This is perfect rice for me and it freezes and defrosts better than fresh !

I tried this last night .. the flavour was great and the consistency of the sauce was nice along with the colour. The only negative for me was that I used Dessicated Coconut ( we live in Slovakia so there was no chance of coconut milk powder.. even curry powder is exotic here !! ) which always feels a little saw dusty to me. Overall a good quick tasty mid week curry .. as soon as I can get some of the milk powder I'll try CA's original one which looks better to me.

CA's Phall tonight ... cucumber wet wipes in the fridge in preparation for the next day !!!!

This is the first base I've made and my wife said it was better than any curry I've produced !! , I'm not sure that's a great compliment to CA or an indication of the standards of my Indian cooking previous to joining this great site !! I made CAs vindaloo using the base yesterday and it was mmmmmmmmm !!!

Thanks for everyone's effort on here ( especially CA in this instance ) and for all the advice that has taken my curry cooking from 1/10 to 8/10 overnight !! 

Blimey !!

Me and the wife made this last night and used CA's base too and for us it was amazing ... there's no Indian Restaurants here in Slovakia and we really do miss that authentic BIR flavour but for us this had it ... we doubled all the quantities so that we could have some food ready for tonight because we're out for the day but we ate the whole lot ... I'm going to try all of CA's recipes now ( no I'm not related to him :-)  )

To CA ... thanks a lot .. you're a top bloke for taking the time to share all this !!

My Bangladeshi friend showed me this and I was impressed because a) it's tasty and quick and b) a biffa like me can cook it time and time again and it always turns out nice.

You'll need : to serve 4 as a generous side dish

200g red lentils washed under cold water in a sieve for at least a couple of minutes
half an onion chopped smallish
3 cloves garlic sliced
1/2  teaspoon Panch Phoron
5 tablespoons of cooking oil
1 bay leaf
1 + 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/3 teaspoon cumin powder
2 dry chillies
water
2 tablespoons of fresh coriander chopped fine

In a wok : heat the oil over a highish heat and add 2 chillies and bay leaf , fry for 30 seconds or so and add the Panch Phoron , fry until you hear the seeds cracking / popping and then add the onion and garlic , fry until you can see the edges of the garlic and onion have caught a bit ( don't stir too often ). Add lentils and fry stirring often for about 5 minutes ( you'll see the lentils turning yellow ), add turmeric , cumin and 1 teaspoon of the salt and fry for a further 2 minutes. Add enough water to cover the lentils with a layer of water around 1cm thick over them. Cook uncovered for 20ish minutes until you can see that the lentils are no longer round but are soft and hard to distinguish as lentils ( most of the water will have been absorbed by now ) add the 1/2 teaspoon of salt you have left and the chopped coriander and cook for a further minute or two.

It's that simple and cheap as .. well lentils

Hi Rich ,

I'll stick the Massur Dhal recipe in the 'Traditional Indian Recipes' section now for you .. if you try it you'll like it and it costs about 20p per person ... great in these times of austerity !

Hello all ,

This looks a great site and I hope to pick up some good recipes that will help me through my time in Slovakia without BIR ... I've been here 9 years already and I've befriended the Bangladeshi / Slovak court translator which means some great evenings talking and eating curry but nothing like the good 'ol BIR. I hope I can contribute to the site too ... I do have an incredible and simple recipe for Massur dhal from my friend .

'Speak' soon

                         Colin  ( Lead guitarist with spoof band Bad News for the old folk 45+ )