The new KD book is aimed at a new range of "vibrant BIR recipies". This does not address the fact that the last KD book, did not manage to reproduce the basic range of BIR recipies. dont waste your money on this book, it will only disappoint.   

I think the books mentioned fall seriously short of the mark, and are not written by chefs/authors who truly love british indian restaurant food. If they had the passion for BIR food that we have, the books would be much better, via more research into the bir tastes/flavors/techniques. In my opinion these books are primarily money making exercises, and are basically a waste of time. I have found much better recipies in traditional indian cook books than those in the 'curry secret book'. which also taste much closer to bir food. (although they dont try to be bir style dishes). Sadly, it is only a matter of time, before someone uses the material on this site, to make a cool million pounds or more, by writing a proper bir cookery book. Maybe we should beat them to it, and begin publishing!   

That does sound like an invite for food poisening. And the chicken will end up tasting a bit poor i would imagine, after all the defrosting. Why not just freeze the base, and buy a little chicken on the day you plan a curry. Fresh cooked chicken is a must for me.

Even though the recipe advises tamerind concentrate i would avoid it if possible as it is far to strong. use tamerind paste which is brown. The flavor is much better and does not dominate so much. You will need more paste than concentrate though. Probably double the amount.

Josh its a shame you are not a bhuna fan, as i feel that the ashoka base and lamb bhuna recipe, has closed the final 5 percent, for the lamb bhuna dish. I agree with your comments on the banjura oil, its a great addition to the site. I intend to use the banjura re claimed oil with my madras, and expect it to add a new subtle slightly sweet flavour. Hopefully this year we will close the final 5 percent with madras.

Personally i think the ashoka base is ideal for bhuna, rogan josh and other rich flavoured curries. I have not tried the ashoka korma, but am sure it will taste great also. I will not be using the ashoka base for my madras, as i feel madras needs carrot, plum tomatoes and red peppers in the base. This is not mean't as a criticism of the ashoka base, and is just a personal preference thing. The ashoka base has produced such great curries for me, this past 2 weeks, that i will make at least one batch per month of the ashoka base for lamb bhuna. I wont be using the ashoka base for madras and dansak and vindalloo though. Although i am sure it could be used for those, if you were determined enough, and possibly created your own custom paste to add to the final dish. Since this ashoka thread has appeared, i no longer buy takeaways, as mine taste just as moorish. And my portions are 3 times as big  ;D with a wasteline to match !

When you cook the ashoka pre cooked lamb , taste the sauce, its marvelous! good luck

After a 7 hour cooking marathon i had great success with the lamb bhuna. I can honestly say it tasted almost identical to the lamb bhunas i often buy at my local TA. All the effort in making the ashoka base, the ashoka pre cooked lamb, and the banjura paste was well worth it when i finally tasted the lamb bhuna. For anyone who is interested, i added about 5 tbs of the lamb stock from the ashoka pre cooked lamb into the final dish. Without this lamb stock, it did not taste quite like my locals lamb bhuna, but still very very tasty. I dont feel i need to tweak the ashoka recipies in any way, accept for the salt level (possibly). Re-creating my locals lamb bhuna was a real break through for me. I had always thought this dish was going to be a hard nut to crack! NOT ANYMORE THOUGH , GRIN  ;D ! 

SnS, i totally agree. bir chefs all have there own unique recipies for making a base. Thats what makes this site quite tough, because we often get fragments of info from different bir chefs. Luckily with the ashoka we have nearly got the whole set of recipies. If panpot is lucky enough to get the madras recipe we will be sorted !

I am only trying to make suggestions on improving this base on what i was kindly shown by a bir chef. As with most things on this site, i am sure there is no true right or wrong approach. I used potatoe in my base for 6 months. now i don't. In my vindaloo a like the potato flavor, so i add 3 small pre boiled potatoes to the dish just before the base goes in. Hope this helps. I like the flexibility of this approach. And lets face it, a good base should be as flexible as possible. Ok thats enough of my ranting for one afternoon