I make a basic tamarind drink with sugar and lemon/lime juice which taste great but what are its applications in bir curries if any?  This is a new spice (if it is classified as a spice) for me and have bought some recently with the purpose of getting to know what it does as i do with most spices and indian cooking products.  Anyone use it or has used it please leave a reply, i know it's great with fish and chutneys and this is the only place i can see it used at the moment. Thanks

My version of local resturant sag aloo.

Ingredients - Onion gravy
                     Potatos/spinach
                     Chilli powder
                     Coriander powder
                     Cumin powder
                     Garam masala
                     Fried in virgin coconut oil

  I have had a few conversations on here regarding which is the 'SAFEST' oil to use, which is the 'HEALTHIEST' oil to use and which gives the best results when frying a curry.  All oils fall into two categories - Unrefined and Refined.  Unrefined oil should be called virgin oil as it comes straight from the source and is not contaminated, bleached or deoderised in the manufacturing process.  Someone on this site recommended virgin coconut oil to me and i just had to get some, on looking into it futher i found it to be unrefined, very safe to fry in and at the same time healthy. WOW! i thought that i had found the holy grail of oils so i bought the best one i could find and straight away fried up a curry.  Oh no i thought as i ate mouthful after mouthful, this surely is a great oil, exactly what i have been looking for except it gave the curry a distinct coconut flavour and the smell was even stronger.  Now had i of made a korma i know i wud have loved the extra coconut taste and smell but this sadly was not a korma.  I thought that i would keep on using coconut oil for kormas and wherever i needed that coconut flavour and aroma but what if i was making a massala or somthing that i would not appreciate that taste!
  I wish i could find an unrefined oil that was safe to use, able to reach high temperatures and didn't flavour the food, well not so much that i would notice.  I've searched through all the oils i could find and everything has led me to having to use a refined oil.  It seems a lot to ask for a healthy curry and i may never get one that is totally natural and unadulterated leaving me with just the refined oils.
  So my question is what is the healthiest and safest oil that would give a BIR taste and look?? Would this be Rice Bran oil of which i can only find the refined version and belive there to be no suitable unrefined version for frying?? 
  Anyone with any knowledge of oils or even just a suggestion of what to use and what you use would be greatly appreciated as my quest for the 'Holy Grail' of oils has hit a brick wall.  I am trying to avoid cholesterol high and hydrogenated fats and if anyone has actually found this 'Holy Grail' please let me know!

   Hey everyone, i used to make curry from the 'curry secret' book published by Matt Dhillon until i found this site.  Honestly this website cracks it for me and the simple addition of just one ingredient and a longer cooking time has made my base sauce go from average to simply divine. 
  What started me off on the spiritual quest to curry was Gordon Ramsey and his Indian cooking series on television, he was good but not my local takeaway version!!  Ok i thought i had a starting point anyway and made some curry, although i would consider my first attempt to be rubbish now i was amazed at the time that it tasted so scrumptious and edible (and slightly indian!lol!)
I eventually found a book in my local bookshop that changed everything called the curry secret and this took me to the next step. I thought i had cracked it after a year and got that local indian takeaway taste but on comparison i was no where near and found my base gravies to be bland and slightly disappointing even though i had followed the books recipe to the letter.  Oh dear i thought that this book was suppose to make me authentic takeaway and was really confused with the results compared to my local which was spot on what i wanted. 
  Finally i found you guys and your base sauce recipes which i cross referenced with mine until i found one missing ingredient, VEGETABLE OIL, which is added to the onions, ginger and garlic in a pan of water.  Wow this is really how you make your curry sweet and creamy.  Now i make real takeaway base gravy and understand that the oil in the boiling down of the onions pulls the sweetness out and is pretty much the magical ingredient in my curries. Anyone making base gravy and getting bland results please add a decent amount of oil in with the onions when it cooks and compare the finished results.  This may not be the result you want or the taste but i bet if like me you are having problems understanding what ingredient does what i promise you that veg oil makes for a sweeter taste just like my takeaway and probably yours.

Please don't think i'm big headed or some amazing indian chef as i ain't and am only a novice but this one addition to my onions as they boiled for an hour has changed the face of curry in my house and worth noting for any other struggling amateurs.  Please criticise my technique or disprove me but all i aim to do is help people in similar situations to me.  There are hundreds of recipes on this site, some include veg oil and some don't, there is a difference and this is it.