I grind mine to dust in the spice grinder. You can taste it but not see it if you are conscious of the dish's appearance. Plus you only need a pinch as being so fine it permeates the dish more.

"The funny thing is,even though I was in the kitchen for about three hours my smell sense got so used to the place I couldn't detect any BIR aromas in he kitchen,my senses were well and truly blunted.It's only when I drove home with my goodies that I got that familiar aroma."

Hi JB. Great write up and fair play for getting in the kitchen. Just a quick one on the above comment you made. I have often thought the reason why we think we have not "cracked it" in achieving the BIR taste is because our senses have become dulled during the cooking process and by the time we sit down and eat we cannot appreciate the flavour of the dish properly. (I remember Gordon Ramsay commenting that you should never wear aftershave when going out to dinner for that very reason. - it corrupts your senses) And therefore we constantly tell ourselves there must be a secret missing ingredient that only chefs are privy to. I have thought it before but when I next do a curry (sadly not very often these days) I'm going to get the mrs to make it while I go outside and then come back in and taste it with completely neutral taste and smell. See if that makes any difference... :-)

Right I see...if the whole flower is dropping off - stem n all then that's a different matter as that's the bit the chilli grows from, I admit I didn't look that closely I thought you meant just the petals dropping off. I think to lose the odd one or two is normal. I wouldn't worry.

Hopefully the blossoms dropping is a sign that the chillies are on their way. Fingers crossed! :-)

MM

Hi

Really you shouldn't give them a liquid feed until a few chillies have started forming, same with tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers etc. Otherwise the nutrients will go towards foliar growth rather than producing fruit. Your growing success will depend largely on how you're keeping them. Ideally you want them in a greenhouse and water them at the same time every day. If you are growing them in the house put them outside in a sunny spot during the day and bring them in at night. Remember to pot them on using fresh compost as they get bigger and other than that just be patient, its still early in the season and there's plenty of time to get a decent crop.

Hope this helps

MM

I think chewytikka mentioned using them in a base once.

Nice one. I'll try this one next and report back with the results.

I bought a stainless one from TJ Hughes for ?1. It's perfectly good for the job but there's much better quality. At the end of the day you get what you pay for. Have a look on the Nisbets website. They do ones made by Vogue which look better value.

Thanks Bob I will try this base next. I notice you mention to use Dutch onions, I have started using these with better results now.

Just to make sure, do you blend the whole orange skin n all?

Thanks

Mike

I pre-measure the mix powder, chilli powder and methi into a ramekin - (this to save time fumbling around and prevent the risk of burning.) Then fry off the garlic and ginger for a few seconds, then tip the spices in and stir fry gently for a minute before adding tomato paste and gravy. Once the spices start to slightly burn my nose I know they've reached their limit and I must add something with a water content to prevent them being totally burnt. 

It's an interesting topic which I question also. I see BIR chefs on youtube put tomato paste in before spices or hardly frying them at all before adding gravy. Makes me wonder if it actually does make a difference to the flavour afterall. I don't know if this answer is a bit over elaborate for what you were looking for but this is how I do it.

Cheers