Hi everyone. I'm Paul from the delightful village of Freeland, which is near Witney in Oxfordshire. I've been a fan of BIR curries for more years than I care to think about. Been away for a while and came back to find my all-time favopurite BIR curries website Cr0.co.uk has vanished... this seems to be the same jind of place, is it a daughter-place to the old site?
Anyway, I hope to be a regular visitor here and to be able to contribute some of my own stuff, although everything I like seems to have been well-covered.
So Hi to you all...

That looks good. How did it taste, was it what you wanted? Here in Oxford we're really lucky, the bottom end of the Cowley road is a feast of oriental shops, mostly Bangladeshi but also chinese/thai/oriental etc. so it's easy to get spices, rice, herbs etc. cheaply and in bulk. I bought a lot of sealable plastic food-boxes from our local Sainsburys, many of them at half-price or less, and use them to store my spices in the garage where it's dark and cool. And the missus bought a birds-eye chilli bush which we keep on the window sill and harvest the ripe chillis as and when - those not used dry out nicely and are stored.

Let us know how you get on with your curry-fest.

I've used some of their non-curry receipes, and can heartily recommend them. But without any doubt, in my opinion, the best TV recipes come from the Channel 5 show "Chinese Food In Minutes" with Ching-He Huang - I've followed more than half her recipes with outstanding success every time!

Very good recording from the BBC all about the history of curry in the uk. You need to have a torrent client to download it, but it's a fascinating story:

http://radioarchive.cc/torrents-details.php?id=8490Ruby Murray: The Secret Story of Curry 09-04-2010

"The British are mad about curry - 'Ruby Murray' in Cockney rhyming slang. Alkarim Jivani speaks to curry lovers north and south of the border to find out how curry came to be so intimately linked with the British sense of identity.

Historically, the English have been seen as distrustful of foreigners and wary of foreign food. So the nation's long love affair with curry - which is as much working class as colonial - is a surprising one. Even more curious is how this passion for curry is now recognised as part of the British identity. Vindaloo was the unofficial song of England's 1998 World Cup team - an unlikely battlecry for English football fans. In 2001, Robin Cook, then Foreign Secretary, declared that chicken tikka masala was the nation's most popular dish. Chicken tikka masala is even included by the Ministry of Defence in its operational ration packs to bring the troops some home comfort.

Contributors include: Madhur Jaffrey, whose enormously popular 1982 BBC series Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery revolutionised British Indian cuisine; Michelin-starred chef, Atul Kochhar (Great British Menu, Saturday Kitchen), known for his masterful use of spices and the Indian twist he brings to modern British cuisine; Namita Panjabi, Group Director, Masala World (Veeraswamy, Chutney Mary, Amaya, and Masala Zone); and Neil Hind at Defence Food Services, Defence Equipment and Support, Ministry of Defence (Defence Equipment and Support buys equipment and supports the UK army, navy and airforce around the world).

Presenter Alkarim Jivani

Producers Catriona Oliphant / Ian Willox

Executive Producer Simon Berthon

"I could murder a Ruby." Not the plans of a nascent assassin, but the mating cry of the British liquored-up male on a Friday night. The British love affair with Ruby Murrays (cockney rhyming slang) dates as far back as the 18th century, as our guide to the Brits and the art of curry, Alkarim Jivani, tells us. Fantastic facts, like chicken tikka masala is not the nation's favourite meal and what Mrs Beaton could do to a periwinkle, are what make this gorgeous little dish of history, memories, and recipes, a very tasty morsel indeed."

Enjoy!

I'm relatively new to this forum, and to cooking BIR curries, but I made my first batch of Darth's base sauce a while back. Due to the constraints of the utensils I had at the time I had to downsize Darth's recipe by 50%. I have to say that the resulting base was excellent, and although I haven't made a full-size batch I can't imagine doubling my ingredients would have made much difference to the final result, particularly since it is, after all, a base and lots of different spices and ingredients are added when the base is used to make a curry.

I'm going to make another batch later today (used-up the original batch :-) and this time it will be the full size, so I might be in a better position to comment.

One thing that strikes me is that it is really important to use large amounts of oil in the base, I was tempted to lower the quantity Darth says to use, because it seems excessive, but I didn't and I'm glad I didn't. I might add a bit more this time, and drain-off some of the excess to store and use in the final curry.