Thanks for this recipe Peterandjen.

I used it last night as it looked simple, and I've never made pilau before. Fantastic! It worked amazingly well, so much better than the overboiled gloopy rubbish I usually end up with.

I modified the quantities for my tastes - 100g and 1/3 pint water per person. May try adding some other spices next time like cardamom.

My rice will never be the same again, and the stupid thing is making rice this way is probably easier than the way I used to do it - you just have to leave it alone!

I made my first 'BIR' curry last night.

Wow. Outstanding! That's exactly what I've been looking for, I can't quite believe how good that was. I had to phone people up and tell them! Considering that's my first attempt, it was so good that it's hard to know how I can improve it - but I'm sure I will.

I did Madras with BE sauce, a mushroom bhaji and pilau rice, all using recipes from this forum - so thanks everyone! Next onto something more complicated. Here's the pics...

Thanks all for the welcome.

Here's the sauce I made last night and blended this morning, as per the BE recipe. This pan was the largest I have, so I had to reduce the ingredients - must go out and buy a new pan!

Can't wait for dinner tonight, will be trying out a madras with this base.

Well hello everyone.

I found this site yesterday after doing a search for a base sauce. (I'd made one last month from a recipe I found, and it was poor  - just tasted of onions! - and it's daft that this recipe comes almost top of the searches, whereas this site was quite a way down).

Anyway, once I registered, I was hooked. I couldn't stop reading, there's such a wealth of information here. I was reading well into the early hours and went to bed dreaming of onions and sauces and spices! It's a great site, and I have the feeling I may be visiting a lot, and hopefully contributing to the occasional discussion.

I've tried to cook curry a lot over the years, but I'm the kind who likes to experiment, not follow strict recipes, and just chuck things into the pan at random. Sometimes they're great, sometimes they're barely edible. For example I tried to make a pathia last week, and used mango chutney, lemon juice, and tamarind paste to try and find that sweet and sour flavour. The base sauce thing is quite new to me - I've just spent the afternoon putting together the BE sauce, which is currently just cooling down. So we will see tomorrow when I use it - fingers crossed!

After my intense reading sessions, here's some of the things I've already learnt and been surprised by:

1) Chilli - I'm amazed, I had always thought that powders were a cop out, poor quality, and that fresh stuff should be used. The first thing I do usually is chop chillies, garlic and ginger, then add coriander and garam masala (which hardly seems to be used at all on this site). Hardly any recipes I found here use fresh chilli, and I have avoided chilli powder for years.

2) I like the hot, sweet, sour currys, and often make pathia, dansak, ceylon etc. I always use dessicated coconut, which I have read is not the right thing to use - I must buy some powdered sort.

Oh I'll stop now, you'll all have got bored by this point! Suffice to say that I found a good local indian grocer, stocked up, and the base sauce is on the hob. Can't wait, cheers!