I was recently trying to remember exactly when supermarkets began selling own brand chilled BIR meals when I realised that was the only time I?d had one.

Roughly around 2000 Tesco were touting their range as virtually identical to that of local TAs which I didn?t think would catch on as they were / are not exactly cheap, yet assumed they would be created in the same way restaurants used.

Having now eaten a Tesco Saag Aloo 300G and Sainsbury's King Prawn Masala 400g I can honestly say I couldn?t detect any trace of BIR in either of them, if fact the Saag Aloo was worse than self-attempts I?ve thrown away.

What?s curious is that these two leading supermarkets with considerable spending power and other resources have either consistently chosen the wrong people to develop their lines or that they?re in exactly the same boat we are.

One of the many possibilities for failing to achieve true BIR flavour I?ve not seen mentioned much in the forums is the quality of spices used.
Having eliminated a good few now (funny how I never feel satisfied to learn by other peoples mistakes in cooking.) I was wondering if it could be down to the fact that most of us appear to buy bog standard spices that have been sitting on the shelf for several months when a busy restaurant can order wholesale quantities possible imported from source in only a week or so hence bypassing the wholesale / retail time factor.
I know some members have grown their own spices and would like to know if there?s any mileage in this. It just seems to me that adding large quantities of something doesn?t equate to the punch you get from restaurant flavours.

First off I am not here to criticize those who eat meat and any that do make an argument for or against on that topic are simply disrespecting this website and what it?s here for.  I was a vegetarian for six years but then included fish in my diet for the following 11 which brings me to today.

Point being is that tonight I had yet another takeaway prawn masala after making many personal attempts at masala/vindaloo/phall which is supposedly simpler than other BIR dishes. I have watched videos referenced from here, read almost all posts now and kept a wide open mind on why restaurant flavour is generally better and now I am sure I know.

When you stop eating meat a few things happen, firstly you fart more (yes really,) but aside the various other non-relevant differences you  1. Need considerably less salt and 2. Very much notice the difference between a meat and a non-meat product.
Hence I just had a moment of clarity regarding the base sauce and that is I have been stupidly naive by crediting this hard to master cocktail possible by using vegetables alone.

Any flavour this resonant has to be meat influenced and is most probably some kind of chicken stock as suspected in several posts. Meat eaters won?t see this anywhere near as easily and although many may argue the point you simply won?t understand unless you cease all meat consumption for about 3 months.)

Therefore I will now stop beating myself up over apparent failures as the answer was there all along, the hard-core members here always claim to be so close yet so far, the restaurants never want to give you the "curry gravy" and never show you the basic basics because although they aren't worried about you starting your own curry house they are very worried they will get fined over using meat additives in non-meat dishes.
I am sitting here smelling the after effects of my prawn masala and realising I just didn?t want to admit that its red meat/poultry based to myself because that of course means I won?t be ordering any more

Since I started I have been using fresh chillis sliced / deseeded / minced then blended in with the sauce, but few people on here seem to use anything but chilli powder for hot dishes. It occurred to me that powder would help reduce the pieces of chilli skin still present after blending but surely can't measure up to the taste of fresh produce?

Also I would be grateful if someone could clarify if blending the ginger/onion/garlic separately to the rest of the base then mixing as opposed to doing it all together has any advantages?

Oh and does anyone else use onion paste in their base?