The Base Sauces
Every BIR curry starts here. Make one of these first and the actual curry takes just 7–10 minutes.
G1 Base Sauce
The full-fat BIR base sauce. Makes 2400 ml — enough for 8 curries. Freeze in 300 ml portions. This is the one to make on a Sunday afternoon and freeze for the week.
G2 Quick Base Sauce
A non-conventional approach using tinned soups that produces a remarkably good result. Makes 1200 ml in just 10 minutes with almost no preparation. Slightly darker and more savoury than G1.
G3 Simple Fried Base
The single-serve base. Makes exactly 300 ml — just enough for one or two curries tonight. No freezing needed, minimal prep, ready in 15 minutes.
💡 Why a base sauce?
British Indian Restaurants (BIR) developed a style of cooking where a pre-made base sauce — essentially a mildly spiced vegetable stock — is used across almost every curry on the menu. This lets a curry be cooked to order in just minutes.
Make a batch of base sauce, portion it up, and freeze it. Then any night of the week you're 10 minutes away from a restaurant-quality curry.
New to BIR cooking? Start with the G2 Quick Base Sauce — it's made from tinned soups, takes 10 minutes, and produces a genuinely impressive result. When you're ready to go deeper, try the G1.