Well done Stephen, this is good work, but might I also add:

>> was told they were both as good as restaurant meals>>
Comments like this from friends are nice, but absolutely meaningless - I've been told that for 20 years, and it's not true.

Curry Canuck

I appreciate that Indian cuisine is truely fantastic, producing woderfully tasting meals, but for years I only knew the restaurant style and taste.  That taste became my quest and when I finally got hold of books etc - I was then able to make a traditional Indian curry, but it was too late, I was already addicted to the BIR  curry.
In culinary terms, BIR food is trash compared with a good traditional Indian meal, it's equivilent to a ready made meal, it's cheating, it's a short cut to the real thing, and it's definately un-healthy if you were to eat too much of it.  But like the rest here, I just cant stop eating it, and I want to be able to re-produce it, it's a real obsession.   

Bought some bhaji mix in my Indian grocers at the weekend, the make is Gits - its in a packet inside a box - cost ?1. Just mix it with water and add onions etc and fry. Gorgeous.

The Curry House blend for me too.  I shall keep using it until someone comes up with something that proves better.

>> always a supply of 5 litre size tomatoe ketchup>>
All BIR's also sell Engilsh food - eg. chicken and chips, omeltette  etc.etc. Some people accompany curry addicts to the restaurant and don' like curry.
When they serve non-Indian food, they bring out the usual salt pepper and tomato ketchup. This is what these big containers of it are for.

In my opinion, tomato ketchup will spoil your curry as it contains a lot of vinegar. Ive tried it.
Campbells tomato soup has also been suggested. Tried it and spoiled my curry.

This is just my opinion. Many may disagree.

>> Have we ruled out MSG? >>

I woild say it has no place in Indian curry cooking(BIR or traditional). Although I know Indian grocers sell it. Many Chinese people shop in these places.

Hi Ian,
>> Best results so far have been with tweaking the Kris Dhillon recipes>>

As you can see, most recipes put forward here are exactly that.
After all the tweaking thats been done by everyone here, we are still very close to Kris Dillonss recipes.
As far as I'm concerned she really did reveal the 'Curry Secret' After that it just takes lots of experience.

Just wondering...... Does anyone think that it's a good thing that anyone in the world can visit this website and in an instant and without any previous toil or cost, have the recipe to make a BIR curry??

Or, is that exactly what the WWW is all about?

I'm not sure.

For me, an onion is an onion, is an onion, is a .........
I buy mine usually from Somerfeld, where they have been under 30p a pound for years now.
I've tried Spanish, blue, big, small......, but never noticed any difference at all in the curry.

For those who have read Bruce's Curry House article saying that restaurants use only Spanish onions, - well where he got that info from bewilders me.

I've been using Kashmiri Masala on and off for years(it's just curry paste), it will certainly add a little something, but before anyone gets too excited, it is not a secret missing ingredient.