use the ashoka pre cooked lamb recipe with some very expensive beef. it worked a treat for me.

visited a new bir the otherday, and got chatting , as you do, about base prep. i specifically asked about spicing the base. the response was : "garam masalla type spicies, cardoman, cinemon, etc. There was no mention of curry powder, tumeric, or coriander cumin, which suprised me.

Interesting PP. The last time i was in a bir kitchen (my 10th demo) i made a point of looking at the heat going into the madras he was making. i will never forget this: For between 5 and 8 minutes it was vigouresly bubbling away at very high temp. small bubbles were rapidly breaking the surface, and the whole thing was furiously bubbling. There base is about as thin as you can get. out of 20 bir madras from different bir, there's is easily the winner nearly every visit. there base is unique, and closely guarded secret. its a bangledeshy bir btw. they seem to be the best type. all the food is very mild but loaded with toffee taste. very subtle spicing.  I have given up trying to replicate there style, as i make better progress when i just experiment for fun. I am convinced these bir recipies are handed down through generations, and to some extent are secret.

Jerry, the chef i know said he doubts you can get the taste without the ummff of a real gas burner. so this all makes sense, thanks.  The best workaround i can do, with my gas cooker, is to pump up the heat to full (once all the base is in) and blitz it all for 3 to 5 mins. Dramatically drying out the curry. it always results in a curry which tastes less home made. and a lot closer to a real takeaway.  high heat and lots of oil and salt seems essential. but you all know that ! 

my gas stove will not go high enough to have flames licking over the edge , like the big boys do. Will a normal gas stove on full heat suffice for this toffee technique? or is it essential to have those flames in the pan?

hi, i agree Jerry, i too would make the safron base (with no potato), and admins jalfrezzi. it is about as close to a real takeaway as you can get at home. if this still does not get close enough to a real takeaway, then i am afraid you need to make friends with a real bir chef and hope he spills the beans, and gives away the secrets of the trade.

thats my dad !   ;D

Hi curry kings and queens ! can someone with real experience of the whole ashoka kit rate some of the recipies, so i know which to try next. I have not got time to try them all unfortunately. So far i just made the ashoka lamb, and the bhuna korai, and the banjura paste. what would you guys recomend making next time? cheers my dears !

I accept your point about regional differences is probably correct. however it still shocks me that there is a certain bir taste, i have experienced up and down the country, that is totally missing from any curry from this site. the particular taste seems more common in bengal curry houses, than other types of bir. i believe the base they use, is quite a different beast to eg the safron base. in fact i would even argue that the safron base is very poor at producing a very good madras. although it seems ideal for most other curries.  Back to the threads topic, i would say the ashoka bhuna is a model bir bhuna, and is the real deal. so i would disagree that ashoka kit is wrong in any way, just a different style of base , and spicing technique. 

Hi CA , the link  to the balti butter masalla seems to bring up the wrong recipe. all else loads great. cheers for separating them into separate sections. The ashoka kit is one of the finest areas of this forum. many thanks to PP. I still have very fond memories of making at least 3 batches of that base sauce, and some mind blowing lamb bhunas. I will be knocking up a new batch nearer xmas. When I shall re visit these classic curries once again. nice one guys