Quote from: George on March 29, 2006, 12:53 AM... And where is Kris Dhillon's 'Curry Secret' recipe for base sauce? Surely, that one should be included in the poll ...

I second that.  It may be that all those that "Admin" selected are indeed better than Kris's, but there can be no doubt that Kris's does produce an authentic flavour, so surely deserves to be included.  My two penn'orth !

Quote from: raygraham on September 08, 2005, 09:13 AM... One change I will make in a future batch is to replace his "curry powder" in the "spice mix" with the Basaar Mix I have discovered recently which is a better quality than most curry powders ...

Yes, following up on Curry Canuck's reply to my earlier posting, I looked up Bruce's recipe, and was staggered to find that he includes "curry powder" amongst the ingredients :

Quote from: BruceEdwardsBruce Edwards Curry Base

Spice Mixture

7 parts Ground Coriander
7 parts Turmeric
5 parts ground Cumin
4 parts Curry Powder
4 parts Paprika (optional)

Given the immense variability that exists amongst so-called "curry powders", and that I don't know a single person from the Indian sub-continent who admits to using "curry powder", I did feel that it cast some doubt on the authenticity of the recipe ...

Quote from: JonL on September 06, 2006, 11:46 PM
... I've tried a lot of Pat Chapman recipes, that Curry secret book (which seemed so complicated, it felt like a wind up!) ...

I'm new to this forum (joined fifteen minutes ago !) but for me, Kris Dhillon's "The Curry Secret" was the most important find in over forty years of attempting to re-create the flavour of British Indian Restaurant curries.  I cannot recommend this book too highly.  Not only does his method enable home chefs to re-create that authentic, highly sought after, flavour, but it also (by partitioning the task into a number of discrete steps) enables the home chef to do well over 90% of the preparation in advance and to serve his/her guests with a freshly cooked curry within 30 minutes of their arrival.  I would add to this that my wife's recipe for pilau rice far surpasses anything I have ever been able to achieve, and between us we are now able to produce authentic BIR curries on demand  :-)  Now if only I could discover how to make authentic roti, I would be in seventh heaven !

As an aside, I now find that having learned Kris Dhillon's method, and gone on to experiment with different spices/quantities at the final stage, I now feel sufficiently confident to re-spice the remains of take-aways, and my wife (who is my severest critic !) is happy to admit that the re-spiced version is usually substantially better than the original.  Simply re-heating a left-over take-away in a microwave oven is very unsatisfactory : far better to heat some more ghee (I frequently use re-cycled ghee) in a wok, throw in the left-over curry, add a little water or stock, re-spice and serve.  Definitely worth a try, if you've only ever used a microwave oven to re-heat ...