I use this YTD
http://download.cnet.com/YTD-Video-Downloader/3000-2071_4-10647340.html
works with vimeo too, lets you pick the quality and downloads fast. Nice thing is it will auto paste the url and you can start many multiple downloads

Looks like we have the same New World cooker?

basic curry sauce dad 0001

Maybe of interest to some here. Seems like his daughter put a few films up and can't see it ever being posted.

Might be dismissed straight away by people as there's no oil in the huge pot of over 40kg of onions.

What curry powder if any do you use?

You probably need to state which recipes have failed. Go in to detail how the base went, how long it took and what you do, like buy garlic ginger paste in tubes.

Maybe watch chewys video on the base and study the cooking the madras video, make sure you're getting it right. Following some text may not help and watching someone over and over, noting the times etc might be better.
Chicken Madras (Classic Indian Restaurant Curry) on Vimeo
http://vimeo.com/mikestyne

I blend fresh garlic and ginger with oil and salt for paste, use Natco madras curry powder, then a mixture of east end, trs and natco for turmeric, cumin etc. Various chilli powder shouldn't be a big deal.

One thing I've noticed is if I put too much base in on the second part I can lose TA/BIR curry if cooking for 2/3 people and now do it in more stages if I've got 600-1000mil. To me if you don't get the aroma then probably be down to the base.

Anyway, i'll let more esteemed members try to help but be sure to at least follow chewys 3hr base and madras cooking video to spec before giving up.

Has anyone got that BIR taste/smell with supermarket brand spices?

I feel many may substitute these as not many live near an Asian grocery. I've compared by tasting them raw and smelling. The stuff you get at the Asian shop are much better to me. The East End Turmeric seems really high quality and familiar taste/smell on its own. When I used to get supermarket stuff, the Turmeric was really bland, I'd leave it and nothing would change. Another extreme I've found is the corriander powder in supermarkets is very strong in smell, almost like some boosted perfume where as the stuff from the Asian shop that the BIR/TA's use is a quarter of that strength. Cumin again has a nice balance to it but the supermarket is pretty singular.

Well I don't want to add to myths but to me if you want to fully replicate then you have to go the extra mile and use what the BIR/TA use. I'm certainly getting the aroma, even when cooking the base I get its smells like an Indian Restaurant.