I have everything ready for a beef curry today. I thought I'd go off-piste and make this one up as I went along. None of my current curry portfolio use green cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, coconut etc. A curry I used to cook before my 'base sauce awakening' did include 3 of the above and was a real nice curry, so I thought it worth giving some of these additions a go. Just wondered if you have any advice; perhaps even a curry that I have missed that contains such things? I even thought about adding sultanas; yes, way off-piste  . Is it a mistake to go the aromatic route with beef, and would you have any advice if I did?

Thanks Les. It's done. I should have called this thread "Festive curry". I ran with the 4 cardamom pods, 4 cloves, 1 inch peice of cinnamon, and I added a couple of prongs from a star anise. I boiled some sultanas in seperate water and added the above to the sultana water about 30 seconds before I added the lot to the pan (just as I turned down to a simmer). I kept the aromatic theme with cumin a big part of the spice mix (50/50 with curry powder), ginger an increased proportion of the g/g mix, and garam masala near the end with fresh corriander.

It turned out well, but not spectacular. I feared one of the additions might come through too strong but it was not the case, athough I think I could easily increase the cardamom more than any of the others. I decided not to add any cream or coconut, but it might have benefitted, as it was on the salty side and that clashed with the aromatics. Mental note, less salt in sweeter curries. I also think it's best suited to chicken. Always learning  .