Not posted for a while but thought this worth a mention.
Had a new guy start work next to me his mother and father run a Chinese takeaway where he also works in the evening, the conversation eventually got around to curry and he was surprised at my passion for Indian, anyway, I also showed interest in Chinese cooking and asked how they get the lovely flavour that you can't seem to emulate at home ( as per Indian  : ) and he said we don't wash our pans  Not with washing up liquid anyway just hot water and a wipe around with kitchen roll, this keeps the pans seasoned and is good for the flavour of the cooked food.
Of course they cook every day so I doubt any bacteria has much of a chance to get a hold but if you only cooked once a week it might not be a good idea!
Anyway could this be another % towards that final 5% we all been trying for .

Was in my local t/a the other night and was looking through into the kitchen watching them make my pilau rice,firstly the chef put about a tablespoon of either veg oil or possibly melted ghee into a wok he then added a few whole spices and worked them into the oil,after a couple of minutes he removed the spice using his chef spoon and tipped a ready cooked portion of coloured boiled rice into the pan and stirred it around for a couple of minutes,pinch of salt another stir and into the container,nice quick and easy method.

Hi all, off to Cork (Ireland) next week and just wondered if anyone can recommend anywhere there for a decent Curry  washed down with a couple of pints of Guinness after  ;D

Was waiting for my Curry etc at my local T\A and I noticed their giant pot of base on the floor about to be blitzed with a commercial blender which resembled an out board motor from a power boat  ;D
I noticed there was a fair covering of Oil across the top of the container covering mostly cooked onions with the odd piece of carrot , the mixture was clear with no sign of powdered spices being used in the first boil up  just for info ,

Hi all , not had much time over the last few months to make curries what with holidays and the garden etc etc  : been relying on our local t/a most Saturdays.
Anyhow, getting the curry bug again but would like to start the ' season ' with something different as have tried many of the popular base gravy recipes on the site last one being the Zaal.
I was hoping Chris would have his e-book out by now  : but ' soon ' seems to be taking a while 
My Onion Bhaji attempts have been dismal compared to our local t/a and they did offer to show me how they make theirs but their always too busy  they put lentils in their bhaji's plus use coconut block in their gravy so that's a start 
Mmmmmm decisions decisions 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dog-cat-curry-fears-over-1789118

I understand what is meant by a Lassi curry now !

Had about one and a bit portions of base left in the pressure cooker after knocking up a quick base yesterday and walking down the stairs this morning noticed how the house had the aroma of a takeaway  the Wife also noticed it without me mentioning it and I commented it was the gravy left in the pressure cooker which she then lifted the lid to have a sniff,'' close '' she said '' but not quite the same'' she then went on to say she thought the aroma came from the base being 'fried' when making the main curry so I put half a ladle of base in the pan and cooked it down to near nothing 
The aroma around the house was caramelised onions  with a hint of spices,there was just about a teaspoon of caramelised base left in the pan which I had to taste and  what a flavour ! It was delicious ! Very powerful flavour of fried onions and spices,I'm sure if you could get some of this flavour into your curries it would be a considerable improvement 
Thinking about how curries are usually started with oil then g/g plus spice mix, chili powder and tomato paste I don't know if once you add the first ladle of base you could cook this mixture down to the point of caramelising without burning the mixture 
Hope this might help in some way to get that savoury flavour we're looking for   

PS, you could start your curries with a half ladle of base and cook this down before starting with the oil and this is how our local t/a make their curries with their ' all in one ' base but without the oil.

Our local Indian t/a's all seem to turn out OK curries some better than others and my madras can match the best of them  BUT when it comes to Onion Bhaji's I just can't get close  although I have tried many of the recipes on the forum none come close to our t/a's.
I have just been looking through the menu's from a few of our local t/a and all of them listed ' Onion Bhaji's, sliced onion with spices, deep fried in .....Butter 
I do remember some months ago asking the owner of one of the t/a if it was butter ghee they cooked their bhaji's in and he replied ' no vegetable ghee ' 
Does anyone have any experience of deep frying Bhaji's in butter/veg ghee ?

 The Wife left half of her Chicken Madras (zaal base) which I made on Saturday ( it was a large portion  ) and I just spotted it in the fridge,I then noticed that some of the oil from the curry had dripped onto an egg box which the curry had been perched on WOW  pure BIR  ;D .
The curry itself did smell good but the oil was spot on BIR and far more fragrant than the curry itself.
To me this reinforces what has been found many times on the forum - that BIR flavour is in the oil.
And again the flavour of the curry (with the oil) has improved since Saturday.

Hi all,
Just a couple of things you might find interesting.
My closest t/a use the ' all in the base ' technique of making their curry's as in no additional mix powder,g/g,tomato puree or salt is added when making the final curry,their curry's are a bit bland for my liking so I ask for extra mix powder when I order a t/a   : the chef knows me now and brings out a sample on a spoon for me to try before putting into the t/a container 
Although a little bland their 'all in the base' curry's still have the usual BIR smell and flavour even without the extra mix powder so does this go to prove the flavour must come from the base 

Also plenty of large buckets 10L ? of veg ghee ( taj mahal red and yellow containers ) about the place.
Noticed 25 L containers of Rapeseed oil .

cheers.

Hi all  can  anyone recommend a good stick blender ? I recently bought a Kenwood Tri Blade and that lasted about five minutes  It seems most blenders have a runtime of about 1 minute then rest for 5 minutes  :

Hi all,
I have been struggling for months to be able to make a nice flavoursome bhaji but last night I seem to have 'gone up a level' 
What I found was if I leave the sliced onions in the mixing bowl with spice mix,g/g,kashmiri masala paste,aniseed,and a pinch of cumin seed all mixed in and leave it to 'marinate' for a couple of hours then when ready to fry the bhaji add the egg,flour and salt and mix in the bhaji are very good  nice flavour and a good colour inside.

Hi all, a week or so ago I was in my local T/A and whilst waiting I had a chat with the owner and asked how they get that lovely orange colour to their curry's and I mentioned orange food colouring  No ! he said we do not use food colouring only tamarind, so I mentioned I had a 'block' of tamarind and he said ' no only ground tamarind' so after a bit of research on tinternet I came to the conclusion that he was having me on  : so on my next visit I asked if he put plenty of that orange tamarind in my curry I had ordered  he said 'yes' so I asked if I could see this ' ground orange tamarind' and he agreed  off he went to the kitchen and returned with the usual 2 litre sized container of ............... Turmeric  : ' that's turmeric ' I said 'yes ' he said 'tamarind '  :
I went on to tell him how interested I was in making BIR style curry's and he said ' next time you come in I'll show you how to make a curry  ;D great I thought !
So tonight I wandered up and although the boss wasn't there the guy who takes the money remembered what was said and invited me into the kitchen !excellent!
The Chef and two helpers were in this tiny kitchen with a 25ltr pot of gravy on the hob plus all the usual spices and a large metal butter ghee container on the back of the hob containing veg oil.
The Chef shook my hand and started the curry making process ( I had ordered 1chicken madras and 1 lamb madras as if I had ordered 2 c/m he might have made both curry's in the same pan and I wanted to have a go  ;D) So this is how it went :-

Pan on hob Chef spoon of gravy added and quickly stirred (medium heat)
I asked 'you use no oil ?' No he said oil already in gravy 
Pan off heat,about 1/2 tbs of G/G added ,chef spoon of thinned tomato paste ,1/2 tbs chili powder, NO SPICE MIX 
I asked why no spice mix and he answered 'spice in gravy' 
A couple of stirrs then in with the pre cooked chicken followed by two ladles of gravy (heat turned up a bit)
'Salt' I asked, 'No he answered,salt in gravy'
Bit of fresh coriander added and pan moved to another ring to simmer (quite high) stirring occasionally - done.
Into the container and a sprinkle of fresh coriander for garnish. He dipped a teaspoon into the curry and offered me a taste,'very nice' I said (what else could I say with all them sharp knives about  ) but really it was just OK.
So I said ' my turn ' and he offered me the pan but he had already added the chef spoon of gravy so I dipped the chef spoon into the oil and took about 1/2 spoon and added to the pan.
Gave a little stir as you do  ;D with em all watching !off the heat dipped the chef spoon into the G/G tub and took about 1tbl spoon ' no he said too much ' but I said ' I like Garlic '  ;D then chef spoon of tom/paste ,about 1/2 tbs chili powder,and then dipped into the spice mix,'no mix powder' he said but I added about a tsp anyway  ;D back on the heat,a few stirs, he added the lamb and a ladle of gravy, a few more stirs and fresh coriander and more gravy, on to the other ring to simmer - done  ;D a sprinkle of coriander to garnish.
He then dipped the spoon into the curry and asked me to taste, ' my curry is better ' which got a laugh from the two helpers.
All in all a good experience (and a few surprises !)
I would say their curry's are a little under spiced as normal so in future I'll ask for extra spice 
I'll try to get some info on their gravy next time but I did mention what I put in my gravy and the chef said it was the same as his including a chef spoon of veg ghee, hope this might be of interest to you guys  ATB. 

ps- I did ask if they used whole spices and they said only in their Garam Masala which they make themselves.     

Hi all, had a busy day yesterday which didn't really leave me enough time to do our Saturday Curry etc so opted for a local takeaway, once again another disappointing Curry with little flavour and a quite watery sauce  , you would think that making Curry for 7 days a week they would have got it right by now  : my own Curry's would knock spots off last nights efforts,just go's to show we are not that far away from that Holy Grail  ;D

My Son recently visited the Spice Lounge in Watford,he said the food and service was excellent.
http://www.spiceloungewatford.com/

Thought I would try the Zaal Base today,like the idea of the whole spices plus wanted to give the veg ghee a go to see if it made any noticeable difference 

3 kg Onions plus green pepper,carrot,potato,garlic/ginger,salt,2ltrs of water.



Whole Spices,decided to put the lot in with the veg and blend in ( not a good idea  )



Ready to boil up -



Veg Ghee,blended Tomato (passata),spice mix,chili,turmeric and garlic and ginger



Base after 1hour 15mins.



Base after blending and sieving to remove all the black bits from the whole spices  ::)wont do that again !



Base after adding Veg Ghee etc. ( looking better  )



Finished Base after final simmer,oil just appearing on top.



Finished Madras Curry - very nice  ;D



The base is sweeter than any previous base I have made and I think I overdid the cardamom a bit as the aroma was cardamom at every stage  the finished dish had a definite cardamom edge to it which I don't mind but the wife thought it was a little too much,next time I'll use a little less also I will probably put the whole spices in the pot for the final simmer and then put the base through a strainer to remove them.
All in all a very nice base,the curry, very nice and as good as any BIR around here other than the slightly ott cardamom  ::)very smooth almost as good as my best effort a few weeks ago and a base I will use again.
There was nothing obvious in the base from the veg ghee,whether the cardamom had anything to do with that I don't know  I did add quite a lot of water at various stages of cooking the base probably another 2ltrs and the finish amount of base was 5.5 ltrs could be watered down probably at least to 6 ltrs no prob.

 Made a couple of madras curry's for the Mrs and me tonight and very tasty too  but they were a little on the thick side really but I am finding I have to use the best part of a tablespoon of spice mix plus 1 - 2 teaspoons of kashmiri chili to reach an acceptable flavour but this leads to being quite a thick paste mopping all the oil up in the pan  ::)The local BIR's curry's seem to be a thinner consistency but retain that lovely savoury flavour (not always though  :)This got me thinking that if the base was quite heavily spiced I wouldn't need to add so much spice to the finished dish and so might not end up with such a heavy sauce  On the other hand I am using curry2go's base and spice mix at the moment and the base is quite heavily spiced but still need a fair amount of spice mix for a decent flavour,I could add water in the final dish to give a thinner consistency but this tends to weaken the flavour.

 My and the Wife's favourite takeaway is a 25 mile round trip from where we live so unless we are passing that way we don't get to have their delicious curry's that often  Some time ago when we did visit them I asked if I could watch our curry's being made and to my surprise they said yes  from that visit it confirmed to me I was on the right track but still something was missing  anyway,although we had a home made  curry last night we were within range of the T/A today and the Mrs agreed to have another curry  She did say this time she would wait in the car because I embarrass her with my cheek asking all the questions  , luckily as it was early the chef was on the counter taking orders and he remembered me from my previous kitchen visit and asked me how my curry's were coming on so I took my chance and asked him if I could come into the kitchen again and after a little hesitation he said yes  ;D and this is what happened ....
2x Chicken Madras,

Ali Pan on medium flame,Chef's spoon of Veg Ghee  added not Oil 
Garlic/Ginger paste added and stirred into the ghee for about 20 seconds
A tiny amount of met hi leaves and salt were added
Spice mix and chili powder (TRS chili) were added and stirred for about 20 seconds
Thinned tomato paste and fresh coriander added and stirred for about 20 seconds

At no time was this mixture cooked on a high heat,no flames,no smoke,and no coughing 

The first ladle of thin base was added followed by the pre cooked chicken,after about a minute a further two ladles of base were added and the gas turned down slightly and the curry allowed to simmer for 5-6 minutes and stirred occasionally.
The result as usual, bloody delicious  100% BIR.
I did ask if he used Veg Ghee in the Gravy pointing to a pot holding about 15ltrs and he said yes 3-4 chef spoons.

Although the thought of the health implications using Veg Ghee I feel I must at least try it in moderation 

I have tried the 'singeing' method for the last few weeks but my curry's taste the same as they have done for the last year or so and for me it is not a step forward but what with my use of whole spices and soon veg ghee I feel I will be getting close 

For sometime now my curry's although good have been missing that savoury but not over spiced taste like my local BIR's,I have tried by gradually adding more and more spice mix to emulate their flavour but my curry's just ended up being over rich to the point of being sickly
The talk on the forum lately is of Jalpur Garam Masala (ifindforu) being a 'must have' plus the use of whole spices has been mentioned and I must admit to being a bit of a fan of Garam Masala and the wonderful flavours from using whole spices,and it got me thinking 
1, We had Indian neighbours a year or so ago and as I was parking my car on the drive I could smell the most wonderfull aroma BIR x2  I had to go around and ask what they were cooking,It turned out to be a Lamb curry from scratch and they offered me a taster straight out of the pan ! Kapow ! what a flavour, and that aroma,I asked what gave the flavour and aroma ' Garam Masala ' was the answer.

2, I once asked at my favourite T/A if I could watch my curry being made and to my surprise they said yes  ;D
one of the questions I asked was what spice mix they used and was told ' that is chef's own Garam Masala'
and it was said in such a way I didn't feel I should pry any more :-X but looking at the mix it looked like just GM coarse with no sign of turmeric etc etc and this is what went into all the curry's (maybe not korma).

So tonight I thought I would experiment with some whole spices and see what flavour I could bring out in the final curry.
Using from frozen 2 portions of C2G base,approx 600ml I placed the frozen base in a saucepan and put the gas on the lowest setting as it started to melt I added 3 green cardamom (crushed), 3 cloves, 3 Asian bay leaves (the fragrant variety) and half a star anise. After a while it was up to a simmer and the aroma was wafting around the house,bloody lovely 
Went on to making mine and the Wife's usual Madras and only using a teaspoon of spice mix (due to the whole spices in the base) and then tasting to check on salt level there it was  the most fantastic savoury tasting curry I have ever made and to be honest slightly too savoury but definitely the taste I have been missing and definitely the taste of most of the T/A in my area.
For me the search for the 'secret ingredient' is over but working out how BIR's get this much flavour into their curry's without using whole spices is my next challenge,are we back to that Garam masala thingy again   
Just try what I have said by adding the whole spices to your portions of base (not your main pot of base for now) but I cant stress enough you use the right bay leaves (fragrent Asian not the European rubbish).
Onward and upward         

Lost all my little icons on the site just left with the Red cross (the one you can right click on and select show picture etc) but it doesn't work when I click on show picture either,any idea's