Guys on another thread CurryOnRegardless mentions Garlic/Ginger pastes causing "repeating". I am assuming he means reflux which given the amount of spiced food I eat together with alcohol I have my fair share of having to deal with this by product of my passion for curry.

I came accross an unlikely and natural cure for this 6 momths ago and being someone open minded about anything alternative in health matters I had a go and it worked just as it was promised to do.

You probably won't believe this just before bed or when it come up (sorry) eat an apple. Yes an apple and you will be amazed no more off the shelf remidies causing all kinds of other side effects. Cheers Panpot PS the spell checker isn't working.

Folks I am just back from the afternoon in heaven. I got more or less 3 hours behind the scenes in the above BIR the latest in the famous Scottish Chain of BIRs. I was given full permission to share with you what I found although I did explain it was for the personal use only of the members.

The Owner kindly gave me permission to spend the afternoon with their award winning chef in the working kitchen with clients still ordering and eating and while they prepared the buffet for the evening trade.

I have taken notes and I managed to record most of it on my iPhone which has just completely justified its existence.

I will take time over the next wee while to bring it all to you but I do have a busy couple of weeks ahead of me.

For starters some highlights, They take pride in the base and believe it is critical,without it being perfect all else is worthless. It contains amongst other things tomato puree (White Tower Brand) but any should do, curry powder medium (East End Madras Brand) turmeric,chili powder again East End brand, he swears by this make. Blocked Coconut Cream and wait for it vegetable margarine and vegetable oil. The full recipe I will post asap.Bye the way not a lot if any oil is recovered.

Two other stand out ingredients was a pre cooked Garlic and Ginger Paste which has oil and turmeric with a 70/30 Garlic Ginger proportion. The really important ingredient was a caramelised onion sauce, which is extensively used along with the Garlic,Ginger Paste. This onion sauce may be what was substituted in the controversial Onion paste posted elsewhere.

So much to report,he also showed me how to make the Pakora with some secrets and how the chicken ismarinaded before pre cooking,however the same marinade was used to cook my take home Chicken Bhuna to prove that pre cooking is only a convenience thing while actually cooking fresh is so much better and boy did it taste amazing.

I was shown how to make the Ticka Marinade, how to cook Korma and how he pre cooks his lamb the most melt in the mouth lamb I have ever tasted. I can go on and on, They use ali pans as they feel they are safest and don't burn, they don't use ghee other than for dressing nan breads. The never use Worcestershire sauce they pointed out that your nostrils adjust after a short time in the kitchen so you cant really smell it after a while so I had my theory posted elsewhere vindicated. They don't eat these meals for no other reason than their home cooked has no pre cooking is so much better they say and more healthy. They don't eat Kormas or Patia or such things though they would eat the Bhuna. The chef does all he can to cook the food as near as he can to Indian home cooking. There is absolutely no food dyes used.

Korma is made with the base sauce(yellow in colour)and UHT Single Cream only. The addition of coconut or nuts etc is just for simple variations on the menu.

I need to stop now since I have a life beyond this addiction (just) and will edit my recordings and decipher my noted before posting below in due course. I had the time of my life, bye the way they do not flame the food claiming after initial high heat they cook on a slow flame. I could go on but need to stop now, cheers a delirious Panpot.

I hope this is the correct location to post this.

I trust too that this wont be controversial in that this post may bring back some challenging memories for some of us who were about a couple of years ago. At the time someone who many of us ended up not trusting came onto the site with a big splash and finished by setting up another site taking with him a number of our contributors at the time.

He particularly annoyed a number of us with his post regarding a "Secret Ingredient" which was an onion paste which we later found out was copied form another source. Due to the general trouble and mistrust at the time I suspect many of us missed out in what he was getting at.

I eventually had a go with the idea but I am sure it was a modified recipe coming from the thread of experimentation and simple trial and error of members and dont remember it now. For many at the time I remember concerns of it taking to much time and something about a soapy smell. My own effort which turned out to be a dark red/brown paste was absolutely fantastic, it had the BIR smell and taste and having made a decent sized batch I froze it in ice cube trays for single portion use. To be honest It kept me going for a year and more and definitely made all the difference.

I ran out at the start of the summer and since I tend not to cook curries over the warmer months I assumed when I returned to the site a few weeks ago to make batches of base sauce and pick up on the forum and new recipes I would find the post and figure out how to make it again.

It has been removed probably for good reason which I can only understand and agree with but the resultant recipe was the business. I asked elsewhere for help and on another post I got the Link to the original recipe. I have made it and it does smell OK but its a green colour and without whatever I did as a result of the thread is missing something least of all the colour.

Can anyone help and maybe on our behalf Stew could go through the old thread if he still has it and gleam from its entirety the resultant versions that may give us all a chance to see if it can add any value to us, I know it will for me.

I certainly don't wish to open old wounds but there was something in this paste and I do see something similar being used by my local take away with an open kitchen. Cheers Panpot.

Can Anyone recommend some good Stores in London to brouse and stock up an spices,goodies etc. I am visiting on Wednesday and Thursday. Thanks

Panpot

Further to the ending of another thread here regarding getting rid of old spices and replacing with a fresh batch does anyone have any good ideas for storing spices once the packet is opened?

I realise they deteriorate fairly quickly and where possible we should freshly grind them and so on but I cant imagine the BIRs do this but you never know.