thats exactly the impression I got Derek Dansak when I started digging on cr0 - I wasnt sure if members had solved it or given up trying..it seems to have gone a bit quiet. When I saw Panpots Ashoka experience, i thought its would be game over for a lot of people..especially in Scotland.  Have you tested a real Ashoka alongside your own? The garlic & ginger paste is definitely Ashoka, you can smell it as you walk in the door
I'll give their stuff a go sometime in the near future

One of my recent takeaway meals tasted like it had beeen sitting on top of a tandoor or coals???(plain chicken not tikka)it was great

ELW

I dug out the abdulmohed recipies from this thread & pasted them into a word doc for making after ca stuff...6 green chillies in the base?...that could be a hot base right?

ELW

i was in a restaurant years ago, I was reminded(not by anyone connected with the place) that alcohol & Indian food "do not mix" & was told to try a yogurt/salt/sugar/ice drink called lassi instead. Being Glaswegian, I declined immediately & ordered a pint of Lal Toofan Indian lager. It was the only Indian lager they had at the time, but I remember it not being overly gassy, like the Cobra, which is everywhere now. I tend to buy ales in the colder months, McEwans Champion Ale was on I tried last year....says 'award winning' on the label & at 7.8% I wouldnt like to have been at that awards ceremony...but surprisingly drinkable with curry

ELW

thanks JerryM, its goin to be a process of elimination for me to get what im looking for, I hope to return with some answers rather than questions! I always thought if the bir taste wasn't down to a missing ingredient or flavour enhancement, then the spices & spice mixes, when cooked properly, create almost a single flavour/taste/smell which can only created during the cooking. I find that in standard bir dishes, almost all trace of the spice mixes has gone & changed to 'the taste', except where the dish requires more to unbalance it ie extra chilli in madras/vindaloo.
last week I made a korma & chasni from the 'takeaway secrets' to use up some base i had left, after adding mint sauce to the chasni, which was very high in vinegar, I realised I never had enough base left, so the mint overpowered it. Taste wise they were microwave meal standard at best...thing is for the first time there was a great aroma- a restaurant smell, which everyone who came in asked about..so Ill keep at it.

Regards
ELW

I'v been suffering from information overload at the moment...its really easy to get sidetracked on a bir forum when your lookin for the golden ticket!
Im gettin my sea legs now though! Its now more a case of me leaving things out rather than adding, what may be only chefs touches, rather than critical components.

Im goin to follow ca's base & recipies(once i clear the freezer of Asda Whoops!10p's)& concentrate on my cooking technique / timings only, which are crucial in most any cooking(seafood)...that initial 20 seconds, where the spices are cooked out correctly before adding liquid, could very easily be where im falling short...i have a tendency like most people to to sometimes overcook things

Chriswg - the first time I was in a bir was late 80's, & if i remember right,even that tasted different, it was a great place in Glasgow now closed
regarding the use of old oil, I can see in theory how this would work, giving a uniform background taste - regardless of region or country, but i think the risk to health from this alone would have been made apparent-it may be worth more now for biodiesel- To think i had been enjoying the flavour of near rancid oil for 25 years would be a blow - so im ruling it out for the moment

I recently tried a bir takeaway from a place i hadnt tried before, its been there for years, & found that the onion & peppers in my dish had clearly been precooked in something sweet & smokey and quite unusual-they were soft but not browned.not like sugar at all & after checking the price of jaggery, I found it is really cheap and a possibility??

CA -thanks for that appreciate your efforts - 'secret'onion paste, carmelised onion paste(banjara) & homemade spiced oil are not a requirement?

All I know is that i don't know

ELW

P.S - All being well, these posts should reduce in size in time & maybe even posted in the right section 

Hi Matt, im using trs chilli powder(not the extra hot) at the moment, which i find to be pretty hot...I recently ruined 'shish mahal chicken tikka' with it...maybe it was the batch...that said my gf didn't notice, which is always good!!
ELW

Hi all, I'm new here & after following threads from years back until present on cr0, it looked like members investigations looked promising only for after trials by other members to be found lacking 'something'. I noticed the number of new threads & posts has dwindled after what seemed like a time of new ideas & information coming to light. I have made a few bases since starting(KD1 & some from another site), with differing results. I liked the KD1 base, but found myself doubling spice amounts due to the lack in the base. This in turn asked questions of my ability to cook the spices out correctly, to remove the rawness & not to burn them. I followed Panpots Ashoka threads with real interest, as I know the Ashoka well & it was the 1st time I had read any reports from a real bir kitchen, only for others to report back saying it wasnt what they were looking for(bunjara G&G paste)My question I suppose is, has anyone perfected their cooking techniques/ recipies/base combinations / missing ingredients to a level where they are looking no further? Im going to try CA's base & recipies next, as they have great reviews from members & he has obviously put a huge amount of effort into this.
I had long suspected flavour enhancers in bir, but apparently this is not the case, apart from maybe pastes & spice mixes? If there is a general consensus on any of the points below, I would appreciate any views & advice. Trying to get up to speed

* use of old oil - (haldi's post from a while back sits well with me the  slight burnt underlying taste)
* adding of onion paste -either bunjara or the boiled one
* use of msg or other flavour enhancers
* Cooking technique of the spices
* Anyone know if jaggery is used?
Thanks in advance
phew!!

yes curryhell i'll put it up where it can be seen, Im new here, but am on the fastrack to get up to speed..must have read 1000 posts..trouble is, once i learn something new...it pushes something old out of my brain!
ELW

that looks great curryhell...im going to make ca base & one of his recipies  tomorrow for the first time. How do they compare to bir in general?....I am new to this so have  only tried a few bases so far & noticed ca's has no coconut which as a base flavour is something i dont normally taste in my usual takeouts apart from say Ashoka, which has really strong garlic/ginger coconut flavours.

Off topic: can anyone confirm onions / peppers / mushrooms are sometimes pre cooked in something sugary (Jaggery? is this even used in bir?)I had lightly cooked onions & peppers  in a Jaipuri last week which had been clearly cooked in something very sweet prior to being added
Thanks in advance

ELW

I order lamb methi at my favourite restaurant in Glasgow which is Punjabi. Like most of their lamb dishes(not tikka), they resemble a spicy stew, with no overwhelming background taste (base / garlic/ginger etc) making each dish fairly unique in its own right.  They use spinach also in theirs which I find has a similar flavour to methi. Not sure if its pureed / canned or fresh spinich, but the flavour is intense. Smoky/musty description is spot on...If anyone else has other recipies for methi i'd be interested!