Stripped back to basics, with only the minimum of ingredients, the medium curry has nowhere to hide. Making this curry depends on good technique to bring out the flavour of a limited amount of ingredients.
Great post Stephen - never in the field of BIR cookery was a truer word spoken.
And it is in the medium curry where you discover if your base can cut it, too. Any hint of bitterness or lack of balance becomes all too apparent as soon as you take your first spoonful.
Although I've been using a Zaal type base of late, I'm a big fan of the Taz base, and reckon it's perfect for this exercise as it's a) simple and b) contains a good quantity of the key spices in its own right, so you're going to get a little extra punch and a nice background note (more so than you might from base with a lower proportion of spices).
In fact I have a chilli averse mate coming round tonight, so I'm going to do this recipe for him and see how it goes down.
Cheers
Gary