i've just come across a website that shows how to make a basic version of Spiced Oil.
Heres the site for anyone thats interested http://www.experimentalkitchen.org/article.php/2005040318292155

and heres the recipe they show:
------------------------------------------------
Infused oils are incredibly versatile, they can be used to replace plain oil in a favorite recipe or they can be used as a condiment on finished dishes.

This recipe can be easily halved, if you doubt your ability to use up a whole cup of infused oil.

1 cup canola oil
1 shallot, minced
1/4 cup curry powder
1/4 cup water

1. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and the shallot to a small saucepan. Heat over low to medium low heat until the shallot is translucent and soft. Do not brown the shallot (this is called "sweating".)
2. Add the curry and stir to combine. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
3. Add the water. Turn up heat and bring the water to a boil.
4. Reduce the heat and simmer gently until most of the water is gone, leaving a paste.
5. Remove from heat and stir in the rest of the oil.
6. Put into a lidded glass jar and leave at room temperature for a few hours, shaking the jar occasionally.
7. Strain through a coffee filter into a clean glass jar (leaving overnight if necessary to finish straining).
8. Keep refrigerated when not using.

Quote from: George on March 06, 2006, 12:34 PM

Quote from: John on September 25, 2005, 10:27 PM
Anyone have any BIR recipes for a slow cooker?
Is it even possible to cook a tasty BIR type of curry in a slow cooker?

I doubt very much if hardly any BIRs use a slow cooker, so there's highly unlikely to be any "BIR recipes" as such. Now, you can probably achieve similar or better results with a slow cooker than they do with a furnace under a frying pan but then it wouldn't be BIR, would it?!

Well Thanks george for you input! i was asking in the way of taste not style of cooking!
Regards
John

Has anyone found a gravy base recipe where the oil comes off with the aroma of the BIR, i've used the oil loads of times but i never has that true alluring smell to it. dont get me wrong, it smells good but not like the real mc coy

Quote from: pete on February 15, 2006, 10:42 PM

Quote from: CashNCurry on February 15, 2006, 07:12 PM
After watering down - how much did you get? How many meals will it make? I'm thinking of doubling up the quantities as I have large dishes.

Pete, this made enough sauce for 2 seperate curry portions of the bir size.
----- i forgot to say that i did add tomato puree to the madras, but i felt if would be better if pureed tomatoes or passata were added instead. I have another mini base on the go as we speak, left on low simmer so i'll try more experiments tomorrow.
John

I had a play at the weekend too with muttleys base, only i changed the quantity's right down to the minimum and modified,  it turned out pretty good, infact it tasted exactly the same as the base sauce that i got from a takeaway in December.
Ingredients:
1 Large Onion, 300gr unpeeled weight, peel and dice
50ml vegetable Oil
aesofetida - i tried this but it left an odd taste at back of throat (will leave out next time)
half tsp Turmeric
1 Black Caramoms
2 green Cardamoms
5 stalks of coriander - the leaves were used for the main dish
4 clove garlic - sliced thinly
1/4 of medium carrot sliced
1 small potato - sliced,  must be of the floury type, eg i used Maris Piper, wax type dont work to well, eg new potato
Method:
add oil to pan and fry black cardamom and green cardamom on low for 5mins, then add onions and turn up heat to low/medium and leave to fry for 15mins, then stir in the turmeric and add garlic,carrot,potato and coriander stalks and leave for another 10 mins, then add some water from your boiling kettle to make the mixture quite thin, then remove only the "black cardamom" and blend.
* - You will notice that the blended sauce is quite thick, this is caused by the potato and it should be watered down to make it
runny. But you will also notice that the sauce consistency is very similar to what you get at the restaurant-thick and gloopy but still runny, the only thing i can say about this recipe is that i should have used a smaller potato for the quantities, i think an inch sq potato would have been perfect.
I then used this sauce to make a madras curry with darths pre-cooked chicken, bruces spice mixture and a tsp of chilli powder.
This curry turned out realy well and the only thing i can find missing is the pre-cooked spiced onions that adds that special taste!
Thats where im looking next.....with help from my not so local takeaway and all you lot too!
Regards
John

I was chatting to an asian friend of mine about spiced oil, he said he uses it all the time. Now he eats curry and other asian food everyday so i asked him for the recipe and method:
He fries in 2tbsp of oil a pinch of black mustard seeds, 3 bayleaves, 3 black cardamom, 1 stick of cassia bark (also called cinnamon but this was the bark variety) for 5 mins on medium heat before he adds the onions and the rest of the ingredients.

Thats the authentic way! but i wonder if we used that method for pre-cooking the onions, then we could use the oil and pre-cooked onions to the pan when we start our bir dishes, The bir way has to have some relation to the authentic way of cooking.

Authentic way - fry spices in oil then continue making the dish
bir way - fry spices in oil then cool and use for later when customer comes in

Ader1, it wasn't saturday kitchen by any chance? and on tv back in october? if so there heres a short discussion about it:
https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=570.0

Just found a place where you can order Bombay Duck online:
http://www.2pier.co.uk/

Quote from: George on December 23, 2005, 02:07 AM

Quote from: John on December 23, 2005, 12:47 AM
The base sauce that i got from the bir was straight from the big bubbling pot of gravy on the cooker top...

I asked for some base sauce from a take-away a few months back. The container was filled direct from the large pot but then the container was taken into a back room, when I think some fenugreek or coriander was added and who knows what else? Garam masala perhaps, for all I know?
Regards
George

Hi george, next time tell them that you really love there food and you want some of there base so you can try to re-create that dish at home, that way you will get the base sauce and then you can ask for some spice mixture to go with it, thats what i did and i got 1 tray of base sauce that was served up infront of me and sealed, i also got a 1/4 of a tray of spice mix that was taken from one of the bowls near the other spices right next to the cooker, this is an open type of kitchen too so there is no mistake that they gave me exactly what they cook with..

Quote from: DARTHPHALL on December 23, 2005, 12:35 AM
Sometimes i get the feeling these whole seeds are only put in to give a visual impression of quality & obviously to give the customers of the BIR that feeling that they are actually using authentic Indian Spices as i think they can get all they need from fully ground, a few seeds here & there is not going to make that much difference IMHO. 

I must respectfuly disagree, The base sauce that i got from the bir was straight from the big bubbling pot of gravy on the cooker top and it was this base sauce that i found the cardamom, when a cardamom pod is cooked in liquid i will become soft and when it is blended it will loose all the seeds through out the liquid and add flavour to the base sauce, whether you use 1 or 21 cardamoms you will still add flavour to the base.
The bir's use whole cardamom in there pilau rice for flavour so they have them on site.