Although it does highlight the 'forum' format's shortcomings in trying to follow recipes, know the definitive recipe, variations on the recipe and know where to put photos of recipes that don't follow exactly the original.

Don't really know how it could be improved, just thinking aloud.

Thanks for the offer but I have a couple of spare hours tomorrow, so I'm planning on paying a visit to my local Indian area. if I can't find any I'll let you know.

I do have a bottle of mustard oil that I bought for some reason maybe I'll just chuck that in some mix powder.

No offense taken at all.  It might've sounded as if I was being critical (what with all the talk of premade mixes/pastes and the like), but I was more interested in whether the taste difference came from the spices used, the quantities of spices used or the quality of spices used in the masala.

I've heard a fair bit recently about bassar powders but never tasted it or seen the powder on the shelves.

I'm a bit confused by this. Doesn't it just have similiar ingredients to a 'Mix' powder plus a garam masala. If this is being used after the G+G pastes how does the taste differ? I don't use nutmeg in my GM or any mustard oil but I think all the other ingredients are there.

You don't work for Mr Naga, do you?

I can only remember from when I started eating curries in 1989 and even restaurants when from the sublime to the ridiculous in the same street ( I started eating curry in Preston, church st).

It does seem however that when I'm back in the U.K restaurants that used to be good, have gone bad... I notice more sauce, less meat, more chunks of onion, less taste in general. I can only really comment from the perspective of living in France where I talk to many restauranteurs. It's the same story, ever increasing food prices and reduced margins. Many restaurants in the fast food trade like to keep there prices fixed, so in order to keep ther margins they have to reduce quality. I know a pizza resuarant near me that hasn't increased their prices for about 10 years, the pizzas used to have things on them, not any more.

Obviously, restaurants have 2 options they either decrease quality or increase the price.  Using pastes and sauces is one way of reducing costs. I have absolutely no idea if the good or bad curries I have eaten have used Pataks or any other jarred sauce but from personal experience whenever I use a premade paste I notice bitter undertones and too much salt, this goes for jars of ginger/ garlic puree.

I also notice when I come back to the U.K that a menu in any pub or restaurant has to describe the ingredients/ cooking method and various other Jamie oliverations such as 'suculent, gorgeous, fantastic.....' . In France it would be called ' Beef with potatoes'. I'm sure this is slipping into the curry trade as well. People don't wan't to eat Madras they want specials and they want to know every detail about it.

Sorry to be wittering on but I'm still on holiday so I had acouple of beers....

Just a couple of notes to make, not sure if this is the right place, might be better in Lamb Tikka.

Just before the holidays I made up a batch of Lamb Tikka specifically for use in curries. I bought what is called in France 'gigot d'agneau' which is the leg but sliced across the bone. it's very tender and is usually eaten 'pink'.

I marinated up a kilo and a half but only had room to cook a kilo. I used my usual technique; 5 mins per side under a hot grill then do the edges with a blow torch, keeping the chunks fairly big.

I cooked GCLT the first day using half the cooked lamb, it was lovely and tender. I then froze two packs of Tikka (one cooked, one just marinaded).

I then used the frozen and cooked Tikka in a recipe (can't remember which one), again lovely and tender.

However when I came back from holiday and defrosted the lamb tikka I had marinaded, cooked it exactly as before the result was disappointing chewy lamb.

Be warned!

Potatoes will also fry better if they're left to cool and dry after parboiling.

I spent 5 minutes staring at it before I worked it out!

Just need a little plastic bag of papaya salad another of thai whisky and sunset over the Mekong for a perfect evening.