Kris Dillon specifies vegatable gee in her pilau rice, I use that method when I make pilau, and it's good.

I don't make it often 'though, I usually buy extra pilau when I order a take away and freeze the surplus as soon as it gets to my door, I know reheating rice is not good practice, but so far I've had no probs.  When I make rice I microwave a load of (plain) Kohinoor basmati, and mix a the defrosted T/A pilau with it, good way of making it go further!

I'm not surprised they don't clean the pans between each dish, even if they were still dirty there would be time time for bacteria to grow, provided they don't store them overnight like that.

In the demo I saw the chef cooked my madras, poured it from the pan into the carton, and the pan remained clean for the next dish with no additional action!

Well done, good work

Never realized quite how much sugar goes into a korma!

Jery

Fair one, worth asking

JeryM, did you use home made chicken stck, it's very very different from cubes?

I agree entirely with what you say about over spicing, I used to do that, the BIR I've seen in action, essentially use ONE spice mix (plus chilie, and occasionally chat masala), so the difference in flavour of individual dishes does not have much to do with variation in spicing, more to do with other ingredients, tom puree, daal etc.

Several years back, when I had a demo ( the chef of a local BIR let me watch him cook me a madras), after I got the meal, the chefs partner, who was responsible for 'front of house' (the two were partners in the business), told me that 'everything from the chicken' went into the base.  I took that to mean stock made from the bits that would otherwise be waste.

I always make my base from stock made from a left over roast chicken carcass, rather than water, I was never sure it made that much difference until last night, my home made madras was nice, but not quite as good as usual. In my last few curries, I've been adding additional reduced stock, in the final prep of each individual dish, becauseI didn't have any when I made my base.  Last night i forgot to add it in, the result seemed to lack the 'well-rounded' flavour I normal get.  I can only describe it as tasting "thin", from a flavour point of view (as opposed to viscosity).

I think there may well be something in this thread!

Gonna have to give this one a go!

Can't wait to hear more about this.

It's interesting that the onion (and various other ingredients) are first fried before simmering, is this something you have seen done in a BIR??

I know it's a 'tall order', but wouldn't it be great if CrO people could get together so we could all 'talk curry', and taste each others efforts.

The pooling of group knowledge and 'taste results' might help us all!

The last couple of pages of this posts have really stimulated debate!

I can empathise with many of these points of view.  I'm not 'blowing my own trumpet, but I think my curries are better than most of the ones available  from BIRs local to me, most these days seem to be absolute crap!  BUT, and it's a very big BUT, I cannot get close to the best BIRs I've ever had....

I know exactly what everyone is saying when they mention an aroma and savoryness that they cannot seem to replicate!  And it is true that there seemed to be more BIRs about in the 'old days'that could pull it off!  So many BIRs now use 'short-cuts', such adding tomato soup, to achieve a sometimes passable, but never fantastic, flavour!

I too, have wondered if some now outlawed seaoning was used formally, before maybe EU regs prohibited it?

Back in the early 80s (yes, I really am that old!), I used to go to a really cheap place in Leeds called the 'Islamabad', all the curries tasted similar, whether I ordered a madras, korma or something called a 'masala' (not tikka masala).  BUT the aroma and taste was fantastic.  I WISH I could replicate it, even though I can make a better madras than my local take-aways!

The search is fun, but infuriating!