Pan weights and sizes are very important, and significantly affect the cooking process without a doubt.  I only use my woks (I have 3 steel woks and a giant heavy aluminium Kharai - all of different sizes and weights) for certain tasks. 

I usually use a flat heavy steel or iron pan for cooking my take-away type dishes, because a wok doesn't do the job so well.  I don't use teflon nonstick frying pans/woks because the high heat can sometimes blow off the teflon coating.

What do your chefs use Andy please, e.g. frying pans. woks, or both?

What the large amount of gas they generate because of their cooking?  :  Oh dear we are back to cows again ;D ;D ;D  But nice to see a bit of humour around.

Hi D&B.  If you look through this Forum (yes i know it is big  :) you will find lots of similar posts to yours and very good replies that extend back to day one.  There is no easy solution I am afraid because BIR recipes, especially bases, work better when made in bulk.  However some of the stars here have put in a lot of effort to create recipes that work with smaller amounts.  In most cases with BIR stuf you can not simply reduce the volumes by ratio.

This page may help you http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1255.0 we have tried to put together some reference material and conversions.

Don't be put off and good luck with your mission.
CP

I am not one for buying prepacked curry powders, but I had to try the Madras Curry Powder from Fiddes Payne as I have not heard of them before.  It has just appeared on the shelves at our Tesco (on the IOW) so you may already have seen/tried the stuff before.  Anyway it comes in a rectangular tin with very well designed labelling; mainly red and gold.  The company manufacture a range of powders.

The powder is a deep golden brown colour.  The aroma is very good and the spices smell very fresh; to me there is a similarity to Bolsts.

I made up a simple base with onions garlic and the powder.  Like other prepacked powders it is quite a coarse grind and therefore somewhat gritty until it has been well fried.  It does not give off much aroma during cooking and I found the flavour, after cooking the base, quite pleasant but not hot at all, and I did use quite a lot of powder.  It does have a 4 out of 5 chilli rating on the tin!

I added some garlic powder and some chilli powder, salt,  tomato paste, 3 green cardamoms, some coarse black pepper, and then some KTC coconut cream.  I also had to add loads of oil as it really does expand and soak up the oil.  The result was very pleasntly suprising.  I left it overnight to mature before I go to stage 2 and make up a final chicken madras with it.  I tried it this morning and the flavour is still very pleasant with subtle flavours, but the spices still have some coarsness but not gritty.  I will let you know the results of the final dish tomorrow.

Verdict.  Very good, not hot enough, and far too expensive to use for bulk production. But I think it could be a very capable partner for making bases.

CP

Will that be on top of the extra ?6K tax per annum that Brown is threatening to impose on the 'middle classes' this year then   I am suprised the he hasn't imposed a super tax on CTM; after all it is UK's most popular dish and the tax could replace the revenue lost on fags.  Oh dear, getting political..... must stop.  Apologies one and all.

CP