I eventually got round to making it ;D. First impressions of smell...Faaantastic. My oldest son , who doesn't know the hours I spend on this site, and unprompted, commented that it "smelt like a proper Indian restaurant"

I followed the recipe described almost to the letter! Except Morrisons sell packs of peppers cheaper than buying individually so mine had two green and one red. I also left out the chili powder. Everything else as stated by Darth.

For anyone else contemplating the 15 onion method you can JUST fit it into a 24ltr cook pot (If you have one) Saves splitting the oil, ingredients and spices between two pans which I think would defeat the object of volume cooking. (If that is the secret!)

When cooked and blended the consistency was that of tinned soup but after cooling, thickened to perfect The colour however wasn't the Golden Yellow you described Darth How can I say... more like a babies nappy fill but hey the taste is great. We can't leave it alone. My son even had some with a slice of bread.

I am really excited at what this is going to make.

I have some images of the pre,during and blended sauce and have tried to post them but unfortunately can't. If anyone can tell me a step by step guide to resizing and posting I will put them in the pictures section.

Thanks for the inspiration Darth.

Several recipes on the site tell you to add a quantity of 'Restaurant Masala' Other recipes ask for 'Spice Mix'.

Are these the same thing?

If not can someone explain or post a link to what constitutes the Restaurant Masala or is it a shop bought thing or simply garam masala. I can find the 'spice mix' proportions of the various spices but not the masala

Thanks

Hi,
Firstly it is important to say 'What a great site you have developed' and 'Well done to all who have made it possible'. I came across you whilst searching the net for something about 'Pillau Rice and what a find. I've been experimenting for 30 years+, bought my first cast iron Karahi in Leicester when I was a student and still use it almost weekly. Don't be fooled by the Bhuna -Boy name I'm 50
I've tried most things. Roasted and ground spices to make various massalas and pastes. Stopped that and moved onto commercial pastes. Tried every ready sauce they sell in the supermarkets(incidentally to my taste Pataks are the best). Discovered Pat Chapman books quite a few years ago and tried his base with various successes AND THEN! found Khris Dhillon and the fantastic recipes on here. What a revelation. The Dhansak and Jalfrezi recipes are the closest I've ever got to the BIR taste you are all seeking,
A couple of observations on that point:
Several of you are talking about reclaiming oil for 'the taste'. I am not convinced by this. My local take away do not fry the base at any stage . They use a sack of onions in a large pan+carrot and 'spices' and boil/simmer until the onions disintegrate.They then use a drill with a blade attachment to blend it This is kept hot all evening. What they do not sell is added to and boiled the next day. I think this length of cooking/keeping hot is a key factor. I have never seen them reclaim oil at the final cooking stage which they do almost in front of you as you wait. We never do this at home do we. We cook what we want to eat. The saying that a good chef never lets the curry pot get empty is about right.

Secondly, with all bases their job is simply to be an agent for carrying the spices and providing texture. I do not believe they should have a prominent taste of their own. Hence the simpler the better.(My next batch will be the Darth one )
Anyway I'm rambling. Thanks again for a great site and a great read.