Curry King, you are a star.  I will let you know how I get on and try and post some pictures if I can.

Thanks.

Curry King, do you have the recipe for the lamb bhuna you made using Admins new base?  I am going to try and make it this afternoon.  Do you think this is the best curry you have made to date?

Thanks CK.

Thanks for the link CK, I will give it a try.

CA, you seem very sure that the BIR taste is obtainable at home.  Given that you are one of the most knowledgeable chefs on either site, your claim must be taken seriously.  Therefore, have you come close to achieving what seems to be unachievable?

Swampy, I agree sniping will get us nowhere but being led down the garden path wont achieve much either.  But like you say we have a common goal and if and when I get any info that might help our cause, I will post it on here.

By the way, it seems that Darth is a moderator on Andy's site, does this mean he has defected?

Curry breakfasts are excellent Haldi.

Thanks CA, I actually read those posts last night and was shocked to hear that Andy is connected to several secret recipe sites with alleged insider information.  I must admit I became suspicious when reading some of Andy's replies to questions on the site and how they were often contradictory. 

That sort of thing doesn't inspire confidence.  I agree that the BIR smell and taste is unobtainable and it has become something of an obsession for me to try and recreate it.   At the moment I am struggling with chicken stock.  This is definitely present in all BIR curries I have tasted (Madras, vindaloo) and no stock cube to date have come close to giving that genuine chicken flavour.  The BIRs must boil whole chickens and somehow amplify the remaining stock and then the sauce is built up from this somehow.  I have reduced chicken stock into both white and brown concentrated stocks and added it to my curries with MSG and while it gave a moorish taste to the curries, it didn't give a chicken flavour for some reason.

It is very frustrating but there must be a way to get close at home.  What recipe have you found that is the closest and best so I can give it a try.

Many thanks,

Lorrydoo.

One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl four for a boy, Mah aha haaag...Pie.  Yes that takes back bit too Greg.   Anyway back to the topic, has anyone been on the real secret curry recipe sight that Andy has set up?

Forgot to mention, after leaving the Madras sauce in the fridge over night, I asked my daughter to smell it, she imediatley said "that smells like gravy and chips."  and a bit like a sunday dinner.  This could be something and does point toward the use of real chicken gravy.

Hi Mike thanks for your advice, I will have a look at making your curry when I next get a break from work.  I was telling Curry King the other day about my obsession to recreate my local takeaway curry and how I bought a porion of plain Madras sauce and put it through a sive to find out what solids where in it!!  Crazy I know but such is my obssession lateley.

The only thing I could identify was curry leaves (dried) onion and the skin of either a capsicum and/or a green chilli.  There were also a few very small seeds, the same as cumin but smaller. 

Last week my wife asked the take away what they put in the Madras, as you would imagine, they remained tight lipped!  All they would say is that it was a grayy that had spices in it and when pushed the guy said there were too many spices to mention as there where litrally hundreds in it, so he claimed.  I doubt very much there are, and think it is probbably less then we think.

My latest thinking is that they start with or use at some point, real chicken gravey or a form of chicken stock that exudes a genuine chicken flavour.  This is coupled with pureed onions as we already know and there is also a tomato element also, possibly reduced passata.  This is then spiced and somewhere along the line garic and ginger are added.  In my mind, these are the basic componets in a bIR curry but their proportion and timing are a bit of a mystery.

The quest of making a BIR seems impossible, its pretty disheartening comming out with negative results all the time.  The best I can do is make a moorish tasty curry but it never has the BIR taste which as we know is the ultimate goal.