Not your fault Cory, I think I'm like most people and read the thread then only read further posts from the last I had read, it was by accident I went back to the first page and saw the improved recipe amendment.So even the enlarged font wouldn't have helped as I had already printed out the recipe so had no real need to go back.

I can't even see a shoutbox  :-[

I'll go look for it.

You can always put the shoutbox in various locations, index, forums etc so that as you leave a thread its at the top/bottom of the page etc and then its easier to see as you go about the site.
I've coded in similar for various torrent sites.

Hi SNS,

Just looked on the bottle it came in and it doesn't really say much apart from made with GM sources, and a list of the standard energy, proteins etc
It may have been from a bad batch but I'll never find out because I certainly won't buy it again  ;D
On the same subject though I was doing a stir fry the other night , prepared all the veg, noodles etc then opened the freshly bought chicken breast from Asda and the smell that came out was unbelievable, it had even started to go white when I checked the underside, so I guess you can be unlucky in anything you buy.

I had read so many good reports of this base in this thread that I would never have been critical about it, for me it was a case of others have been successful with it so obviously something is wrong at my end.Thankfully I found what it was. ;D

Hi Cory,

I used the original recipe,(just noticed there is a new improved one out),and yes the oil was vegetable in both cases, normally when i do a curry its made from fresh and I use ghee but this was the first time I've knocked up a base.
The first oil was around 1.50gbp a litre if I recall correctly (maybe a little cheaper but I never really noticed the price at the time tbh), the second was a Costcutter own brand at 89 pence per litre, but there is no smell at all from it, unlike the first I used.

Okay, for my first foray into the sites recipes I decided to try this one,here is what happened.

Attempt 1

Followed the recipe faithfully, not a very nice smell from the base gravy at any point.
Went straight onto the Madras attempt, again following the recipe exactly.

Result- I can't describe the taste, it was horrible, not bitter not sour just horrible.Ditched the entire batch.

I hate being beaten by anything and have read some very good reviews for this base in this thread and so therefore decided it wasn't the recipe that was at fault but me somehow.First step was to throw out all my spices, they needed it as I started to realise just how long I'd had them.

Attempt 2

Wary of having to dump the lot again I cut all the ingredients down to 25% of the original so that I don't block the drains when I send it down the plughole again.
Brand new spices but same smell and horrible taste.Now I'm confused, there isn't much to go wrong but obviously something is ?.
I press on regardless and attempt the madras, this time I notice that horrible smell coming from the pan as I fry the onions off for the Madras recipe.
Result - I ditch the lot again.

I wake up this morning and all I can think about is this bloody base.
I decide to try to find out what is happening, I haven't any onions left from the original batches so decide to try rule out the pan and oil first.
I poured some of the oil into the pan I was originally using and heated it up, once it got hot the smell appeared.I then tried a standard teflon coated pan with the oil, again the smell.
The oil was freshly bought from my local Asian dealer.Its tradename is 'Pride' and its sell by is the end of 2009.

Attempt 3

New oil from my local supermarket, its Sunday so I don't have much choice, its also a lot cheaper than the 'pride' oil I used previously so I didn't have much hope.
Started again on the 25% recipe, this time whenever I took the lid off it smelled quite nice, so nice that I did a taste test throughout its cooking, no bad small, no bad taste, so far so good.
The end result of the base is that it is in no way unpleasant to taste, I begin to feel a little excited, maybe this time it wasn't a waste of time and money.
I knock up the Madras recipe improvising for 4 people and change it a little to add fresh chillies and a tsp of madras powder.

Result- Not what my local BIR serves up but I think that was down to my playing with the Madras recipe to get it to 4 portions without actually putting 4X the spices in there.It was however very very very nice and I'm sure that once I get the correct amount of spices for the portions it will be spot on.

I think the moral of this story is don't think that every oil tastes the same when heated.

Thanks for the recipe smokenspices I'll certainly be making more of this. ;D ;D ;D

I had become pretty much disallusioned with trying to make a perfect curry from web recipes,the end product never tasted as good as they made out.
After yet another failed attempt I finally came across this site, I've had a quick look at some of the recipes here and also the feedback on them. and ............ I'm now dismayed,

Because I want to try them all and its gonna cost me a fortune  ;D

Great site guys, I wish I had found you earlier, it would have saved me a lot of frustration.