Have to agree with the latter part of your thread, what you say is most correct, but yes i do think that that something is missing, it could be a particular veg or spice, or as you say right under our noses, as we all know its that little thing that eludes the taste just as if we had sunday lunch without gravy. you know sunday lunch just wouldnt be the same hope the madras goes down ok

This may cause a bit of controversy and i know some have been behind the scenes of a bir kitchen, although there are lots of youtube clips from bir's, theres nothing like publicity, publicity can make you money, get you noticed, although ive been into 3 or 4 bir kitchens and watched them cook my takeaway they seemed very reluctant to really tell me anything when i asked a question or two, so do we really know what goes on behind closed doors, maybe the whole cooking method is different, a way of leading us down the wrong avenue to stop us getting it right! or maybe someone as witnessed all the goodies going in the pot, if that was the true case then we would have captured that true authentic taste long ago that everyone is longing for, after reading a few past threads its seems a lot of budding bir chefs on here have gone to the ends of the earth to get it but still no luck in doing so, just a thought!!! maybe you can see my point!

I find shan powders leave my mouth very dry, like ive just eaton a pack of talcum powder.

mangal chicken masala mix, sold in all asian supermarkets, you can google it and look at images, DO NOT BUY SHAN MASALA'S, they are not very good.

Tried the new base last night, pretty good, i did add a little tom puree to take a bit of sweetness off,

Ingrediants:

4 medium onoins
5 large carrots peeled and chopped
5 cloves garlic chopped
1" peice of fresh ginger chopped
3 tbls of chopped corriander(roots)
1/4 pint of cooking oil
water

Spices:

1 tsp ground corriander
2 tsp paprika powder
2 tsp tom puree
1 tbls kashmiri chicken masala powder.

Method:

Add oil to pan, add chopped onoins and gently fry until transparent,
add chopped garlic/ginger cook for 5 mins,
add kashmiri masala/ tom puree/ground corriander and paprika, stir for 1 min on very low heat
add chopped carrots and fresh corriander and water just to cover,simmer for an hour until soft.
once cooked blend to a puree and resimmer until oil is visible on the surface, you will notice a change in colour and taste as the garlic cooks out it gets sweeter. i think this is the case that most bases when pureed need  more cooking time to get that taste, this is why most bases ive heard about taste bland.
got to say the base was very nice.
have a go see what you think!.

Just in the process of cooking a new base/curry, slightly different approach, smell's good so far! there are no tinned tomatoes or puree and its cooked all in the same pot. update you soon!

Update my mrs's salmon dish is taking over my curry smell, SHES BANNED FROM KITCHEN!

Thanks for the compliment, im not the worlds best engineer but i get by with a little care. idle speed of this engine is 40,000 rpm,,,,, full throttle is 120,000 rpm, 16lb thrust, the turbine/compressor wheel and shaft have been balanced on an electronic balancer,  it will run on paraffin/kerosene turps, deisel, whitespirits, avgas, lamp oil, whatever youve got at hand i suppose. i will try to uploads some pics, had trouble yesterday uploading so unclefrank(site member) had to upload them for me,

Big thankyou unclefrank appreciated for uploading the pics. just proof of the pudding i suppose, to be fair stephen the recipes in this book are not as good as you think, trust me, i thought pat chapans book was more  informative, yes it is oldish but again if you scoure the internet for bir curries as with this book i think everyone just trying to get on the band wagon at the time so to speak, most bir recipes on google search show pretty much the same results as the book.

it will not upload, if you email me at stevejet66@aol.com i'll send 2 pics via email, you maybe able to do it from your end.
thanks

Sorry bud, its early, yes i'll keep you posted,