Always useful kitchen observations. They either confirm what you would expect or make you question what you've seen. Were you surprised by that emin-j? That's exactly how my base was done on Sunday evening when i blitzed it. The next day i did the second stage; cooked the baggar and added it to the base and cooked it some more. Not sure what the preference is among BIR's / TA in terms of doing a one pot base or doing it in two stages. More work doing the two stage process but maybe that's what makes the difference between a curry and a good curry. If the end result was the same i cannot understand why some BIR / TA's would bother with the two stage process. I suppose for us, the bottom line is you cook your base however, to try and get the results that you are looking for and that which is closest to what you're used to.