I tried the ketchup yesterday, might have overdone it,chucked some mustard in too - tasted a bit crap though.  back to the drawing board.

Blondie, have you ever tried adding mustard to your sauce/curry?  I havnt yet myself, i might try it later - along with ketchup.  I believe youve had a sample recipe from the new balti book havnt you?  If it tastes the same as the restaurant, Isnt your battle over?

A few people have mentioned tomato ketchup being used in curries, this is probably the case if the stuff they use is not as thick as puree you get from a tube.  Last time i went to the indian wholesalers i noticed, next to the large tubs of pataks pastes were  large plastic containers of heins tom ketchup, right next to an equal sized colemans mint sauce.  we dont get bottles of ketchup on the table in birs, so it got to be goin somewhere.

hi woodpecker

I copied the recipe you mention today, ill give it a go,  the curry gravy sounds promising, it also mentions making a seperate sauce for rogan dishes which makes sense as most rogan dishes ive had are red in colour and ive seen a large pot of red sauce in a kitchen before.  Has the recipes got "the taste" then?

A peice of blue plastic carrier bag or somethin, the takeaway is closed now for some reason - it was very nice though (the food, not the bag)

Im not even going to attempt another guess at base sauce ect. until this balti book comes out.  Being a perfectionist i end up throwing too many efforts away!  It gets me down!

Yes, i am he.  Im new to this site, seems good.  I read that someone has tried one of the recipes from the book and it turned out the same as the restaurant so it sounds promising, i cant wait!

Ive mailed the author of this new balti book thats coming out and it sounds quite promising, restaurants use pastes in a number of recipes (if anyone tells u different then they are lying! so if you get a book that doesnt mention pataks pastes in a tikka or sheek kebab recipe then you know its crap!)  the author got back to me and confirmed that these pastes are in the recipes (certain starters but not actual baltis/curry sauce) and that the recipes are the ones used by the chef.  I am quite optimistic about this book, this might be the one!