Hi CA,

I made your base as per spec on Sunday morning and on Sunday evening made a Chicken Ceylon as per your recipe. I have the photos in my camera and will download them eventually - I don't have a card reader so have to dig out the usb cable.

I cooked quite an enjoyable curry - I certainly managed to eat it all and the wife was rubbing her fingers in the last of the sauce on the plate and licking it up!

If this was the first curry I tried from cr0 I would have been delighted but my experience of the Taz base recently has filled my mind with doubts. My wife and I both think we preferred the Taz curries over any other that I've cooked to date. I'll be making more curries with the remainder of your base and may change my mind over the next few meals.

A few thoughts I've been having:

I'm now completely unsure about putting fresh corriander in a base. To me it can introduce an almost synthetic tasting sickly type of flavour - I think I would prefer to leave it out and just add at the final cooking stage. I do like fresh corriander a lot but I'm not sure about putting it in the base.

Also, I'm not sure about the dried methi in the spice mix. Despite the low ratio of methi I found the flavour came through in the final dish a bit more than I would have expected from the quantity/ratio used. Can't explain that one.

Also, perhaps like the SnS2008 I've been using it may have a little bit too much tomato.

Like I say it was enjoyable enough but for me personally the Taz stuff hit the spot more.

I've only used 3 base recipes to-date so need more experience. Next I'll make another Taz and compare it with this one - I might even try to do a blind tasting comparison.

I think the next bases I might try are Saffron and Ashoka despite the less than exact recipes.

Thanks for the recipes CA - I'll be cooking more this week with your base and spice mix.

PaulP.

Hi Gezh,

Your piccies look great - glad it worked for you. These recipes can take you from nowhere to 90% BIR curries in one go if you get it right. The last 10% is another story though.

Like you I told all my curry loving friends about this place, even printed out recipes for them but nobody has tried this kind of cooking - their loss!!

Paul.

Hi emin-j, I just measured out 1 teaspoon of Saxo table salt with my measuring spoons and poured the contents onto my digital kitchen scales - I got 6 grams!

I don't like over salty curries - above a certain threshold it starts to take over the taste for me. I guess we have different taste thresholds for salt.

I wasn't having a pop at you - I just think we should be aware of what we are putting in our curries and the likely effects it can have on health.

I believe a teaspoon of salt is about 5 to 6 grams. Don't forget the medics advise only 6 grams of salt per adult per day.

I find half a teaspoon per portion is plenty and tastes about right to me.

Hi Weeble,

Just a thought - you might have trouble cooking 4 portions in one go if that is what you were hoping to do.

Most of the recipes and cooking techniques on here are for a single portion as that's what a TA or BIR chef will do, usually in a small pan.

You might have to cook the meal 4 times for 4 people, if this makes sense.

Dessicated coconut can make your curries taste like somebody put some sand in them.

I use this stuff now:

http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2espicesofindia%2eco%2euk%2f&WD=maggi&SHOP=%20&PN=Indian%2dFood%2dMaggi%2dCoconut%2dMilk%2dPowder%2ehtml%23aGRO011_2dp#aGRO011_2dp

I also like the cartons of Blue Dragon UHT coconut milk but once opened you are supposed to bin after 3 days.

Welcome to cr0.

Paul.

Hi 976bar,

That looks really good. Just one question, how long did it take to cook?

I don't fancy watching over my onions for 3 hours!

Paul.

I would use about 100 to 150 ml of oil and aim for a finished volume of about 2 litres.

Let us know how you get on.

PaulP.

OK - if you say this base recipe only makes 1 litre with 5 onions, the last base I made (Taz recipe) made 3 litres with 6 onions. So from that point of view your base sounds quite concentrated.

Is it pretty thick before you reduce it?

Most of the bases I've tried are mild tasting and quite runny. They don't normally taste anything like a finished curry sauce, more like a mildly spiced soup.

As the previous poster said, if you post the recipe it would help.

Paul.