I will go out on a limb and say that BIR by and large from my recollection, is Bangladeshi-made curries adapted to the British palate.

I've had Nepalese, Thali (vegi), and authentic Punjabi and Goan, and none come close to the Bangladeshi "Indian" fare.

-- Josh

I've made these and they are the best bhaji's I've made yet.

Unfortunately though, I couldn't find aniseed and used fennel.

How much am I missing using fennel instead of aniseed?

Is it worth the extra search? And if there's an Indian name for aniseed that may help. I've never used this ingredient.

Thx,
Josh

I do wonder, out of the "special interest" forums, like cr0, what percentage of members post, and what percent don't.

In that regard, is cr0 typical?

CA - funny I have never seen that post.

Has anyone tried these recipes? They seem a little basic to me.

But being from 1993, maybe its what's some members are looking for.

Interesting video. I haven't seen that one before.

Pretty standard base recipe. The only thing there I haven't seen before is the addition of the oil, spices and toms AFTER the vegetables are blended. I wonder how/if that makes any difference.

Good stuff. I still wish we had a recipe for a restaurant-size base. I've always been curious if base recipes like this one scale down well for "home" use. I'd much prefer to get the full size recipe and either scale it myself, or go buy an industrial size pot!

-- Josh

QuoteThe base is cooked but it didn't give back any oil, even after nearly 3 hours of heat

Possibly because there appears to be none in the ingredients?

I think I can vouch for Dipuraja's CTM.

My longtime CTM standard was CK's. I've probably tried every single one on this site and countless others. (Not an exaggeration)

Recently I had moved to Mick/CBM's CTM, as I felt it got me closer to the CTM I remember from the UK.

Dipuraja's is very similar to CBM's, using a yogourt/patak's red masala sauce. The main difference is that Dipuraja's uses slightly less sugar and coconut, and adds almond powder.

To me, this is as close as I have ever got to BIR. I don't however rate Dipuraja's Tikka recipe. I found the finished tikka was overspiced. This may however be my doing. I cut the chicken/lamb up to finished size chunks. Perhaps the intention was to marinate larger chunks (breast into thirds?) and chop later. I did notice that Dipuraja in some of his videos seems to chop the tikka before using.

-- Josh

I made this tonight per spec... Dipuraja's base, spice mix, masala sauce, and CTM method.

I was actually amazed by the results. Fantastic!

The almond powder for me was a definite plus.

-- Josh

Thanks Mick and Peter for the suggestions.

I will probably give the Madras paste a go and see how that works out.

Cheers,
Josh

I'm planning on giving Dipuraja's CTM a go. His masala mix calls for kebab paste. They don't have that around here.

What does it taste like? Can anyone suggest an alternative?

Thanks!

-- Josh