gary,

just realised you've posted here (just read your post on the pre fried onions).

do i know the rajver base. i most certainly do. would say probably the no 1 fan.

i'm also No 1 fan of your toffee post in terms of cooking/frying technique to get that choking smell.

i use the base and technique to make my own madras, chris303 rogan josh and Curry kings CTM. all i must say are absolutely spot on. i'm currently looking at a propane burner to make the final step to BIR/TA. funds won't allow the trip to aussie to get one of CA's 16 quid super burners though.

gary,

thanks for the thoughts. i will try adding a little water to sort of "refresh" them.

i am still sticking to your rajver base as my bread & butter - many many thanks again for sharing it.

just as an aside i don't know if you've tried ifndforu's base and would recommend giving it a try as it's quite interesting both in terms of cooking and taste.

there are a few threads related to this subject. i am really tempted to get an outdoor burner to run off my existing bbq propane bottle.

can anyone point to where they can be got or a link to the most relevant post.

glad you?re well into the garlic.

i always go for garlic chicken if on the menu. a sylheti is also worth looking out for.

at home i try to replicate by slicing cloves from full bulb into slithers. then divide in 2. cook 1/2 in microwave 1 min or so with a little olive oil. fry the other 1/2 till a little brown. add both to dish after base goes in. top notch.

Chris,

the electric hob is 1.5kw. the bbq is 7.5kw (adelaide woody 2). the bbq burner is rectangular and longer than the wok by about 1/4 so the setup is not ideal but i thought ok for a trial.

Tried my gas bbq (put wok straight on top of burner having taken the grill off) hoping this would deliver the last step to BIR. Alas would have to say taste was no better than electric hob.

I did get the oil smoking and amazingly the wok did set on fire after adding the garlic/ginger paste (a bit dangerous to say the least if you weren?t expecting it and I wasn?t).

The dish certainly cooked quicker (burn off of water) but there is no discernable taste difference cooking the same madras recipe between the two.

Rai advises in the Chinese rice topic 

QuoteYou can?t season a wok and expect it to impart flavour immediately.  You need to use it several times (to build up a substantial patina) before you notice the smokey taste (wok hey).  The more you use it the better it gets.

So I think I need to try a few more times to be sure but i feel the omens are not that good as i would have expected at least some increase in the sort of "bbq" flavour. I really thought this would be it as I feel it is only that sort of smokey ?bbq? taste which is now the difference.

just an update on efforts to find the best mix togo with the LB+ mix.

Made 8 off individual curries (200ml) using the ifindforu base and effectively the same madras recipe but with subtle changes in the spices (ratio of spice mix:curry powder, type of curry powder). Did very similar/same exercise last week using saffron base.

This week I had rajah hot madras curry powder to try out (really spot on). Spice preferences were mixed with 2 votes for 2 tsp LB+ spice mix per portion (ie 100:0) and 2 votes for 1 tsp LB+ spice mix and 1 tsp rajah (ie 50:50). The 100:0 ratio gave sweetness equivalent to BIR/TA where as the 50:50 gave a better depth of spice but lacked sweetness a little.

Conclusion:

1) kids will like LB+ x 2
2) adults will like LB+ x 1 and rajah x 1

Made my std madras with the ifindforu base and well impressed with the results.

would probably say still not quite the BIR/TA taste but very very close. Close enough infactforme (sorry for the pun) for my needs - make a decent curry at home instead of mash or chips whilst still retaining that frequent desire to have it all done forme at my local BIRTA.

The high proportion of salt in the ?all purpose seasoning? was not a problem in the final dish presumably lost in the volume of the base. What particularly sold it was the combination of coconut, tamarind and ajwain (thyme flavour, although would not say the seeds taste that brill on their own)

In terms of other bases I?ve tried I still like them just as much and suppose the best way of looking at it is how others have put it - they simply reflect the diversity of top notch curry houses that we have in the BIR/TA world ? each being slightly different but just as good.

have now tried in my std madras curry adding after the bulk of the base sauce. i don't think i cooked the curry long enough for the onion or should have pre soaked it a little. why i say this is that the texture of the onion was very nice (sort of creamy, moorish) but still had an overtone of the pre frying which was not good.

on balance consigned to the bin i'm afraid. May suit some tastes but definitely not my cup of tea.

the rajah paprika is very good and tastes significantly better than what i had previously bought from the big4 supermarkets.