In my opinion, A good bir madras does not include any potatoe flavor. If you add potatoe to the base then how can you arrive at a true bir madras. Answer: you can't. At least this is what a bir chef taught me during some lessons. His curries are superb, yours i have not tried, so i am inclined to believe him more than you. When i stopped adding potatoe to my base everything else improved. sorry if this pisses anyone off, but thats what my taste buds reported back. Its also what a very good bir chef taught me. try it, you wont be disapointed. if you are, then go back to your old potatoe habits. 

sounds like you know the ins and outs of those curry leafs Bobby   

add another 5 onions and a carrot, and leave out potato, and it would be a lot nearer BIR standard. The potato is certainly not going to give a good flavor in a base, as it clashes with some spices.

I agree Panpot. the acid test for me is always to taste a curry cold the next day. My favourite local TA's taste amazing cold for breakfast the next day ! lol. Only problem is i walk around all day with garlic madras breath ! My last girlfriend felt she should kindly point this out. Tee hee . I also think i really good base won't show its true colors, unless it comes with accurate recipies, which the bir use with the base. In other words 'a good base without the matching recipies is a gamble'. Obviously this wont be an issue with the Ashoka base, as we have both sets of recipies. Nice one !   

I have definatly seen tubs of curry leafs in my local TA, along with other tubs of coriander leafs. This weekend while experimenting, i chucked in 10 curry leafs in my curry and it reminded me of a taste i had noticed in some takeaways i have ordered. I am now thinking this might be an ingredient we have overlooked on this site. I could be wrong though! any thoughts?

Thanks Panpot. i will post those tried and tested thai curry recipies this week.

From my time spent in a bir kitchen, the chef said learning madras is the key to learning most other dishes (bhuna, rogan josh, balti, vindallo). Therefore if you can derive a great madras from the base, then it stands to reason the base must be spot on. I do agree though, that the korma is also essential. oddly, i have tried nearly all bir dishes accept korma. must order one, and get a demo next visit to my local ta. My local TA manages to do without the onion paste, and other fancy extras. They still produce great curries with just a base and literally garlic puree, spice mix, chilly, coriander, salt, chopped onion. Their base is fantastic. He is a bit reluctant to give me the full recipe. it would be such a great addition to this site. His spice mix is available in recipies section 'DD spice mix'

where the Ashoka recipe states e.g  cumin 30 gms, does gms = grams? sorry for the dumb question, but just wanted to check. cheers DD

Good question CA. how do you tell this difference between the two. i brought loads of bay leafs from my local indian/asian grocer, so i assume they are the asian ones (I hope)

Sure Panpot, it would be a pleasure. I will start adding a few new thai recipies for you guys to try over the xmas hols.