tel go to search at top of web page and type panch phoran - you'll find a few references there.

ty Les!

enjoy the forum Clive!

fishypops when I make curries using Taz base I start off with 400ml of base. The is cooked in two stages of 200ml each time. The first 200ml gets cooked right down till it forms a dry paste. The second 200ml gets added to make the finished sauce and is reduced to a finished sauce consistency that I like, i.e. not too runny, not too thick. This is done by sight and by feel.

Hi Curry Hotter, I'm sure some members will be very interested in your non-curry experiments. Recipes to follow?

  ;D

Oh yes you have definitely cracked it if these pics are anything to to go by. I am constantly disappointed with curries ordered from local establishments. There's maybe only two places here where I think they've got the better of me and in part that's because they offer something different from the standard BIR menu.

However it's a good place to be when you get to the stage that you can enjoy your cooking and not worry about what your local BIR is serving cause you know it's gonna have to be damn good to better your own. I think that's what this forum is about and it seems to me these days that more and more members are reaching their goals thanks to the collective pooling of ideas and experiences on the forum.

I look forward to more of your pics.

Stunning looking food MA. Is that garlic and coriander on the naan - it looks 110% like it came out of a top class curry house.

Your posts are always so thoughtful Jerry and I'm not sure if I can contribute much here. I suppose my use of chillies is more limited than what you describe. I don't use scotch bonnets, birds eyes or nagas at all and I don't think I've used dried chillies for at least ten years.

The green finger chilli is what I would use in chilli paste but alternatively the green "bullet" chilli would for me be a substitute. I like to use jalapenos when I make pickled chillies which I then use in quesadillas, or sprinkle on top of tacos. I love to make sweet chilli sauce with largish red chillies that are quite mild (I don't know what type of chillies they are though).  My impression is that BIR applications of chillies are somewhat sparing and I wonder if you are using them in a more sophisticated way?

It sometimes feels to me that the complexity and permutations of a lot of ingredients, i.e. herbs, spices, chillies etc. have been reduced to a common denominator by all but the most creative and quality establishments.

For those who think that society is soft on offenders, we are putting more people in jail now than at any time in the last few decades at the cost of thousands per person. So if you want to lock up more people then there will need to be more prisons built, all at the expense of us tax payers.