QuoteHas anyone else given this base a go? It's a cracker IMO

I haven't tried it, but now that I'm out of base, I may give it a go.

To be honest, the one thing that deterred me was that it didn't seem to use much oil, compared to the amount of veg. I've always found better results with bases with more oil content.

Ray - why did you settle on 200ml?

Domi - I think you use Admin's base, but how would you compare it to BE, SnS, or any of the more common ones?

Very curious if this is the business. Nice one jb.

Anyone else Essex way thinking of trying it out?

My vote would be for Tikka.

BB - you're right this is a very good base.

Question - do you use the CA spice mix as per spec? In the finished curries as well?

I thought the base was great, but personally gave the spice mix "mix"-ed reviews. Possibly because I had no cardamon powder and had to grind seeds from whole (tedious), and the same with the methi (probably could have ground finer). I may have thrown the proportions out of whack.

-- Josh

Hi Razor, appreciate the effort and enjoy testing different spice mixes.

The only thing there that stands out to me is the tsp of salt. I personally like to measure salt separately, since it has a huge effect on the finished dish. I've settled on about 1/3 tsp of salt per restaurant-sized curry. A quarter tsp isn't enough, and I find half a teaspoon too much. (Note I also use MSG, which is a sodium of some sort, so I'm not sure how much that adds).

The rest of it looks OK to me.

I also wonder about (to a lesser degree than the salt) the methi powder, ginger powder, and garam masala. When I break down the ingredients of commercial curry powders, its often methi, asafoetida, cloves, bay leaf, etc. So I wonder if you add a lot of that separately (methi and garam), as well as a large proportion of curry powder (its tied for your #1 ingredient in the mix) I wonder if your mix is a little curry powder-ish.

Note that I have not tried it, but that would be my initial observation. No knock intended, I appreciate the experimentation and glad you enjoy the results.

-- Josh

The best chips I ever made home followed the Heston Blumenthal method.

Roughly the method is this: cut up potatoes to desired chip size, boil in water, shake, cool completely, fry in fryer at approx 300 fahrenheit until starting to brown (takes a while at the lower temp), cool completely, fry at 375 fahrenheit until golden brown.

No doubt great chips, but a hella lot of work!

-- Josh

For me, "methi" means methi leaf (kasoori methi). Perhaps made a little finer by rubbing between the fingers.

I have only ever seen methi seeds or ground methi in traditional Indian recipes.

-- Josh

Ray - I've always liked what bunjarra added to my curries in the past, but found it too time-consuming to make, versus what it added. It took too long to make for the percentage point or two it improved the curry.

How much paste does your method yield? A whole tennis ball sized onion sounds like a lot, i.e. would it not change the whole balance of the dish?

-- Josh

Looks good Pete.

Looking forward to your report on trying it with one of the recipes you got.

How good is the food coming out of your local?

Thanks for the heads-up Matt. Saves me watching random videos hoping they show the onion paste!