Good things sometimes come by chance!
I normally bulk cook a 1Kg bag of frozen chicken breasts (defrosted first of course).
The cooking liquor that is strained off is so tasty that I use it as a spicy stock in other recipes.
Rather than having to precook chicken in order to get this sauce, I worked on a specially prepared version, replacing the chicken with chicken stock.

Wanting to make a quick curry and having none of my normal base I thought I would use this instead.
So I put together a very simple curry and was amazed at the result, so much so that I felt I had to share it with others.

I initially used a supermarket's own curry powder, but felt it could be improved by a more specific blend.
I have made this with Hot Madras Curry Powder and also Tandoori Masala powder, both by RAJAH and they are both excellent.
The actual curry is very simple but bursting with flavour.

C45 Curry Base Sauce (Makes 400 ml)

3 tbspn oil
100 gm onion (prepared weight)
15 gm ginger (prepared weight)
15 gm garlic (prepared weight)
0.5 tspn salt
1 tspn turmeric
0.5 tspn ground coriander
0.5 tspn medium curry powder
0.5 tspn chilli powder
0.5 tspn ground cumin
0.25 tspn ground cinnamon
1 tbspn tomato puree
200 ml chicken stock (I used an OXO chicken stock cube in 200 ml of hot water)

Preparation
Chop the onion.
Grate the ginger.
Grate the garlic.
Mix the tomato puree with 2 tbspn of hot water.

Cooking
Heat the oil in a wok or heavy pan over a medium heat and cook the onion, ginger, garlic and salt, stirring regularly, for 5 min.
Stir in the turmeric, coriander, curry powder, chilli powder, cumin and cinnamon.
Stir in the diluted tomato puree.
Stir in 200 ml of chicken stock, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 min, stirring regularly.
Allow to cool and transfer to a measuring jug.
Add sufficient water to make 400 ml.
Blend until smooth.
Store in 200 ml quantities.

House Curry
2 tbspn oil
1 tspn chilli powder
1 tspn RAJAH hot madras curry powder or RAJAH tandoori masala
200 ml C45 Curry Base sauce
2 tspn tomato puree
0.25 tspn salt
1 portion precooked chicken (see notes below)

Preparation
Add 100 ml of water to the C45 curry base sauce to make 300 ml and warm before use.

Cooking
Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and cook the chilli powder and spice mix of choice for 45 seconds, stirring constantly.
Add the tomato puree, 40 ml of base sauce (1 chef?s spoon) and salt and cook, stirring regularly, for 1 min.
Increase the heat and add the chicken and 80 ml (2 chef's spoons) of base sauce and cook, stirring regularly, for 3 min, adding base sauce as necessary to maintain the desired sauce consistency.

Serving
Serve with rice and optionally garnish with a little freshly chopped coriander.

Notes
Raw chicken (1 inch cubes) can be used instead of precooked but the cooking time will need to be increased until the chicken is fully cooked.
Additionally, with the longer cooking time, more base sauce or even some water will likely be required to maintain the sauce consistency.

This curry was one of the best I have had and a real surprise (in a good way) 

Ever asked friends round for an evening and got them cooking their own meals?

I did this recently and it was one of the best evening's entertaining I have ever had.
I invited two couples round for a curry evening, gave them my restaurant menu and told them to pick whatever they wanted, then offered them the opportunity to cook it themselves.
To ease the shock I said I would do all the prep and demonstrate one being made and then they could cook their own.

The two gal's said they weren't going out for a meal and cooking it for themselves  :-X, but the two guy's were eager to have a go . They measured out the spices, did the chef thing, spooned them into foil containers and put them in the oven to keep warm whilst the rest were being made.
The selections they chose were Desi Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Chettinad, Karahi Chicken and 2 x Chicken Ceylon.
I must say they were really chuffed with the evening, a totally unique experience and a good laugh - even before the Cobra's. I think they are now hooked and eager to have a go themselves. One of the wives has already made a batch of base sauce.

The trouble is that they can't stop telling their friend's and you may be in danger of being expected to do it for everyone.

If you've never done this it really is worth it.

Curry rules!

I would be very interested in what others think of the following...

When cooking spices it is a generally accepted fact that they release their flavours much more readily in oil than they do in water. This will have an impact on the making of curry base sauces and also individual curries.

Consequently, if a base sauce recipe calls for the spices to be included with all the other ingredients, including a quantity of water, it ensures that the release of flavour from the spices is inhibited. This may be why base sauce recipes often include a lot of oil. This will help the flavour release but does have a health impact in that we are probably consuming rather more oil than is good for us. In addition, when an individual curry is made, the style of cooking will impact on whether the dominant flavour comes from the base sauce, from the spices or a combination of both.

If a lot of base sauce is added and the spices are added to this, then, as previously mentioned, the spices will be cooking mainly in water with the consequent inhibiting of flavour release. This will mean that the flavour of the base sauce may well dominate the spices and therefore the final curry. If, on the other hand, the spices are initially cooked in oil and their flavours fully released and base sauce is gradually added as the cooking proceeds then the flavour of the spices may well dominate over the base sauce.

Many restaurants, along with their own base sauce, will use their own spice mix that can vary little from one curry to the next thereby almost ensuring that most of the curries on offer taste very similar. Add to this the fact that they use the same precooked meat in most of their curries and it becomes obvious why most of their offerings are similar. I experienced this recently when I visited the same restaurant 4 nights in a row and selected a different curry each time. The menu descriptions appeared very different but they basically all tasted the same.

There will naturally be exceptions to this with variations from restaurant to restaurant and area to area. No doubt different chef's cooking styles will also come into play, but the general principle appears reasonable.

I have therefore adopted a cooking style that uses a minimally spiced base sauce, with less oil than normal, and the same precooked chicken in all recipes. I cook different mixes of spices in oil to begin with and then, usually, gradually add base sauce as the cooking proceeds, along with the other ingredients. The result is a large variety of curries that are cooked BIR style but are very different in final taste. It suits me fine.

What do you think? Is it nonesense or does it have some mileage?

The term Desi appears to be creeping into recipe names in restaurant menus.
Does anyone have a specific definition for this?
The best I have come up with from my internet searches (as applied to BIR) is perhaps a BIR dish but cooked using spices in a more traditional or regional style.

The Shimla Spice chain of restaurants has a complete section of Desi dishes.
See their web site here... http://www.shimlaspice.co.uk

The name also appears in Kris Dhillons latest book.
Perhaps Kris herself may 'shed some light' on this next time she logs on?