Rev 5 all eaten cooked crock pot.

A new colander to mash the base turned out rubbish and still on the search. The mesh dia must need to be much greater than say 5 mm.

Never really thought about how blending lightens cooked onion base. If you heat it again the darkness comes back. The colour part is now sorted having had encouragement from rsholme123. Last time i cooked the onion base 6 hrs without any real difference. This time left it un disturbed  ie no stirring. This works and is adopted.

So say the colour and texture is now essentially cracked.

Onto spice. I looked through lists of spice and I know all that are listed in my balti books. I also feel I know all the common ones too. In browsing my local store I picked up poppy seed and split yellow mustard. Both seemed to sit well. Am pretty sure 1 is part of the taste I'm searching. I need to increase the amounts next to understand what they do better.

Finally the amount of onion per portion has been bugging 200g say c/w say 130g BIR. Could wrong and might account for the vast amount of oil (which I've not used). In short tried split red lentil. Certainly thickens the base. Its a new ingredient for me so treading gently. It could be an ingredient.

Still a good way off the McCoy base yet the final dish is very close which makes you think how exact you need to be.

Lost the sweetness this time in the base perhaps the mustard seed.

Family now big balti fans. Need to get them off rice though.

A real eye opener this. Mine is from a biggish box which I bin down to no room. I'll check what it is next time.

My methi is all leaf and green nothing like the big picture stuff.

I have had to get to like methi having initially not liked one bit. I have to hard fry it in the oil when using before the garlic.

Unclefrank,

Appreciate thoughts.

Yes for sure soya rubbish.

The gm as you say is critical and I have started to play around with the copycat of the adil sample we got last year. Feel touch less cumin and more ajwain and perhaps fennel or aniseed. I am adding to both base and dish but early on.

I use lemon in BIR (per axe) base. It will be next tier. This taste i don't recognise needs cracking 1st before anything else. I feel I need to get some packets of spice ive not tried before.

Rev4 base - all eaten and best yet. Cooked dish crockpot.

Going fwd taking the pur?e out of the dish ingredients as I think its needed and best in the base. Depends how it's cooked ie with or without oil / spice fry.

Jalpur did nothing.

Going to keep tweaking the rev4 to get the balance 100%. Need to crack this single flavour though. Trouble i can't really think of many/any spice I can relate it too.

Caught my eye overtaken CTM.

Out of interest Is the absence of coconut and perhaps the addition of pur?e/ketchup the key differences. Just trying to understand the 2 dishes.

Rev3 base was used as crock pot using adil chicken balti recipe. 4 portions woofed down. The base was well balanced with the tamarind sitting just nicely.

Rev4 base is made. Popular demand.

The darkening is now sorted and no longer an issue. Cooking just the onion for 6 hrs then mashing fully then cooking spice 1 hr.

Have added in some tom pur?e to get closer to the red colour - felt it worked well and adopted.

Have added in touch of bought gm (jalpur) thinking I don't have enough base spicing. Interesting to see what effect it has on the base taste in the morning.

THAT single taste that I don't know of is now the only issue. I feel I will have to break off back onto the spice tasting trials for inspiration. Its defo not a meat flavour. By switching to the BBQ tandoori masala ive got closer. Still need to try rose petal.

Gut feeling now is that it's done in the spicing via a combination.

The plain par boiled stripped chicken is going down a treat.

Turmeric is big no no and I think heavy in the TRS brand tandoori masala which is the only spoiling.

Perhaps need a Bengali bob trip up north.