I finally got to eat some of this last night at about 11:30.
It was my first chance to try the spice mix and matching base recipe together in a curry and I wasn't disappointed. The base came out at about 4.5 litres but it should probably have been closer to 5 litres to get the required consistency. I also felt like it could have done with a bit more cooking before use but I was running out of time.
I made a basic chicken curry and was very happy with the results. Some points to note that I've learnt:
Ifindforu says to check the taste of the base at the end and adjust seasoning etc. if you need to. In this case I added a little single cream which seemed to sit well with the flavours. But to be honest this tasting and adjusting the base is a new concept to me as I've usually just followed recipes to spec when it comes to base sauces. This is probably an important point as ingredients will vary each time a base is cooked.
When I last made chewytikka's base I was very impressed with the gravy after sieving it. I intended to sieve every base I made after that but I was running out of time last night and couldn't be bothered. I think this base would greatly benefit from being sieved and probably also from having some surface scum removing during cooking.
Finally I think I'm guilty of changing base recipes too often. There is a lot to be said for sticking with one, getting to know and tweak it to your taste. But I'll try to stick with this one for a while.
I think quality and BIR wise this base was up there with the best on cr0 and the excellent spice mix really lifted things for me.
Thanks to Terry (ifindforu) for providing the information.
Cheers,
Paul