We've already lost H4ppy Chris to the sheep-shaggers' forum; do we really want to lose Bigboaby1 as well ?
** Phil.

Been off-line for a few days, what happened, has H4ppy Chris been naughty? His posts seem to have vanished too, is he now an unperson, and what is this woolophile forum of which you speak?

Baffled,

Rob

Thanks for that Chewy. Like Solarsplace I've had no luck searching for Uri on the web and was beginning to think I'd imagined it - what a worrying thought: dreaming about non-existent curry dishes!

I'll look out for Uri when I'm next near an Asian grocers. Meanwhile I'll experiment with the fine green beans blanched, then fried with onion, garlic and panch poran to accompany tonight's prawn patia.

Rob

Interesting that there's no mention of spices. Personally I've never understood what's to be gained by having spice in the base when you'll be adding a lot more in the final dish, plus if it's present in any significant amount it must surely reduce the versatility of the base. These days I don't put any in the base and can't say that I've missed it.
Do people find spice in the base really produces a significantly different taste compared to only frying them in during cooking?

Rob

I've always assumed that the paprika is included principally to add colour as the flavour is a bit too subtle to be really noticed in with all the other spices. (I could be wrong, of course!)

Rob

Spotted some sauces in Home & Bargain yesterday. These were the ones that have a separate plastic container on the lid, sealed with foil and holding powdered spice mix that is fried with your main ingredient before simmering with the sauce from the jar. There was a long list of spices on the label, plus yoghurt and coriander leaf. The brand was "Indi".

Thinking that perhaps these things have come on in recent years, wanting a quick meal and in the interests of research I bought the rogan josh, (89p!)

Alas, just as expected. Despite all the spicing the only flavour really detectable above the sourness was chili. The only thing on the label that we wouldn't use at home, apart from maize starch which presumably is a thickening agent to compensate for the small amount of onion, was citric acid. I suppose this is a preservative, but what's the point of a preservative that ruins the taste?

Until someone finds a way of slowly caramelising onion cheaply on a commercial scale, and avoiding preservatives that taste bitter our local BIRs will be safe.

Oddly many chinese cook-in sauces produce a perfectly acceptable quick meal, without any of the sourness, wonder why?

Robert