it's only my preference - I like to use enough oil to cook the ingredients and leave a relatively oil-free finished dish. It doesn't take a lot of oil to fry spices/onions etc - they just need to be coated really. The same with a base - just enough oil to cook the ingredients results in less of a slick when you serve it.

But hey - each to their own and all that

[Kashmiri Bob]

I'm sure you're way more experienced than me, my friend, but it puts me off when I see oil floating on,  or seeping out of a dish. I tend to avoid TAs and restaurants serving such fodder.

For me - and it's only my preference - I like to use enough oil to cook the ingredients and leave a relatively oil-free finished dish. It doesn't take a lot of oil to fry spices/onions etc - they just need to be coated really. The same with a base - just enough oil to cook the ingredients results in less of a slick when you serve it.

But hey - each to their own and all that

Remember saying something along these lines myself at the start of my curry journey.  Agree some TAs do use far too much oil.  But you do need a fair bit to cook a BIR dish properly. I generally use 1 chef's spoon of sunflower oil per curry.  More is added via the pre-cooked meats (spiced oil).  Very little via the base. With practice you can control the amount of oil left in the finished dish.  Remember also the slick (separated oil) is considered to be liquid gold by many.  I like to think of it more as liquid ruby.

Rob