Not posted for a while but thought this worth a mention.
Had a new guy start work next to me his mother and father run a Chinese takeaway where he also works in the evening, the conversation eventually got around to curry and he was surprised at my passion for Indian, anyway, I also showed interest in Chinese cooking and asked how they get the lovely flavour that you can't seem to emulate at home ( as per Indian  : ) and he said we don't wash our pans  Not with washing up liquid anyway just hot water and a wipe around with kitchen roll, this keeps the pans seasoned and is good for the flavour of the cooked food.
Of course they cook every day so I doubt any bacteria has much of a chance to get a hold but if you only cooked once a week it might not be a good idea!
Anyway could this be another % towards that final 5% we all been trying for .

Hi all, off to Cork (Ireland) next week and just wondered if anyone can recommend anywhere there for a decent Curry  washed down with a couple of pints of Guinness after  ;D

Hi all , not had much time over the last few months to make curries what with holidays and the garden etc etc  : been relying on our local t/a most Saturdays.
Anyhow, getting the curry bug again but would like to start the ' season ' with something different as have tried many of the popular base gravy recipes on the site last one being the Zaal.
I was hoping Chris would have his e-book out by now  : but ' soon ' seems to be taking a while 
My Onion Bhaji attempts have been dismal compared to our local t/a and they did offer to show me how they make theirs but their always too busy  they put lentils in their bhaji's plus use coconut block in their gravy so that's a start 
Mmmmmm decisions decisions 

Had about one and a bit portions of base left in the pressure cooker after knocking up a quick base yesterday and walking down the stairs this morning noticed how the house had the aroma of a takeaway  the Wife also noticed it without me mentioning it and I commented it was the gravy left in the pressure cooker which she then lifted the lid to have a sniff,'' close '' she said '' but not quite the same'' she then went on to say she thought the aroma came from the base being 'fried' when making the main curry so I put half a ladle of base in the pan and cooked it down to near nothing 
The aroma around the house was caramelised onions  with a hint of spices,there was just about a teaspoon of caramelised base left in the pan which I had to taste and  what a flavour ! It was delicious ! Very powerful flavour of fried onions and spices,I'm sure if you could get some of this flavour into your curries it would be a considerable improvement 
Thinking about how curries are usually started with oil then g/g plus spice mix, chili powder and tomato paste I don't know if once you add the first ladle of base you could cook this mixture down to the point of caramelising without burning the mixture 
Hope this might help in some way to get that savoury flavour we're looking for   

PS, you could start your curries with a half ladle of base and cook this down before starting with the oil and this is how our local t/a make their curries with their ' all in one ' base but without the oil.

 The Wife left half of her Chicken Madras (zaal base) which I made on Saturday ( it was a large portion  ) and I just spotted it in the fridge,I then noticed that some of the oil from the curry had dripped onto an egg box which the curry had been perched on WOW  pure BIR  ;D .
The curry itself did smell good but the oil was spot on BIR and far more fragrant than the curry itself.
To me this reinforces what has been found many times on the forum - that BIR flavour is in the oil.
And again the flavour of the curry (with the oil) has improved since Saturday.