George,
Sorry for any confusion

I typically use only one base sauce. This is used to make all my curries.
I do not use spiced oil as such, but, normally, initially cook whatever spices I am using in about 1 tbspn of oil to release their flavours. Depending on the actual curry I am making I will then add say 40 ml of base sauce and then gradually add the rest of the base sauce and other ingredients throughout the cooking process. I find this produces very different flavours rather that everything coming out much the same.
Does that make more sense?

If you are interested you could see it in more detail on my web site, although I am not trying to promote this here. It is a site dedicated to cooking for 1 person and has a section devoted to takeaway styled curries that is quite comprehensive.
You can find it at www.cook4one.co.uk/c2
In addition there is a menu page at www.cook4one.co.uk/c2/rm.html.
Alternatively you could go to www.cook4one.co.uk and negotiate from there.

The C41 base sauce is the one I usually use although there are others described.
It may appear to be very similar to the KD2 version, but this is entirely coincidental and I could go on for ages describing how it evolved, but that's another story.

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?

Just to add a little more controversy to this subject, the original post from emin-j fascinated me. I had to give it a go and was pleasantly surprised with the results.
It got me thinking about how I would have done it if I'd thought of it? Also, could the process be simplified even further?
This is what I came up with and just had to try it out.
I was fully expecting a total disaster, but was totally amazed by the result. It produced the best madras and vindaloo I'd had for a long time (may of course say something about my normal standards  )
If you're at all interested the recipe can be found here... http://www.cook4one.co.uk/c2/bases/c41qbase.html
The madras is here... http://www.cook4one.co.uk/c2/sb/c41madras.html
It is thinner than a normal base and has a brown colour as might be expected.
Thanks emin-j for the idea.

There was a server space issue, happened to me too.
Now solved it seems, post away...

Had these as an accompaniament, got them from Morrisons and they are very good...

Pics (hopefully) now for Dopiaza Ashoka style.
They are a little small as I was trying to circumvent the server space issue...
Hope they are viewable.
(1) Ingredients
(2) Finished dish

There seems to be a problem with sending pictures at the moment.
This is my n'th try with picks for the Dopiaza Ashoka style...
Failed again - will try sometime later.

I posted this in another section, but maybe it should have been here...

I just found this link to Ashoka's menu for Chasni...
Click on "A Taster"
Each time you refresh using F5 (that's the function key 5) you get a different
recipe.
You may need to use F5 a few times to get Chasni.
http://www.ashokacookbook.com

Chicken Dopiaza Ashoka
======================
In this recipe I, once again, used my cut down version of the base, onion/garlic paste and bunjara (previous post)
I don't think this will change things very much and may even encourage those intimidated by the large quantities to get started. Tastes BIR to me!

1 marinated cubed chicken breast - Ashoka style
2 tbspn oil
1 tspn Ashoka garlic/ginger paste
150 gm onion (prepared weight)
100 ml Ashoka base
0.25 tspn salt
0.5 tspn deggi mirch (chilli powder)
1 tspn Ashoka bunjara
0.5 tspn garam masala
0.5 tspn ground cumin
0.5 tspn coriander seeds
0.25 tspn fenugreek powder

Preparation
===========
Cube the chicken breast and marinate Ashoka style.
Grind the coriander seeds to a powder in a pestle and mortar. (freshly ground is much better)
Mix 100 ml water with 100 ml of Ashoka base (obviously makes total of 200 ml)
Slice the onion into rings.

Cooking
=======
Heat the oil in a pan and fry the Ashoka garlic/ginger paste, stirring, for 30 secs. (it will spit, and so would you in a hot pan)
Add the onion and fry, stirring, for 2 min.
Add half of the Ashoka base and stir.
Add the salt, chilli powder and chicken and fry, stirring, for 8 min adding a little more base during this time.
Add garam masala, ground cumin, ground coriander and fenugreek powder and stir well.
Add bunjara and fry for 2 min.
Add any remaining base.
Simmer, adding water as necessary (unlikely) to produce a fairly thick sauce.

Pictures to follow...