I am in this phase I have seen others on the forum get stuck in as well. I make:
- a great mango curry (chewytikka's recipe, but with extra mango pulp),
- a great korma (CA's recipe with less sugar) and
- an excellent vindaloo (CA's recipe but adapted to contain more different chili powders and more tomato sauce and spices in general - might post this recipe one day, as it's always a winner at my dinner parties)).

But for the rest, curries seems to taste very similar (and not all that special). My chana masala is decent, but doesn't have that depth of flavor I find at my local TA. I have been thinking it might be the addition of mix powder to the base. My current base is the Zaal base. Next base I think I will skip the last stage where spices are fried. I would keep akhni stock stage as it contains spices as I usually don't use in my finished curries (and I remember the curries I had in Brick Lane often taste like cardamon and I quite like it).

Has anyone tried to cut down on the ground/fried spices in the base?

Hello all,

I'm a new member from Belgium.

I used to have a period where I ate a lot of Indian, but I'm trying to watch my weight now so I guess I prepare it once a month.

I have already learned quite the bit about BIR cooking, although I mainly follow recipes from others (with some own interpretations). I can't really say I try to build up dishes from scratch and, for the seldom time I do, I usually don't find it worth the quality to post about it. So if you people don't mind, I'll be mainly posting small comments on the recipes I have tried and tested.

That's all. Feel free to ask more questions if you like.