After all this time finally found out why my balti was destined for the bin. Not something that I had considered, but now obvious. It had been burnt beyond recognition. Did the same to a batch of Shababs base recently myself. My mistake. Lid seal of the pressure cooker hadn't seated properly. I wondered why it wasn't getting up to pressure. Got distracted and left it too long before checking what was going on. Ended up with a good inch and a half of dark bilge on the bottom of the pressure cooker. Scraped it and underneath it was caked in black soot. Took ages to clean. No rescuing this one either.

Rob

Good to hear Martin. Were you not given any Christmas crackers though? I used to like wearing the paper hats It looks like a few of your party brought their own.

Rob

Hi Rob
The choice was a Christmas dinner, hence the soup for 3 of them, or anything off the menu.
I had a sheek kebab starter and a lamb Dhansak, pilau rice and a keema naan.
Followed by a choice of cake for desert, which I took home as too full up.
It was bloody lovely.

Wow! Looks the business. Thanks for posting.

Rob

Would have posted earlier, but I have just this morning come out of cryostasis. Hope everyone is keeping well.

Tell us about your Christmas dinner Martin. Is that soup? What were the mains? Any good?

How did your Christmas BIR cooking go Robbo?

Rob

Thanks Bob. Same to you.

Wishing you all the best of Health and Happiness for the coming year and beyond

BAJ

So this post is for anyone interested in building their own tandoori oven at home. You will need a large glazed pot and two smaller pots that will fit inside. One inverted on top of the other. We measured the small pots so the base of the inverted pot would stick out a few cm above the top of the main pot. You'll also need to some high heat vermiculite and some high heat cement mix. We also got some high heat bricks for the base, and a ceramic cutting tool for the angle grinder. We cut a square hole in the side of the main pot near the bass and a similar size hole in the side of the interior pot that sits upward. We then cut the high heat bricks to form a base inside the pot facing upwards. Next we cut the base of the second pot and inverted it and used the cement to glue it to the first pot then we put these inside the main pot and then cut some other ceramic pieces to create a channel from the outside of the main pot to the inside pot. So we could load up charcoal during a cook. Plus it lets airflow in. We used the cement mix to glue the pieces of the channel onto the pot and the outside pot. Then we filled in the gap between the pots with vermiculite. I put some decorative rocks on top of the vermiculite to hold it down, and bought some tandoori skewers. The channel prevents any vermiculite from getting into the cooking chamber and allows air into the centre. We also bought a larger ceramic pot base to use as a lid. Hope this all makes sense! Ask any questions you have. 

My Christmas day dinner. 

Merry Christmas everyone.

I hope you all have a great time with family and friends.

BAJ