Good afternoon!

[El]

Hello,
I'm new to this site - which i think is brilliant by the way - and have tried Darth's Clone Base (i halved everything to make a smaller batch).
I have in the past tried the Natco base  (http://www.natcoonline.com/acatalog/Holy_Grail.html)
and was pleasantly surprised with the results. Darth does stress that the amount of oil used is important in achieving the right taste and i used double the amount on the ingredient list but nowhere near the amount he recommends for "that BRI taste".
Suffice to say, i dont think i used enough oil !! -  it looked like vegatable soup, didnt have the golden colour like in Darth's pics. It didnt taste like a curry gravy either, more like spicy vegatable soup!
I then went on to the next stage of make his chicken madras and after i'd added fried onions/garlic, all the curry powders/spices, passata, added the chicken (i used Bruce Edward's method of pre-cooking the chicken - v.nice!), it turned out ok and i enjoyed eating it but it didnt have "the taste".
I wonder how much of this is down to not using the right amount of oil? (although the NAtco recipe doesnt use that much oil and I was still well impressed) Or maybe its something else? I know the Natco base uses a lot more ginger/garlic in its base and uses red onions. I must state again how impressed i was with the Natco base.
Anyways, Im looking forward to trying out more recipes in the future and for anyones' advice on the above.
Thanks
El.

[Curry King]

Hi El,

Welcome to the site!

The amount of oil you use is important, if your not sure you have used enough add more, you can always remove it before serving

cK

[spicysarsy]

Right on C.K. Hi and welcome El to our domain of spicy utopia.

[mike travis]

Hi EL  glad to have you aboard....... ;D

[El]

Thanks for the welcoming guys, glad to be on board.

[DARTHPHALL]

Hi EL.
My base shouldn't taste like vegetable soup , it should be virtually edible on its own, but not quite, if you know what i mean, perhaps halving the ingredients was the reason for you problem, anything you need to know just ask.
Cheers.

[CurryCanuck]

Hi El -
Welcome to the kingdom of curry ....enjoy !

CC

[curryqueen]

Hi El,  Welcome to this wonderful forum!  Just keep plodding on and you'll be sure to be turning out top noctch dishes very soon.  CQ

[merrybaker]

Welcome, El.  It sounds like you're off to a good start.

[El]

I feel bad now darth, like ive upset you (by saying your base taste like veg soup), its cause you used  . Anyways, the photos in your original curry base post shows photos of 2 pans on the go, hence you splitting the ingredients no?  I have a 7.6 litre stock pot. If all the ingredients dont fit in there then i'll have to split the ingredients? Ok, lets not SPLIT hairs here (excuse the pathetic pun!).
With regard to your garlic and ginger purees. I follow Bruce Edwards's method of blending equal amounts with just enough water to make a puree. Im worried that im somehow not using enough ginger/garlic because you talk about needing to add water to the oil/ginger/garlic/spice mix to stop it becoming sticky. Well, my mix is nowhere near sticky (which is why i assume theres not enough ginger/garlic mix in there - maybe ive added to much water to puree the raw gin/garl)
Can you shed any light on my confusion?