I wouldnt hold out too much hope for the pastes, i made my usualu balti tonight and added a tblsp pataks balti paste, just to see what it would be like, tbh i personally thought it ruined what would otherwise have been a fine balti.
Its got vineger in it as a preservative, and even though i was pretty sure that adding vinegar to a recipe that otherwise wouldnt have it, would make it bitter/tart i tried anyway. And guess what? it made it bitter/tart.
Add onto that the fact that its naff, you wont be surprised with the end result.
Cmon everyone, i mean for bloody years now weve been trying to make a DECENT curry out of real ingredients because weve already tried the shop bought pastes and got p'd off with them. I have a recipe somewhere for balti masala paste, ill sort it out and put it on here tomorrow, trust me its a thousand times better than pataks shite.