Great review - also interesting to hear about Mudmee's, I've look it up next time I'm in London

There are various recipes on the forum but I found these in the Guardian which were pretty good

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2015/nov/26/how-to-make-the-perfect-samosas

Thanks for the informative post. I used to grow garlic when I had a reasonable vegetable plot (before moving house) and with staggered planting and harvesting I was almost self sufficient in garlic for most of the year (but that was before I got more into making curries at home). I'd save a proportion of the cloves which would planted in the autumn for the next years crop. Some seasons the plants did suffer from rust fungus though, which reduces the yield (although the garlic is still usable)

I hadn't read that, its LOL funny  ;D

LOL  ;D

At nearly ?25 for curry, samosa a pint I thought I'd better try to hang onto it

I was recently on a training course near Heathrow and fancied a ruby but couldn't be bothered to travel into London or even drive (traffic generally appalling). I wandered the streets and the only place I came across was 'Dine In Lust'. Maybe the name should have alerted me, it seems an odd name for a curry house. Still, it was getting late on a Thursday evening so I went in - the place was empty (not a good sign). I placed my usual order - onion bhajis and a chicken madras to be told that they had run out of onion bhajis and they wouldn't be cooking another batch until Friday. Soooo... all freshly cooked then.... Even if refried how can a restaurant run out of OB's - it is surely a staple starter. Its the curry that really sticks in my mind. When it arrived I noticed a pool of liquid coming out of the sauce which had the taste and consistency of a can of chopped tomatoes with added chilli powder, really grim. I would have preferred a jar of shop bought curry sauce.

As I don't live around there I won't be going back

I went on a cookery course some time ago at the Lasan restaurant in Birmingham. One of the dishes we made was tarka dal, which was wonderfully smoky. The tarka was pretty simple. Very hot oil, 1tsp cumin seeds, add about 5 finely sliced cloves of garlic, allow to brown, add pinch of hing, chilli powder (1tsp) and 1/2 tsp haldi and after a short time two chopped tomatoes. Allow the tomato to breakdown somewhat and then add to the dal (a mixture of channa, red split, urid and toor dals)

For me the smokiness comes from frying the combination of cumin seeds and garlic

I guess its this one

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/32033/mint-sauce-for-poppadoms.aspx

Personally I prefer this one - its simper and more like the restaurant around here, although we add a bit more yoghurt (or less milk)

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,743.msg7623.html#msg7623

cheers London

Thanks London, I will definitely give that a try, looks really good  . My final dish was more saucey than this so maybe I did not reduce it enough to concentrate the flavours.

I will need to track down the red masala but I think I have anything else

Thanks MM, I was surprised by what my taste buds indicated. It was my first go at this base, so I followed the recipe as written, but I find the kushi base reasonably neutral. I know I messed up the chilli, which upset the balance of the dish, but looking at the kushi jalfrazi recipe there isn't much spice in it other than the kushi spice mix (maybe my spice mix is 'off').

The other dish I made was this
https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,6152.msg61265.html#msg61265
which was superb

I thought I would have a go at making some of the dishes, without the meat, ie just the sauce, as I saw someone else suggest (CK?) for more practise without producing load of full dishes