ave started this and hit difficulty and need some thoughts on what going wrong

I can add detail if needed.

in short have used onion, salt, oil, water to give a "base" to add spice 1 off at a time.

all goes well adding turmeric, cumin, coriander, chef masala, paprika. 

at this point the curry tastes pretty good. not BIR but the makings of.

it goes downhill very fast on adding curry powder. I'm using rajah hot madras which on it's own I'd thought tastes pretty good.

taking the ratio cumin:curry powder to 1:10 really demonstrates how bad a curry can get.

immediate thoughts:
1) curry powder is wrong type
2) perception of lot of curry powder in mix powder is wrong

any guidance appreciated

1st thought
has anyone compared bought packet ground and seed ground at home.

I've always used seed and ground it as and when needed thinking fresh is best.

just a thought but can't really see most BIR grinding their own given the amounts and effort needed.

question then comes - is there a difference in taste ie is packet ground needed or even "essential" to deliver BIR accurately.

2nd thought is cumin spicing taste of BIR.

when thinking of mix powder ingredients could you take all out with the exception of cumin.

or look at it another way make a mix powder without cumin and will it give BIR taste. take any other ingredient out and it probably will

does this sound potty. need a sanity check

If you have no interest in burners then not worth reading on.

As we know a very emotive subject. Do I care certainly not.

I do know my good friend rsholme123 despite knowing my product is not a fan.

What this shows is that we clearly have different needs. I see it as what we were brought up on.

Intro over. What's there to learn.

Had the opportunity to cook on another members burner with my own pan.

First impressions were the burner looked good - more than enough heat ~7.5kw.

I'm no expert. I just know I'm not looking to change what I have.

Something just did not feel right but could not put finger on it.

Eventually dawned - the height or gap between burner and pan bottom was quite a lot. In nutshell The flames did not wrap the pan rim.  

I suspect as a result the pan outside temp was not getting hot enough. From memory for me 230c.

In short the learning for me - the amount of heat is not the end game. The burner setup is more complicated than would be initially thought.

Just for info - did the burner produce BIR. No question Yes. It's just a question weather you are happy with the yes produced. If not reduce that gap somehow so the flame wraps the pan.

Ps for info flame was Bunsen burner blue and I now discount the flame colour/profile as Important

I've always used same amount of mix for any dish. over time settled on 0.5 tsp per portion having used max 2 tsp.

The 0.5 tsp comes from perception of BIR (rsubtle spice with individual dish ingredients the differentiator)

Chewytikka red CTM got me questioning QTY. I've made this a lot for family who wanted a copy of what they get from 2 local restaurants. 

In short started off with no mix, then 0.5 tsp and fixed at 1 tsp. This only came about by making the dish a lot of times and the 'customer' input.

The question then is the QTY dish dependent and is there a rule of thumb. Typ

1) plain cream - high
2) plain curry - medium
3) complex - low

If Anyones got a better naming of the categories would appreciate as it would make the info more easier to apply/understand

Category 
a) plain cream 

 Korma, CTM, pasanda

b) plain curry

Madras, vindaloo, Bhuna, Dopiaza 

c) complex

Jalfrezi, patia, Rogan Josh, garlic

Chillies - is there definitive use guide

A few recent posts have got me thinking I've still not done enough on chillies.

Yes I feel I know all that is available and would get high marks on a blindfold taste test.

Question is am I using the right chilli for the dish and at the right time in the dish fry.

This is my current thinking

1) green finger chilli

? base
? vindaloo (as part of sauce)
? as paste per Ashoka (add early or late if bought bottle)

2) green bullet chilli

? top dressing at end (sliced)
? madras added early

3) red fresh Kashmiri (finger??)

? vindaloo added early (per curry2go)

4) scotch bonnet

? convert to Tom sauce (use like mr nagga jar)
? produce lip burn in hot dishes

5) dried crushed extra hot red chillies

? add any dish increase heat in place of powder (medium hot)
? used in adil balti

6) dried whole red chillies (birds eye)

? can't really decide on these. Very nice flavour stinking hot but less than scotch bonnet. Used only in non curry.

7) dried whole kashmiri

Still to purchase

Any additions/corrections appreciated