Does anyone have any plans for the coming year in terms of their indian cooking be it something new to try or changes to existing practise.

i've been trying to take stock (post ashoka). My previous intention of trying to extend the range of main dishes now being redundant.

Panpot,

very much look fwd to further Ashoka exploits it's been a real journey for us all.

the kit is a real must for me and the recipe results totally aligned with my regional taste buds. (on an aside i've not yet tried your onion paste as i had plenty of the original to use up. the bhuna karahi is to die for).

the ashoka has for me put the cat among the pigeons and i have a few ideas on where i intend to go but felt i'd could do with "others" thoughts for a sanity check - hence the post.

best wishes

My plan for the next year is to try and solve this problem:

1. I LOVE curry
2. The mere sniff of a curry and I put 1kg in weight

So my goal is to produce BIR style curries that have lowest amount of fat and sugar but don't compromise too much on the taste.

This is not going to be easy  ;D

Currymonster,

weight was not on my radar. i suppose i would go into the, "health conscious" category of which weight is certainly a member. on the positive side we do have the advantage in cooking ourselves of knowing exactly what goes in. on the downside above this i see  health savings are better and more easily achived elsewhere in our eating habits.

like u we all love curry though and that put's us all out of the "with moderation" camp in this category for sure.

i'm sort of happy on the oil (my aim is to avoid sat fat and cholesterol), i use very little sugar (don't need to regularly use it in SR naan for example). Salt is probably the biggie for me but having experimented with the amount for me u can't get BIR without it.

the resolution is well worth keeping in the back of our minds though. it does need a health warning in itself though - i got pally with a TA chef some time ago and against his better judgement he regularly made a "low fat equivalent" dish. it tasted pretty good and probably close enough depending on your needs. for me i'd missed the fact that there was way more heath damage in the naan due to the butter and egg.

Alas, my goal remains the same - to produce curries that TRULY have the depth of flavour, savouriness and smell, typical of those produced by decent BIRs, rather than simply nice, tasty, curries.

I will continue to pursue the combination of ingredients (mainly in the base) and techniques (what are these?) required to achieve this accordingly.  So far, none do.

My focus will remain on the base (where I still believe "the secret" lies) and any other additional ingredients (e.g. spicy oil, stock) that may be required to achieve my goal. 

Based on Haldi's recent comments, I will be trying to replicate the spicy oil, which is undoubtedly produced naturally in BIRs in the course of their daily activities, perhaps to also use in preparing the base.  It seems to me that, although I've found that onion paste produces no discernible difference in my curries, it may indicate a means (i.e. fried onions, garlic, spices, etc) by which to produce spicy oil for cooking with.