So, anything new learnt here or not? Just seems more of the same to me?  :

Hi MBC 

Just wondered what peoples' thoughts were on what constitutes a BIR/TA curry, as opposed to traditional Indian cuisine...

I think Stephen Lindsay defined the difference pretty well.

It's a combination of things that differentiate BIR style from traditional Indian - predominantly the commercialised streamlining of cooking processes and pre-bought, pre-cooked ingredients. Everything in a BIR kitchen is geared up to producing a wide variety of dishes quickly and consistently using a minimum of man hours.

The curry sauce, gravy, gurabi, base - call it whatever you like is all pre-made in large batches ready to go. The mix powder or the 'generic' curry powder is all pre-mixed ready to go. The garlic and ginger pastes - pre-prepared and ready to go. The meat, all pre-cooked and ready to go.

You rarely get that level of pre-cooking and preparation in traditional indian cuisine where masalas, pastes, marinades etc are all made fresh. Traditional indian cuisine also generally tends to use a much wider range of ingredients which intentionally imparts quite distinctive flavours to each dish as opposed to the somewhat 'generic' flavour you will likely get from each BIR restaurant and kitchen you visit. This is one of the reasons why so many BIR dishes taste pretty similar often the primary difference between a standard chicken curry, a madras and vindaloo being the amount of chilli powder used in it.

It's an interesting subject and one that has been discussed here in some length in other threads although I accept that actually finding those threads may take a little time.

Welcome.

It's nice to have someone with professional training who can input some of their experience and knowledge into what is for the most part a group of amateur but enthusiastic curry cooks.

The collective knowledge about all things BIR found on this site is pretty impressive I think you'll find.

Just don't forget however, that BIR ingredients and techniques are some way away from other styles of cooking.

Well that's me told from my scientist hubby, the spices are fat soluble not water soluble hence the oil is important!

As was mentioned right at the start of the thread!  :

They actually dissolve into alcohol better than oil, but alcohol isn't a very good cooking or frying medium