Given that TA's don't use some secret ingredient, then logically there must only be a few reasons why home cooked curries differ so much.

First must be practice, we just don't come anywhere near to the hours a pro puts in.

Second heat, our stoves & hobs have much less power than commercial equipment. Pat Chapman in an early book recounts being guest chef in a restaurant & the chef saying, as a big sheet of flame came up, it caramelises the spices.

Also, I am starting to believe that if you cook a curry & then immediately sit down & eat it, your taste buds & sense of smell are so overloaded you don't get the full flavour.

My family say my curries are far better than our local but then I don't rate theirs very highly.I still feel I am struggling to replicate the vindaloo's of the early eighties I used to eat in Southampton, places like Ajunta in Bitterne Park & the Mohti Mahal in town.

CA, is that made from the recipe you posted some time ago.

Looks fantastic.

I wouldn't fancy a slice of his Madras though.

He must frequent some strange restaurants.

Just made it & .... very nice.  Well balanced is how I would describe it, nothing coming through on it's own. Nice flavour all round with the black pepper adding a lovely fiery after taste. Far better than most TA's. Good recipe.

One thing, how many people was this recipe for ? I usually add 250-300 ml of base gravy, I can't believe you ate the lot yourself, unless you are sixteen stone.

Just a small point. In the method you added chilli flakes along with the chilli powder, there's no mention of quantity in the ingredients, did you mean to add them ?

I make it up exactly as CA says. Lovely added to hot ghee, then some chopped garlic & poured onto cooked masoor dhal.

 we did have these sauces here in Ireland, but I haven't seen them for a few years. I used to buy the vindaloo, it was okay, about the best I could say. I seem to remember the instructions were to fry your meat ,add the sauce & then a tin full of water.

Skinfleetwood, check out some of the base gravies here on the forum, CA's for one, indeed follow his vindaloo recipe & I guarantee you won't be buying any more tins of sauce.

Does anyone remember the basmati of the early eighties ? It had a lovely nutty aroma.

I have been trying a number of brands :

Badshah, TRS, Tohfa, Veetee Supreme, Tilda.

I have to say there is little between them & unfortunately none are as good as I remember.  Amazon list a Royale Supreme that interests me.

If I had to pick one brand it would be the Tohfa but really it is all about how you cook it.

Has anyone tried adding milk as half the amount of liquid ? I got the idea from Pat Chapman's  1988 Favourite Restaurant Curries.  It does improve the flavour & certainly the aroma.

There are a few good recipes in the book, he seems to have just been told about the base gravy method. My wife can make a very good 1980's vindaloo using his base method but it's to fiddly for me. His mix powder uses 14 different spices.

A restaurant has changed hands in a town near us & we tried it for my birthday, got a shock at the prices though.

In Euros, I'm in Ireland :

Chicken Pathia  ?13.95
Chicken Biriani  ?10.95
Chicken Dhansak  ?11.95
Bombay Aloo  ?5.95
Pilau Rice  ?2.25

You get the idea. I was over in England in February & my brother took me to a scruffy little take away in Southampton & the average price was ?5 for a curry, Bombay Aloo  ?1.75 & very good it was too.

When you read the menu & it says " made with exotic spices & herbs " it has a bit of a hollow ring really.

I think BIR's have got very expensive over here for what you get & the quality is hardly great.