The pressure cooker sounds like a good idea and may help reduce the amount of smell you create when making a base.

My Indian work mates swear by them for speeding up the cooking of lentils.

I often wonder whether the BIR curry base was invented for the UK market by Bangladeshi/Pakistani chefs or whether a restaurant in Bangladesh/Pakistan would use the same technique for fast cooking.

One thing is for sure - it would be impractical to make a BIR base without a blender. From this perspective is cannot be seen as traditional Indian cooking.

I've tried (over many years) cooking Indian food as per the usual: Fry onions, cardamom pods, cloves, bay leaf, cinnamon etc. add spices, fresh tomato etc. I've never cooked a dish like this where the sauce tastes as good as one using a base sauce, and I'm not mad keen on eating whole spices either.

For me the BIR base sauce technique I learned from this forum has transformed the dishes I can make and I don't think the technique should be considered second-rate compared to traditional Indian food.

I now believe that the fast reduction of the first ladle of base and subsequent scraping and stirring helps to create the smokey flavour and I find the toffee aroma is present at this stage.

As I posted elsewhere, I now mix up oil, base , G&G, spice mix, tom puree, chilli at the start of cooking and reduce the first lot of base so there is virtually no water showing.

At the same time some of the base is catching on my wok and going dry and brown - I believe that the onion in the base is caramalising when this happens and it has to be rapidly stirred back in.

I've definitely got more of a BIR flavour since adopting this technique.

I hate to admit it but until this point I was using teflon non-stick pans and now would not recommend this to anyone trying for BIR curries.

I've just noticed there is no ground corriander in either the base or the final recipe.

I've never made a curry without corriander so can't imagine what this would taste like.

Hi Harbut,

Why not try the Panpot Ashoka chicken marinade:

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3916.0

You might want to reduce the amounts as this is for 1 kilogram of chicken.

If you do, let us know how tender/tasty it turns out.

Pre-frying the chicken just enough to seal in the juices is a known cooking technique but you would want to fry just enough to seal it.

Thanks for the reminder PP I'll get around to the Ashoka pre-cooked recipe one day!

I find this tricky too. I've tried pre-cooking but lately I've just been adding raw chicken breast to the hot curry sauce and letting simmer for about 12-15 minutes and although not BIR (too slow for a TA) it still tastes ok this way.

Hi Nick,

I've noticed in my travels around Spain that the Spanish don't seem to like Indian food.
I think France is the same too. I did notice Chinese restaurants in places where mostly Spanish people live and I've seen Spanish people eating in these Chinese restaurants.

Another poster today has commented that the Americans he has met are really wary of spicy food too.

I wonder why we Brits seems to like it and they don't?

Good luck with your ventures - I've been at it a few months now and my confidence is growing. Almost ready to host a curry night dinner party!

I've made loads of this base. The last one I made up to 5 litres and halved the tinned tomato quantity. I also added a stick of celery for the hell of it and used expensive mild onions (they were Tesco organic - the only mild ones in stock).

The resulting base was delicious and sweet tasting, as were the curries that followed.

Regarding the potato, I don't think it would make any real difference if left out altogether. I would be surprised if anyone could tell the difference with or without the spuds.