Just finished scoffing this lot and very nice it was too!

At the top, Saffron Pilau rice, bottom left, Bombay Aloo, dry style, bottom middle Beef Madras, bottom right, fried Okra or Bhindi Bhaji. I know the Okra dish looks like it's burnt, but it isn't, the colour is coming from the heavy caramelisation of the onions which produced an very intense sweet spicy dish, quite lovely.

I could eat that lot again!

Which BIR style dish have you cooked at home that comes closest to your local BIRs equivalent?

For me strangely enough it's Saag Bhaji and Tarka Dal. Both of them are either close or equal to my local BIR takeaway in my opinion.

There's no special ingredients in either of them and strangely neither necessarily contain any base sauce, sometimes the Saag one does if I have any to hand, but frequently it doesn't. And oddly they both start with fried onions, or at least the Dal contains fried onions as part of its tempering and most of my chicken BIR main dishes do not start with fried onions. Which got me thinking.

What are other peoples experiences of dishes they've cooked at home and got really close to their local BIR?

Tonight's dinner before I snarfed the lot down!

Lamb/Beef/Chicken Madras



About 500g of uncooked meat cubed into approximately 1 inch cubes.

This can be lamb, beef or chicken, the main difference will be in how long you cook it for. You can also use more up to about 650g or you can use less down to about 300g, the difference will be how much sauce you end up with. Personally I use about 300-500g depending on what I've got.

1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp of lemon juice

4 Tbsp of vegetable or sunflower oil
1 largish onion, peeled and finely chopped

55g (2 oz) creamed coconut block, grated
1/2 pint of Madras base sauce

Handful of freshly chopped Coriander leaves and stalks.
1/2 tsp garam masala



Rub the salt and lemon juice into the meat and put to one side.

Heat the oil in a saucepan, casserole dish or whatever you use over a low to medium heat. When hot add the chopped onion and fry regularly for about 8-10 minutes until a pale golden colour. **

Add the chicken, lamb or beef and stir fry over a medium heat for about 3-4 minutes or until the meat changes colour and is sealed. Stir in the Madras base sauce and grated coconut until it begins to bubble then reduce the heat, cover and simmer. Simmer on a very low heat for about 15-20 minutes for chicken or until its until tender, and anything from 2-3 hours for lamb and beef.

Stir in the garam masala and chopped coriander and cook for a further minute or so and remove from the heat and serve.

** At this stage I also sometimes add some finely chopped green pepper and/or green finger chilli's with the onion and/or extra chilli powder when the onions are done if I want a hotter dish. Just cook out the chilli powder for a few minutes before adding the meat.

Madras Base Sauce

Okay here's the base sauce I use for Madras style dishes.

Makes 2 1/2 pints (1.4 litres) which I put into 5 x 1/2 pint storage containers. So this makes enough for 5 dishes.

5 Tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil (any oil really apart from olive oil)
55g (2 oz) fresh root ginger coarsely chopped (take the skin off this first)
About 16 plump fresh garlic cloves coarsely chopped (take the skin off first)
8-10 shallots (I use the round ones rather than the long ones with a bulge in the middle) roughly chopped
2 Tbsp of fresh curry leaves or 3 tablespoons of dried (I always use the dried type)

1 1/2 Tbsp ground cumin (you can dry roast whole seeds first then grind or pound in a pestle and mortar, personally I haven't found a lot of difference, but I don't use pre-ground cumin, I always freshly grind whole seeds)
2-3 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp ground turmeric
85g (3oz) tomato puree
1.2 litres (2 pints) warm water (I boil a kettle and let it cool)
2 1/2 tsp salt or to taste (I used smoked salt)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
15g (1/2 oz) fresh coriander leaves and stalks, chopped
3 Tbsp lemon juice


Heat oil over a medium heat and when hot fry the ginger, garlic and shallots for about 3-4 minutes, stir frying continuously. Add the curry leaves, cumin, chilli powder and turmeric and fry gently for about 2-3 minutes (don't burn the spices! Turn the heat down if necessary) then stir in the tomato puree and cook for a further 1-2 minutes and then add the warm water. Stir in the salt and sugar and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a low simmer, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Add the chopped coriander leaves and stalks and lemon juice and simmer for a further couple of minutes and remove from the heat and allow to cool. When cool process the whole lot in a blender until smooth and fill 5 x 1/2 pint containers and freeze.

Hey folks

New here and thought I'd introduce myself.

I've 'browsed' a few of the threads at random and was impressed by what I read, so I thought I'd join and learn some new techniques and skills and who knows perhaps even pass some on as well I'm not really a beginner at this, I've been at it for some time.

My love of Indian food started 30 years ago at the 'Star of India' in Brompton Road, run at the time by the TV Chef Reza Mahammad's parents before Reza finally took it over when they retired and turned it into a fancy dancy up market restaurant. I've been eating and cooking (well trying to cook!) Indian food ever since and like I'm sure many of the contributors here trying to get that Indian Restaurant taste and often getting close but never really achieving 'Curry Nirvana'!

I was fascinated to read some of the theories as to what that missing 'x' was, as over the years I've developed my own theories as to what it might be and I don't think my thinking is far off what many here think it is.

I've done the Pat Chapman 'Indian Restaurant Curry Book' many years ago and was pretty disappointed with the results it produced and have subsequently collected many Indian cookbooks over the years I almost have a library of them now!

My breakthrough book was Mridula Baljekar's 'Real Fast Indian Food' where she talks about and gives recipes for 'cook ahead' sauces for 'Madras', 'Khadai' and 'Butter' which in many ways mirror the 'three pot' base sauces used in many Indian Restaurants from which they would then produce a myriad of different flavoured dishes by adding additional ingredients but still only using those three bases sauces as a starting point. The Madras base being obviously for Madras hot type dishes, the Khadai for bhuna type drier dishes and the Butter for Tikka Masala and Korma type creamy dishes. I was fascinated to read on here that many people only ever use once base sauce for all the different styles and types?

I've had great success in producing really good tasting dishes produced from those base sauces, so much so that I really don't bother with Restaurant take-aways any more preferring to cook my own, particularly as I know precisely what goes into the dish and just as importantly I can control exactly how hot they are. Over the years I've moved away from 'fiery-hotness' to subtle depth of flavour.

That's not to say they're as good as or better than Indian Restaurant take-aways, they still don't quite have that 'x' factor, that smokey richness that characterises BIR take-out dishes, but to my taste they're close enough and cheap enough to make - it makes my local take-away redundant! I've just finished a batch of 'slow cooked' lamb madras and I can tell you this much, it doesn't last long in this house!

Is it just me or has anyone else ever noticed how each Indian Restaurant seems to produce it's own 'house' flavour that permeates all the dishes that particular restaurant produces? Not just that it can make all the dishes taste a little 'samey' but also different to another BIR just down the roads 'house' flavour? There's one for the 'x' factor theorists to ponder over and add to the pot of mysteries.

I'd be delighted to post up some of my own recipes for people to try and judge.

Cheers.