cheers guys. so whats a sensible mix of whole spices to place in muslin bag when boiling the base gravy. approx quantities ?

making 4 curries in a row, always leaves me knackered as a barman at a beer festival! all the excitement, and mess, cant beat it, lol

any suggestions folks?

made a delicious veg balti at full temp in under 10 mins last night. not including 5 mins to get out spices and base.

any home cook who can fully reproduce a high quality bir madras with all the final 5 percent taste, must be a fecking super hero! will anyone ever do it? how many extra techniques would they need to master, to do it at home. is it actually impossible at home? some bir chefs say it is. christ knows why though. odd hey

Thanks for the ideas guys. i think its time to stop trying to emulate my locals base, and return to a tried and tested cr0 base for a few months.

Josh, great idea. i am not keen on reclaiming from the base, so will try your idea. cheers

what a relief! now thats a bir cookery preparation i can do!  ;D

cant wait to try this lot. i can never buy kashmiri mirch or kashmiri chilly. will normal chilly powder be ok. does kashmiri chilly taste alot nicer than normal chilly powder? cheers

All very valid points i have given much thought to Jerry. the safron was equally to blame for this issue, as any of my later custom bases i have made. i have actually gone off the safron base for madras curries, because it often produced this taste issue i have described. When i crack the problem i will report back. When my technique is on form i find this issue does not occur, so its just a matter of technique and timing i expect. I dont like the taste of the base to be noticable in my curry. hence i like to overspice a bit, and create a full flavor. this can be hard to pull off every time though. but i am learning. the spiced oil is good for boosting the flavor. but its a pain to keep the supply of spiced oil coming each week. i wish i could make it in bulk! any ideas on that Jerry?