Hi chaps,

I've finally got round to making my first base sauce and curry and I'm really pleased with the results.  It shows how much work you guys have put in!  I've been reading the recipes loads and found them very accurate and easy to follow and all the feedback on each recipe has meant that I could pretty much find a recipe for the tastes I was looking for.

I used Darth's base and made a mixed veg curry (like the one you get with a Biryani) and also a prawn jalfrezi.  The results tasted pretty much like my local!

I'll get some snaps up once I've re-sized them

I've also made a pretty unusual curry based on a traditional lamb bhuna with a bottle of Leffe Bruin beer in it after making beef in beer casserole a few weeks back.  I'll get it posted soon!

I've been reading loads about "the smell" and "the taste" here and though I've not tried the BIR approach to cooking I have cooked quite a lot of different food in my time and there are a few things that popped into my head.  I might be stating the obvious to the more experienced people but sometimes a bit of thought from someone who isn't too involved can help a little!

I don't think the main hit of a BIR curry comes from the base sauce, this is more of a background thing, more of the aftertaste.  In general if you put something in near the end it'll hit you hard with flavour and aroma, the longer you leave it in, the flavour has less impact as it has spread through the food.  I think the strong aroma and taste has to be something that's added during the final stages.

The kind of food that gets better when you cook it for ages and store in the fridge or freezer (soup, stew, spag bol etc) is nice but doesn't have that "in your face" flavour that BIR curry has.  For this reason I don't think a base sauce could ever give this.  It'll contribute a lot to the overall flavour but won't give that big hit.  This is the same reason a BIR curry will lose a bit of it's potency when it's stored overnight, but a home style meat curry will get better.

I think cooking at speed and certain spices blasted at a high temperature during the final stages must be the key to that strong smoky flavour.  The kind of stoves you get at a curry house kick out a lot more flame than my one at home ever could.

Maybe I'll be completely wrong and look stupid once I give these base sauces a try though!

This place is always busy and if you eat there you'll see why.  It does look like a greasy spoon gone wrong and isn't the cleanest looking place you'll ever see but the food is superb.  It's definitely one to go to if you want something a bit different.  It's also dirt cheap.

The menu is quite basic, with lamb and chicken curry on and off the bone spicy or mild.  They do a good mince curry with boiled egg, and also they're the only place I've been to that do a curry breakfast (sheek kebab in puri, halwa, dal, spinach omelette and masala tea).  Sheek kebabs are also really good, and they do the most amazing pilau rice I've ever had, I'd recommend going there just for that.  Boal fish curry is also very good.

The breads aren't great but the rice is so nice that they don't really get a look in, also the menu is a bit offputting if you're not used to it, but go in with an open mind and you'll probably love it.  As mentioned it does look like a bit of a s**thole.

It's a good place to go on a sunday afternoon as it's not really somewhere to sit down at in the evening but highly recommended.

Hi chaps, it's my first curry related post here so here goes!

A lot of the restaurants that I go to in London seem to go for having a smaller amount of dishes, but pretty much preparing a massive amount of each curry that either sits in a tray or in a heated pot under the counter rather than making each one to order but based on the same pre made gravy.

I got to say that even though they do have quite a different taste (probably not "the taste" that most people on here are looking for) a lot of the time I prefer them.  I'm a big fan of red meat and there's nothing better than when the lamb or mutton has cooked in the sauce giving it that thicker, stocky taste, particularly if you're cooking it on the bone.

I've got reasonably close to some of these curries but they don't seem to be covered in the cook books that I have, but don't seem to fit in with the usual restaurant style of cooking either.

Hopefully that'll make some sense, if anyone can help out with recipes then that'd be much appreciated.  I'll post a recipe for the lamb curry that I normally make as soon as I can and hopefully you guys will enjoy it.

Just joined the site and I'm well impressed!

I've been cooking curries for a long long time but not really tried the base sauce method at all, I'd been wondering why restaurant curries taste so different, I'll definitely be putting a shopping list together so I can give it a try!

Have we got any other members from London in here? If so what restaurants do you go to?