nice jigsaw pieces Derek.

will definitely try the spice mix out. not sold on swartz - will use my prized rajah.

have not tried frying the green chilli so again a must try.

i put bay (and cardamom, anise) as a whole spice in all the bases now - interesting they were visible as i remove before blending.

i presume the tubs were fresh. if so i will have to try fresh methi as i've not really been sold on the dried to date. i hope the other tub was coriander - i've only used curry leaves in garam masala and stopped that practise as the leaves don't taste very good at all.

adding water is in the Admin's jalfrezi method which produces the fantastic BIR result. i add the water to the base after it's cooked as a preference.

safron base was always going to be difficult to tweak - i'm gutted on the paprika though. for a while i've though my soup part of the base ie the bulk veg was fine. it was the spice and oil which weren't upto BIR. tasting the BIR oil compared to mine illustrated the point fully. having done side by side comparison i'd concluded paprika and turmeric are the main spices in the base. the recent BE base left the paprika out. this weekend i'm making base and intend to over spice on the paprika - will report back.

"sliced garlic" - heaven - my 2 fav dishes (i think they are actually the same) sylheti garlic chicken and special garlic chicken both have a high concentration of garlic and those very special browned slithers

i just read a lot of the posts on this site even going back well in time - i supoose the site's no 1 bookworm.

i come from the midlands and brought up on curry. i love cooking generally and bought the KD book long time a go but it never really captured my heart.

as u say this BIR is not an easy subject to crack. i do feel invigorated having found this site though - all those members little grey cells churning away.

i've surprised myself how far i've got already - served 2 friends from brum CK's CTM and Admins Jalfrezi last week - they felt it was BIR. i think just like Haldi in terms of that missing taste - it's still not quite their.

the paprika i hope is going to go the way i hope (much stronger tasting reclaimed oil). i've dropped the punctured chilli idea given Booby B's thoughts which are always spot on and the absence of a strong chilli taste in the real BIR given your comments on what it's like. i'm also going to check hoe the amount of chilli i put in (the frying sounds a good idea). whenever i eat BIR the difference in heat is always quite apparent - i guess it's because we don't naturally use chilli. i made a slightly hotter madras last week and i felt there was something their.

I like the BE spice mix, and I also use the kushi which I have a jar of when I run out of BE.

Jerry - what do you notice different/better with this mix?

-- Josh

Thanks for the positive feedback Jerry. i will add that spice mix to relevant section shortly. Some thing i find interesting, is that the bir has a separate whole tub of ground tumeric. it must be really important to justify a whole tub, right next to the cooker. the tubs by the cooker are only for frequent use ingredients. Next base cooking sesh,  i will do a tumeric based curry, and report back.   

Ok some more info after chatting with the chef at my local bir last night. He said the seasoned iron pan is a must for the flavour. new pans he felt were no good. he said the base is very important to the taste. "a good base is the key". tumeric was used mainly for colour, he commented. also 2 or 3 carrots in base, and no potato was his advice. he was a bit reluctant to tell me the secret to a great base. although he did ask where my safron base recipe was, as he was going to review it once again. unfortunatly i did not have it with me, bugger. Its probably worth all of us showing base recipies to bir chefs, to gain insights into how they would improve them. even if they dont share how they make there own base, its invaluable to hear how they would improve one of our base recipies.