I was in my favourite local restaurant last night,it's the place where last week I managed to get hold of some base gravy and naan bread dough.Anyway the friendly staff asked how my curry cooking went last Saturday and I told them it went well and showed them my photographs(they couldn't believe I actually had a tandoori oven)
Anyway we started talking about different things and they mentioned the fact that the chef puts an onion paste in his 'special' dishes such as balti,jalfrezi and North Indian special.I know these 'bunjarras' have been discussed before on here and(like spiced oil) have generally been dismissed as a red herring and not widely used in BIR restaurants.I asked one of the guys how it was made(his dad is the owner and has come up with most of the recipes used in the restaurant).He didn't know so I cheekily asked if I could have a sample.Initially he didn't want to,he said his dad would go mad as it was one of his 'secret' things he uses to give his dishes flavour.Anyway I asked again and he gave me some to take away.....

It's very thick but really really tasty.The first think that come to me was Pataks,not tandoori or tikka but possibly just a mild Patak's curry paste(or could it be the madras kebab paste that's just appeared-I've no idea what this tastes like but it's a possibility).Next week I'm going to try and get some of his massala paste-I've told him I'm just working through all his ingredients one by one!! So these bunjarras,or whatever they're called may not be used by every BIR but this one certainly does,and(as Curryhell can confirm) they make some fine tasty curries.