I have yet to try this base and finished dish, but I noticed a couple of differences between Bruce's latest ideas, and those propounded before:

In Bruce's first articles for the Curry Club magazine, he made three different spice mixes: mild, medium and hot.  His later article recommended one mix, I call this "Bruce Edwards' mark 2", I use this pretty much all the time and I think it's very good!  From my own experience of a chef demonstration this makes sense. apart from chillie powder and chat masala (only used in one dish apparently), this chef only used one spice mix, and it looked very much like Bruce's.  Bruces latest mix is very similar to the "mark 2", except paprika has now been omitted.  I would be very interested to know why??

My second question concerns technique and chemistry!  It seems to be received wisdom that spices have to be fried to release their flavour, simply boiling them leaves a raw taste.  The problem with frying spices of course, is not burning them!  In the preparation of the finished dish Bruce fries onion/pepper to give an indication of oil temp (how vigorously they're frying provides an indication of temperature), and to some extent to control temperature as well:  frying anything that contains water (eg onion/pepper) will tend to keep the temp at 100 c as long as moisture remains in the veg, 'local' variations arround the pan excepted!.  The chef I saw achieved the same effect by putting a fraction of a ladle-full of base in the pan before adding the spices (a couple of Tbs I recall).  I do similar.  

Question is, does the spice need a little while above 100 c to impart optimum flavour, this COULD happen as temperature climbs when onion/pepper frys itself dry in the final dish!  BUT, the spice added to Bruce's BASE (as opposed to final dish) could NOT possibly do this because such a large excess of water is present!, and yet, presumably, the spice still does its job!

Bare with me, I'm getting to my point....

Surely then, provided a large excess of oil is present to draw the flavour out of the spice mix (the active flavours in spice are lipd-soluble, so the oil needs to be present), a small percentage of water, to stop temp climbing above 100 c would not be detremental, because obviously it does not cause a probelm with the spice flavouring Bruce's base

My view then, is that it does not matter a jot about how fernickity one is about frying spices in the final dish, provided:-

1)  An excess of oil/fat is present

2)  A small amount quantity of water (or moisture in added material) is present also.

3)  Frying continues long enough to ensure the spices are cooked ('toffee' smell).

If the above were not true, the relatively large amount of spice in Bruce's base would not be adaquately cooked, and I presume it is, becuase he obviously knows what he's doing!

Sorry,  if I appear to done this point to death, but it is one of the crucial bits!

I usually add a chopped chillie, and maybe a curyy-leaf or two, to the hot oil (3 or 4 tbs for a 2 person portion), and when sizzling , add half a ladle of base before chucking in my spices, fry 'till toffe smell , and oil JUST begining to separate, this takes about 1 minute, add rest of base and ingredients and it works every time!  I'm not suggesting it's perfect but I'm very happy with the result.

Comments chaps and chapesses!

Can't wait to give this a go, can't wait to hear more about everyone's experience of it!

Bruce, thank you VERY much!

Sorry must have done that quote wrong, loolks like somethig I said, it was Haldi's comment!!

Hi Adrian
         I have only ever come across this spice mix being used at at one BIR
In my opinion they make the best curries in Nottingham
It is their "restaurant spice mix"
Basaar spice mix is normally used for "homestyle" cooking
Has anyone else come across it in BIR's?

Did you see it being used?  I'd love to find out as much as possible.  I've sometimes used it to completely replace 'normal' spice mix in my madras tupe curry with good results!

What is the name of the place in Nottingham where they use it?  i'd love to pop in a try their stufff next time up up that way!

I made chix tikka usin the PC?CA method given here a few days back.  I marinaded the chicken for 24 hours, and cooked it at the top of my fan oven at 'full-chat' (220 c -ish I think) for 10 mins.......

FAN -BL@@DY- TASTIC !!!!!

I must say it really was worth faffing about with all the dried mint etc!

I'd be very interested to hear more about the use of Kashmiri Basaar powder by BIR/Balti houses.  I've tried it a few times and I like the flavour it gives, although usually I've used it in conjunction with a 'normal' spice mix (I use Bruce Edwards').

My misses ordered a curry by 'phone recently, and as usual she asked for a paratha, we were also under the impression that it was pronounced 'parata', this resulted in a lot of confusion at their end untill the bloke we normally talk took the phone, and, laughing his head off, explained we'd been talking to a new bloke, and that where he came from in india, 'parata' meant 'finish' or 'end'!  He'd no idea that parata was bread, and thought we were using the word to state that we'd finished reading out our order.

Ho hum LOL

Many recipies, on CR0 and elsewhere seem to call for Kashmiri Masala, or Kashmiri masala paste.

I believe it can be bought ready made in jars in Asian shops.  I am aware that Pataks do it, but having used some of their stuff in the paste have been less than impressed.

Does anyone know of a good make of ready made Kashmiri Masala Paste that's not Pataks??

That sounds like a LOT of garam masala!!

My local chinky take-away comes in those plastic containers, I save them up to freeze my batches of base-sauce in!