Hi,

I picked up on 3 recipes, 2 bases and a madras.

The madras.

Darths recipe for madras is very good. But basically that is what it is a madras. You could easily turn it into a vindaloo for example or hotter still. I have not worked backwards to see what it would be like as a base by removing some of the ingredients.

In general there are 2 bases that are used in the industry. These are based on what a restaurant produces in terms of depth of menu.

Andy's is a savoury base and as explained is used a lot in the north of the country and where the menu is extensive in terms of medium-hot-rich dishes with a lot of speciality dishes as well.

It is not a complicated recipe. Bear in mind that they are using and producing it day after day so on first view it looks heavy. I would put my head on the block and also say that they will also have what we term a basic yellow base. This will be used for all the milder dishes.

With regard to the paste you mentioned, this will be made in large amounts, so 2 hours is just the same for a large amount as a small amount and this will be their taste signature.
This taste signature can be done in different ways but sometimes it is difficult to get the older chef's to adapt to newer ways.

Back to the yellow base. This yellow base is also used extensively in most other restaurants and take-aways that just provide your standard menu's, but requires a lot more in terms of spices to obtain the richer and hotter dishes.

Pete's recipe is near to this base as i said but the quantities are not quite right or the method.

You say that the above bases go against what you have been told by actual BIR staff. Were these the chefs?, the owners? or just serving staff? If you had been told then why are you still searching? Surely your answers would be there. I can say that i would use the savoury one given a menu to use it with, allbeit there are a few typing errors.

Ours is an on the street restaurant or as you would call it BIR.

Don't make things more complicated with what you are doing on here, go back to basics.

Remember the finished dishes are a combination of one base and spices, herbs and method. This produces the consistancy, there is no mix and match in the real world.

Naresh.

Hello.

After spending quite some time trawling through the posts on here, i thought i would put down some observations.
If this site is about obtaining, as you put it "The BIR taste" then this is not going to happen with the way you seem to be trying. It seems to have become a game and not reality as it seemed to be even a month ago.

Let me say, quoting a statement from suggestions for improving this site.

"It would become intresting for individual currys\sides as we would generally all be using different bases etc..  worth a thought anyway"

What is all that about?

Here is another one form another section.

"hi can you recommend a madras recipe to use with this (stews) base sauce,as i am trying this one out tonight, many thanks Andy"

Let us evaluate what both the above mean.

Take a bir down south say no.1. They will have a base sauce or two that they use. The bir further down the road say no.2 will have a very similar base and so on and so on.
They will all produce say a madras that is very similar.

What no.1 don't do is sell a portion of base to customer "A" who then runs off down the road with it to no.2 to have it turned into a madras. The chef's would not do it. They might laugh.

What you are suggesting is mix and match methods. That is just absolutely mince. You are on the road to nowhere and just complicating what should be quite simple and which is really not rocket science or indeed as keeps getting said SECRET.

You will never ever achieve what you are looking for doing things this way.

What you need to do is go to your local bir or take-away and order a medium curry, be it chicken, lamb or prawn. This should be your starting point. Very little added to the base sauce. If you can emulate that dish, you are 90% there to being totally accurate. Then move on to other dishes. You cannot work in reverse.

As regard to the bases on here:

Poppadom Petes is very close to a true standard base but there are discrepencies on the quantities and methods but the basics are there. Needs attention.

Andy2295 is a typical north england savoury one and very accurate. No doubt the supplementary base will come for other milder dishes.

Darths madras is very good as a copy madras alone with too much chilli. (but he points that out).

The important things are.

Get the base right first.
Don't mix and match bases and final dish recipes ingredients. (That just does not happenand you will still be searching 12 months from now).

Finally get rid of all the meaningless posts from the forum. It's too long winded ploughing through the crap.

You will get there if you take a step back. At the moment that will not happen and you are on the wrong course.

Only my honest observations

Naresh.
Restauranteur.

Hello,

Nirash here,

Cottage of India