My local Asda in Leicester has a vast selection of Indian goods - fresh coriander, ginger, curry leaves, strange vegetables, big boxes of kasuri methi, huge spice selection with boxes of masalas including chat masala, panch phoran, and catering size bags of spices and rice etc etc. It's great! 

Thanks Gary.   I've never seen it in the shops so far but a new Desi grocer has opened up quite near me so I'll try there. Can't wait to have a look around actually!

Thanks so much for posting these Gary.  I take it the tandoori and tikki pastes are Pataks?  Also, I'm sure it's been mentioned here before but I can't find it yet, what is the Kashmiri masala again? Thanks.

Oh heck, I've been away for ages (real life being complicated ) and come back to find things are a bit different here. I shall go off and read through anything I have missed, but I'd like to give my sincere thanks and best wishes to Pete, Ray and any others MIA and hope they come back soon with their invaluable contributions.

It was on again last night at 7-8pm, lots of cooking and some chat with indian restaurant owners, unfortunately I still can't find the Raj tv schedules anywhere - their website is up now but it's not complete yet. Maybe someone with Sky+ would be able to catch all the shows?

Locally a kalia is a 'chef's special dish cooked with bay leaves', in reality it's bog-standard curry sauce with a bay leaf floating on top! Never again. ?I've had a chicken 'rezala' before which is exactly as you describe, very hot with lots of green chillies and spicy lamb, it's gorgeous but not available in many places around here though.

It was on at 8pm last night but the time doesn't seem to be consistant.? Unfortunately Raj tv doesn't seem to have an active website with programme schedules.

Last night he cooked chicken 'chetinaad'? and a king prawn 'something something', it seems they place the microphone next the the gas burner so there is a lot of 'ttsshsshhshhss' sound when they are speaking. As I said, the production is terrible!? The food looked awesome though.?

The fairly new tv channel Raj TV (channel 187 on Sky) features a programme called 'Chef's Special, featuring the freshest tastes and sumptous menus from a variety of top restaurants, presented with a cheeky grin by our very own celebrity chef Gurpareet'.? It's on right now, the production is terrible but it's an indian chef in a real kitchen cooking dishes in real time, and he's talking about various ingredients, including making his own tomato puree, but admits it's easier to buy it from the supermarket.

It looks like it could be an interesting show, so I'm mentioning it here in case no one has seen it yet.

I have a box of Mangal 'kabab masala'  (from Asda, they do a huge range of Mangal masalas) that I might try using tonight. I haven't seen kebab paste before though, or Kashmiri paste.

The kabab masala contains: chilies, ginger, garlic, coriander, turmeric, pepper, cumin, poppy seeds, anise and salt.  No idea if this is similar to the paste ingredients.

Brilliant work, Steve. Perhaps you can get all the restaurant secrets with your magic talents.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"? ?

I think you'll enjoy the Star Wars Gangsta Rap flash movie, if you haven't seen it.? Most amusing!?
http://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/gangsta_rap

Anyway back on topic, for the first time I have a jar full of reclaimed oil that I'll be using tonight. I can't wait to try the results because the oil smells fantastic. I could drink it! A shame I'll be cooking a very mild curry because of the kids today, but it should still be nice enough.