Thanks CK it was definitely yummy!

One thing I forgot to mention... the original recipe says add 1 tbsp chilli powder, presumably because in the original Rick Stein recipe it was cooked with lamb and spinach as a complete curry not a sauce - so I'd have thought that for use as a base it would be better to leave it out, perhaps also the paprika too.

Also I sort of cheated and put the uncooked chicken in the sauce after all the pureeing, and let it cook for 45 mins then removed it with a slotted spoon before finishing cooking the sauce. The reason was the chicken was going to need cooking anyhow and I figured it might give extra flavour to both the sauce and the chicken!

My previous attempts have been the KD base (OK for a first attempt, the boiling of onions/garlic will stink your house out though) and Stew's base curry sauce (good but I fried the onions in a frying pan and they were nowhere near as good as cooking on lowest heat in ghee that I used this time). This sauce is by far the best I've tried so far.

So after letting the sauce simmer for an hour, it has gone a browner colour and the oil risen to the top. This is it (sorry about the contrast of the picture):



And here is a Chicken Jalfrezi made with about 3 ladles of the sauce. Enough for a large portion (tasting in the interests of science!  ;D) and two more which are going into the fridge for tomorrow...




I like this sauce, its easy to make, doesn't stink the house down and tastes pretty authentic. I didn't seem to have any troubles with it being bitter, I did cook the onions for about 25mins in the oil on the lowest heat with a lid on the pan and at the end they were sweet and very soft. Will definitely be doing this one again.

I thought I'd give this base a try this afternoon. Have followed the recipe (used 4 medium onions not 3 large) and used ghee instead of oil, just because I had some.

Here's a picture of it after pureeing the onions and adding the pureed ginger, garlic, tomatoes and spices:



I'll post another after its had time to cook a bit more... then the intention is a chicken jalfrezi...

Ok so after a few hours I tried a simple chicken jalfrezi using the base. Put about a tablespoon of oil in a pan and heated, then added a pinch of cumin seeds and a tsp of spice mix. after about a minute added a roughly sliced onion and cooked for a couple of minutes until starting to go soft. Added 2 tbsp base, plus a tsp of Veeraswamy madras paste, then added 2 chicken breasts cut into about 1 inch cubes and cooked again until the chicken turned white, about 2 mins, then added half a green pepper, one tomato quartered and 6 green chillis cut lengthways. After another 5 mins added the 2.5 ladles base sauce and cooked for another 5 mins or so.

Results was very tasty but the sauce was too thick - I think it needs more water or chicken stock, rather than 400ml I suspect 600 or even more might be better.

I thought I'd give this one a go this afternoon. I used 6 medium onions, total weight about 1.25Kg. The other changes were I used more oil (250ml vs 100ml in the original) as it didn't seem much, and I upped the ginger/garlic using about 2 inches of ginger root and a whole garlic bulb, probably about a tablespoon of each after pureeing. I also added 1tsp of ground fenugreek seed to the spice mix.

Having made the base (not yet used it, I'm going to let it stand until this evening) I can see why the KD book says to boil the onion/garlic/ginger rather than fry it. It has the same effect of softening it but avoids the risk of burning - I had to keep the pan on a fairly low heat. However frying avoids the dreadful smell that the KD method results in! Perhaps seperately frying the ginger/garlic would be a good idea too. Anyhow the recipe seems to work well and the result looks and tastes good too!

I have but a few...

"Indian Cooking" by Lalita Ahmed from 1981. I think my mum (who was born in Calcutta) gave me this, I forget, while I was a student to persuade me to cook!

"Indian Cookery" by Dharamjit Singh. Descibes authentic Indian cookery in the classical style.

"The Indian Kitchen" by Monisha Bharadwaj. Good descriptions of spices.

- fumble

Hi pforkes, I know what you mean. For a long time currys in the USA were non-existent. I first started seeing them in the late 90's but they were very mild and not like your average BIR at all.

Since about 5 years or so ago you can now get a vaguely decent curry in Silicon Valley (between San Francisco and San Jose). They still tend to be not very hot and have not the flavour and depth of BIR curries, but I guess this is down to demand - i.e. there isn't much. So making your own is the way to go

- fumble

Thanks Mike this is a very intersting forum and some really good recipes here. Still trying to learn how to make BIR style curries but looks like I;ve found the right place!

thanks Mike I am still finding my way around this site!

I've found growing coriander pretty easy. Just get a plastic pot, about 4 inches is a good size, fill with potting compost and water a bit until its damp but not waterlogged. Then sprinkle a dozen or two seeds on the top and cover with a small amount of compost - only just enough to cover them. Take some clingfilm and put over the pot and leave in a warm place for a few days until the seeds germinate. Then take off the clingfilm and put on a windowsill and water occasionally.

If you start a pot every two weeks you can have a continuous supply all summer long (it grows for me from April/May until late September).