Phew ! That's a relief ! 976bar ,Thank you for taking the time to checkout the Myristica ,it really is quite special I think and it sounds like you enjoyed yourself 
I really enjoyed my Cooking Class,  the owner Amit is such a genuine guy and helped make the day such a success .Did you watch them cook your meal ? Have you had a rethink on any of your Indian cooking 

Quote from: George on August 21, 2009, 09:46 PM

Quote from: emin-j on August 21, 2009, 08:32 PMI haven't give up on the Curry from Scratch idea but wonder if that method is more suitable for certain Curries more than others.

Who knows? I've been meaning to try this approach for years, in order to avoid making vast quantities of base. Your recent interest reminds me that I must get around to giving it a try.

My objective will be to create the same near-BIR flavour and texture as I can by using base. If I succeed, I will report back here. I will, however, refrain from reporting every trial, tribulation and element of R&D along the way. I see it as data overload, which just floods the forum with less-than-interesting material.

George , To recreate the texture /consistency of a BIR Curry I do believe you can only do this by using a base sauce or liquidising the common ingredients that make up most base sauces and what I am looking to do next as chriswg found at his Curry lesson is make a fresh base sauce everytime I make a Curry ,how practical this is I wont know until I try it but chriswg seemed to find it OK.I'm trying to stay away from using frozen base sauce.
If you decide to make a Curry using  your base recipe george please post your results ,if you can post some photo's it sometimes makes a post more interesting than text alone ,there are probably many members on the forum who will appreciate your efforts.

My second attempt at a ' Curry from Scratch '
After a dismal result last week I thought I would have another go ,so cutting down on the amount of Onion and Tomatoes ( a 2 portion Curry )I set about as before chopping all the ingredients finely.
Whilst cooking the Curry I added the Spices from the sNs Madras recipe which I have  used very successfully in the past.I also added just under a TSP of BE Spice Mix to make up for not using a Base Sauce which would have had Spice in ,the result was as last time almost tasteless  , to rescue the Curry I added 1 heaped TSP of Garam Masala and a TSP of Rajah Curry Powder. This was a similar problem as I had last time , I just cant seem to get the balance of the Spices right  Also when creating what will be the ' sauce ' you add water ,this makes the Curry thin and watery compared to the Curries I have made with a base sauce ,if you reduce it down to thicken up the Curry you don't have enough for 2 servings 
My wife is also a Curryholic and is so far not impressed with Curries from Scratch  :-[ The texture of the sauce is not smooth as a Curry using a base sauce also my wife said there was no ' Toffee like aroma ' as there usually is ,I also noticed the absence of the ' Curry Aroma 'around the house and in my clothes and in my car !  ;D I do like the idea of using fresh ingredients to create a fresh Curry but I am wondering if ' the taste ' we have been looking for is is due to the using of a base sauce and the ' special ' flavour it brings  I am still no lover of base from the freezer compared to fresh made base nor do I fancy using ' old fryer oil ' But one thing I did add to the Curry which made a definite improvement to the richness was a table spoon of Butter Ghee.
I haven't give up on the Curry from Scratch idea but wonder if that method is more suitable for certain Curries more than others.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/eminj1951/CurryFromScratch2?authkey=Gv1sRgCN3D4tKnr5eWGg&feat=directlink

Excellent program ,very interesting ,thanks' for the link Curry Crazy.

Interesting to note :- < in Bangladesh they dont use fresh >
Also the two Indian fellows who were on holiday in India preffered the taste of Indian food in the UK .
Also note the use of Shallots and Butter Ghee in their Curries.

Quote from: JerryM on August 20, 2009, 08:19 AM
emin-j,

would follow josh's maths for sure.

having made the "curry from scratch" - it's a very intersting question for me though

the restaurant spec called for 1 tbsp of spice based on a "4" person amount of onion/tomato (i used 170g/240g).

on my 1st go i made a 1/4 of the "4" portion and used 3/4 tsp of spice expecting a finished volume of ~200ml. it was nothing like (more like 100ml).

on my 2nd go i made a 3/4 of the "4" portion and stuck with the 3/4 spice. the finished volume was just over 200ml. this being for me a normal standard 1 person portion.

i made madras both times - using LB spice mix (but others would be just as good ie BE, DD, Kushi) along with chilli 1/2 tsp, salt 1/4 tsp.

i thought the amount spicing was fine. i think something is wrong with the volume somehow as i think 1 tbp of spice mix in 4/4 of the "4" portion would be too much.

Thanks' JerryM ,I am going to have another go at producing a Madras Curry Sauce tomorrow , this time using 1 Onion and 2 Tomatoes ( all finely chopped )plus Garlic,Ginger,and 2 fresh Green Chillies .Unfortunately the amounts of ingredients in the  recipes I received following my Cooking Class are nothing like the Chef used on the day so I am trying by trial and error  and memory  : Why do people use ' Spice Mix ' when you can use all the individual Spices in whatever amounts you need ?

Quote from: joshallen2k on August 19, 2009, 11:18 PM
I wouldn't double up, that would be too much. If you really want to figure out how much spice is in a base, do some reverse math on the base recipe.

As an example, SnS base yields 2.65 liters, and uses 8 teaspoons of spice (in various ratios of turmeric, cumin, etc).

So if in a single curry you use 300 ml of base (11% of the total base yield), that's the equivalent of 0.88 tsp of spice.

So to get the same spice content in a scratch curry, but wanting to maintain the same spice level, you would add just under a teaspoon of spice to compensate.

Thanks' joshallen2k ,sounds good.

Hi all ,
When making a Curry from 'scratch' would I double up on Spices as I would not be using a Curry Base ?

Quote from: 976bar on August 18, 2009, 07:56 AM
I am going to Bristol tomorrow for 3 days working and staying over. I'm gonna give this restaurant a try

Nice one 976bar  You can watch the Chef cook ! The kitchen is in full view of the restaurant.

Quote from: George on August 16, 2009, 10:24 PM
emin - my guess is that it's wrong to consider the first 80% of that recipe to be a 'base sauce.' It's not. It's just the first 80%. I douibt if it's designed to be a multi-purpose sauce like proper base sauce is.

The recipes for CTM and chicken madras are very different. I'm not surprised you ended up with a relatively poor end result. In my experience, you can't go changing recipes like that and expect a favourable outcome.

George ,

80% of any Curry is the base sauce , the ingredients used ie Onions,Tomatoes,Ginger,Garlic,Green Chilies are I believe the most common ingredients used for a base sauce ,the Chef used these same ingredients to make all the meals he made at our Curry Class and it was only the change in Spices or adding Cream etc that separated the dishes.I did not add cream to my Madras attempt just my usual Spices ,I am 99% sure it was the excess of Tomatoes and Onions I used that ruined the Curry.

Quote from: Cory Ander on August 16, 2009, 10:56 AM

Quote from: 976bar on August 16, 2009, 09:15 AM
I have to say that I have made several different batches of base sauce/gravy over the past 2 years, and the curries I have made from them haven't been anywhere near as good as the ones I have made without a base sauce. Maybe I'm not cooking them on a high enough heat? maybe its something to do with the ingredients, I don't know.

I posted a Chicken Kashmiri Masala...it used just fresh ingredients and no base sauce, and it was one of the best curries I have ever tasted....

I'm not knocking base sauce, but I think in future I'll leave it to the BIR's to produce, and I'll continue to make my mouth watering curries without it..

With all due respect then, 976bar, you (and several others here) seem to be more interested in cooking traditional Indian curries and NOT typical BIR curries.  Nothing wrong with that but, to my mind anyway, not the focus of this forum!  Actually, forget that, I'm actually no longer sure what the focus of this forum is! 

Don't be like that Cory Ander  ;D I  believe individuals on the forum make ' the typical BIR Curry ' their   focus and carry on in a blinkered fashion refusing to take serious anything to do with Curry that has the word ' fresh 'in it ! The forum does a wonderful job of bringing everyone together to discuss Indian Cooking and even Thai and Chinese
Hopefully we will all get what we are looking for especially if we help one another and not poohoo ideas and practices shown by members just because they differ from yours