Natterjak, you seem to have gone out of your way to view my post as 'churlish' .. what on earth is so wrong in your eyes with requesting more precision over measurements  ... bearing in mind this is a curry forum where by most posters considered opinion quantities of spice and so on are of paramount importance.... even more so to a beginner such as me. Any small improvement which helps take some of the guesswork out of the exercise I would view as a positive. 

I've shown in many of my posts my unequivocal gratitude for the many people who have made the effort to both formulate and share with us their recipes. My observation in my original post was exactly that .. an observation (even to the most sensitive types .. constructive criticism ) and no reflection whatsoever upon the effort people on this forum make. If anyone else finds my post 'churlish' I  apologise without reserve .. it was not my intention.

     

As a newcomer to this great site and not wanting to draw fire ... friendly or otherwise may I chip in with my 2 pence worth please ...

a) It would be a great help to people like myself if all measurements for all ingredients up to say 4 Tblsp were given in level Tsp or level Tblsp or increments thereof ie 0.25 Tsp or 0.5 Tblsp. I tried last Friday to interpret both heaped Tsp and heaped Tblsp whilst preparing for a curry and to be honest I wasn't sure if it meant as much as I could fit on the spoon ( with chili powder I can manage to balance almost 3 level as a heaped ) or just slightly more than 'rounded' ... 2 Tblsp ( level of course )would have been better for me than 1 Heaped Tblsp since the heaped option assumes some experience which I simply don't have at this stage. I wouldn't know where to start with a chef's spoon ... the bloke that sold it to me said he was a chef !. 

b) Not wishing to add fuel to the fire that is the 'monkey see , monkey do' debate I would say just this .. when I was learning to play golf I took lots of lessons so that I could at least hit the ball straight and long. At the time I had no understanding of the theory and no wish to get bogged down in it either ... I merely wanted to be able to consistently hit the ball straight so that I would not lose interest. Cooking curries is exactly the same .. by following some of the great recipes on here I've been able to produce curries the likes of which I've only seen previously in the foil tray we're all familiar with from the local T/A. I'm sure as my interest grows and I gain more confidence and understanding I'll try adapting some of these recipes to suit my individual taste but for now I'm extremely happy with my 'monkey sees , monkey does' approach.

Thanks to all who contribute here .. even the few negative types ... it would be a funny old place if we were all the same !!

   

I always ( since jioning this forum anyway ) use CA's pilau recipe and I've found it freezes well and tastes great .. also for me as a beginner I find his/her recipes easy to follow with the illustrations that accompany the recipes being invaluable.

Thanks CA !   

Welcome Chillipopper !!   

I've tried these a couple of times and the second time around ( yesterday ) was far better .. there's no chance of getting chapatti flour here in Slovakia so I tried 'oo' white and wholemeal at 2:1 with luke warm water and the result was much better ... really tasty light and elastic chapattis which when used as a scoop holding a tiny amount of rice and a generous piece of chicken phall and sauce was pure pleasure ... oh by the way I did brush them with melted butter too   

What I'm still struggling to understand is how only flour and water can taste so good ... at school we called it glue !!

Thanks for this Gary ,

I've just cooked it now ( at 08.30 ... keen as mustard ! ) and it's very tasty and similar to BIR although not as dry still and I squeezed out loads of water ... what I would do next time is separate all the leaves because I chucked my squeezed balls ( fnaar fnarr ) in and whilst trying to break them down with the spoon the garlic and onion were catching a little more than I would risk usually ... apart from the salt content (needed as you say ) it's a very healthy dish and about the only way I would consider eating a bowl full of spinach ! I'm going to try 0.25 Tsp of All Purpose Seasoning at the end next time too ( only because I bought a bag and don't know what else to put it in ). It did look exactly the same as your picture by the way !.    

I use a metal 'chef's' spoon so I at least look the part ... I imagine myself in one of those youtube vids of great chefs preparing mouth watering curries ... it just wouldn't feel right with an ordinary wooden spoon like the one I use for porridge... this is a curry after all !!       

Wecome Beachbum !!   

Welcome Tongey !!   

G'day and welcome Mick !!