I have to admit that I am completely bamboolzed by this. I've just seen him get a giant pan of onions, take a plastic tub of something from under the sink, stick it in the flames of the cooker, then pour it in. He then came back with the tub filled with oil, put some in, and burnt some kind of a stick (looked like casia) and put it somewhere high up behind the spices and left it there.