i always add all the plum tomato juice into the base , with a few plum toms for good measure. would you guys avoid adding tom puree and pasatta together in a madras?

suprised how many people know the book. so if you guys had to pick one or 2, of the best recipies from the book, which would they be?

was looking on the web and found this. quite interesting, so i thought i would post it here for the curryhead community! 

madras ingredients - sainsbury takeaway

List of Main Ingredients only.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roast Chicken Breast (14%),
Onion (10%),
Water,
Coconut Milk,
Tomato Puree,
Rapeseed Oil,
Tomato,
Coconut (2%)
Coconut Powder,
Red Chilli,
Garlic Puree,
Ginger Puree,
Chicken Paste,
Sugar,
Yogurt (from Cow's Milk)
Ground Coriander
Chilli Powder,
Malt Extracts,
Cornflour,
Garam Masala,
Salt,
Turmeric,
Pepper,
Curry Leaf,
Fenugreek.       

From the brief look i had at the balti book it looked like it was a traditional style of cookery, with no base. I am actually glad you pointed out that it is more bir style,CK. This will really motivate me to use the book. i plan on buying the spices for the balti masallas today.

Ok CA, i think  its time to dust of the cover, and give the book a try. sounds like you got a lot out of the book, nice one! its nice to give the bir style cooking a break some weeks, and return to the roots, with some more traditional indian cooking. gosh, i am sounding like madur jaffrey! lol 

that white chunk is likely to be garlic puree. bir make their own garlic puree with some oil added, which is stored in fridge. the fridge dries it out, and after a week it turns white and hard. they add a big chunk to each dish. around a heaped tsp is common, added very early, before base. i bet thats what it is. as bobby pointed out also. bir dont generally use block coconut, instead they use cocunut disected powder as its dirt cheap!

does the cinemon element of the paste clash with madras? its worrying me   

the sweetness I taste in bir madras is not sugar. i tried adding sugar and its totally wrong for madras. its quite subtle , and actually not a sugary sweetness. maybe increasing the use of butter or ghee would help. butter in the base maybe?

maybe there is an amazing curry buried in that pat chapman book, waiting to be unleashed in all its glory!  there is usually one very good curry per cook book (at least).

thats interesting. the bir chef i know, showed me quite a lot of that adding water and reducing down technique. he used it with great effect with lots of dd spice mix and chilly powder + chicken bones and chicken, green chillies, cardomaon, cloves, bay leaf, covered in water and boiled right down. produced a really tasty quick easy curry. he called it "staff curry". apparently its part of learning to do a vindaloo.