Ok , suffering from slightly above normal cholesteral i have always watched my intake of butter etc. I have used butter ghee in rice and curry regularly for 2 years. recently i did a test to see how bad it is. as a rule if any margarine, butter or oil product remains solid at room temperature this is how it will stay in your blood and heart. I left a tub of butter ghee in a warm room for 2 days, and was shocked it was still solid. I thought i would post this, for anyone still in doubt as to its health implications. anyone know a healthier substitute, other than veg oil.

does the top end gas burner actually make that much difference. i use normal household gas, and it seems more than hot enough. i usually turn it up full for 5 mins or so each curry. am i missing something not having a bir style burner, or is my domestic gas cooker enough?

is the small brown seeds in middle black cumin, or normal cumin?

i think people underestimate the importance of cooking the chopped tomatoes and tom puree correctly. and integrating this into the base. if the tomato element of the base is done wrong then the final madras is never quite perfect. 

the debate on what base and curry should be used as a benchmark can be answered simply, if we all ask our local bir chef the same question. It would be very interesting to hear their response. The chef at my local has clearly stated madras is the most important dish (the benchmark curry mastered first by novices in his kitchen) , what does the chef at your local bir say? I have a feeling there will be a range of responses, depending on the type of base that restaurant makes. so also try to find out if they use very plain , thin,  low spiced bases (e.g. the kd base) or if they use heavy spiced thick bases, such as ashoka base. it may be that we identify two schools of thought on this age old topic. I am sure most chefs would be happy to discuss this with us. So get asking next time you visit, and we can have some real closure on this issue. as it seems to crop up every 6 months on this forum.

never quite sure how to respond to everyone in one message !  ;D , so here goes...

Mickbass, I will try that idea, as i make blades tikka most weeks. top notch !

Mikka, thanks for the tips , i totallly agree with that. adding these spices to spice mix makes good sense. for me its the way ahead. For the moment, i am keeping my base as plain as jane !

PaulP, i seem to remember the madras was good, although it does have coconut. still nice though. many of the lamb dishes were very good. i will post the exact recipies i liked tommorrow for you. its a classic book, good purchase. i still use mine regularly. I tweaked a few recipies to make them bir style, by grinding and slightly reducing the amount of whole spice, and increasing the oil content alot ! I ended up with a much smoother sauce than the version in the book. i will try to post this for you to try.

Hi Paul P, yes i wold recomend doing a week each month of traditional indian, as it gives you a solid grounding for bir. I have been shocked at how close some recipies in some good books come to bir food. the longer cooking time adds a huge amount of flavor ,hard to reproduce with bir cooking style. . Jerry how much fennel do you add to the base ? about a tsp?

Hi all , do many of you add methi seeds to the final curry , or fennel seeds. Some traditional indian recipies i make use 0.5 tsp fennel seeds at the start, fried in oil. does this work well for things like madras?  fennel is my next thing to introduce to my repetioire. anyone else had good results using these with bir cooking?

I am largely guilty of lack of photos , and have only posted 3 recipies. The main reason i dont post my latest efforts is 1) i dont know i can stand all the criticism. 2) if i post the full base and recipe (a years fecking hard work) one tiny mistake in base or recipe can throw it all off kilter. so i seriously doubt members will reproduce it easily, . this will lead to criticism, and do my head in. (3) i am not doing much that isnt already well posted here anyway. possibly in a slightly different way to some members, which may or may not improve the taste (debatable)  Most of my improvement in the last year has really been about refining the basics, and tighter technique in making base, and cooking the curry. and better reproducability week on week. in other words technique. this is best learnt at home on your own. my biggest advice would be find a base and technique you are happy with, then stick to it, and tweak it each week. dont copy others, as they might not know as much as you assume. or there idea of perfection might be totally different to yours.

CA, i thought adding some input from a real bir chef might be relevant?  personally i think its an important point, worth sharing.