I always use tamarind  paste in the little tubs-it like indian marmite!
I cant be doing with the faff of boiling the blocks.
hope this helps
Phil

yeah, thanks. the paste is more concentrated than the freshly made stuff, just wanted to make sure not to put too much in.

How do you intend cooking them Caze?

I cooked them on a pizza stone in the oven at it's highest temp (it was on for nearly 2 hours before they went in), unfortunately I don't think my oven is quite good enough to get these exactly right, it only goes to 230c.

They turned out a lot better than my previous efforts, but they were still some way off resteraunt quality.

The main improvements were with the softness, but ideally you should have a uniform softness, mine were a bit overcooked and hard on the outside, but quite nicely done inside. I'm sure this was solely down to my oven temperature, I might try switching the grill on once the oven is fully heated the next time (I've a couple of them in the freezer so will try again in a few days). I'd never heard the water-sprinkling trick before, and that definitely helped create some blisters, but as it wasn't hot enough so they didn't brown enough.

The taste was also not quite there, it was close though. This could well have been down to the fact that I used a lot less of the milk-egg mixture in the end, the next time I might use more of that mixture and less of the water.

I was also surprised by the lack of yoghurt, most recipes seem to use it, so that could have effected the taste as well.

Your McDougalls Fast Action Yeast is the same thing as quick rise. Principally, it cuts the prove time from roughly half to a third of that of Active Yeast.

This recipe calls for a proving time of 2-3 hours, that seems a little excessive, especially if the quick-rise yeast is supposed to save time there.

When I make pizzas using this yeast it usually takes my 1/2 cup of flour 1st proof half an hour to double in size, then the final dough doubles in size after around an hour.

what form of tamarind did you use?

Caze, I know what you mean about trying to fry pureed onions - it doesn't seem to work too well. I'll have to find a means of fine chopping the onions without losing my fingertips!

here's how to do it:
How to chop onion
(though the horizontal cut isn't necesarry because an onion is layered horizontally as it is.)

cutting into very thin half-rings will probably work just as well though, when I cook my carameized onions as a side for a steak (I just add a pinch of cumin and salt (maybe chilli powder), no extra sugar needed, then stir-fry at high heat and slowly turn down over about 20 mins), I end up with a jam-like sludge, so I'm sure it would work similar in this recipe.

I just cooked my first curry using a base sauce in over a year, quite pleased with the results, as good as an average takeaway, but not as good as my usual traditional curry or a good quality resteraunt. Next thing is trying to get the mix of the two styles right, the morishness of the takeaway with the added depth of flavour you get when you go the traditional route. Think I'll try this onion paste first next week, I've not tried super-caramelised onions with a curry before and it sounds like a good idea to me.