No sorry mate, my knifes are cheap ?20 odd stainless steel set of five ones from argos lol, they are about 10 years old and the one i use most often, the big-un is now about half as deep as it was when i first got it, due to use and sharpening.
I will say though that im desperate to buy a decent stainless steel chefs knife, dont want a paring or carving knife, just a decent chefs knife, all metal, with an edge i can run along a steel for sharpening.
Also, the second most used item for me would be my steel, its a proper butchers one that my brother bought when he went to catering college about 24 years ago, which has stood the test of time well but is now getting to the retirement age
The steel has got to be the most usefull item in a kitchen i reckon, the better the steel the sharper the knife, and a chef once said "You dont cut yourself with a sharp knife!"

The best bhaji recipe i have used is the one i recently posted, seriously its good and if you want to try it it wont take long as a comparison.
Im with chris, i always slice my onions as finely as possible, both because they do cook through before any spices burn, but also because i can cut them finely, call it pride lol.
The only bhaji's i have ever eaten have been flat and about 4" in diameter, or round and the size of a plum.
Some of the bhaji photo's on here i have seen are ridiculous, if someone served me one of those up id run away from fright lol.
But i cant find a decent mint dip recipe anywhere.

I dont know about punch poron but it sounds similar to panch phoran.
http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2espicesofindia%2eco%2euk%2facatalog%2fIndian%2dFood%2ehtml&WD=phoran%20panch&SHOP=%20&PN=Indian%2dFood%2dTRS%2dPanch%2dPuren%2ehtml%23aISW025_2dp#aISW025_2dp
Also the red oil colour you saw in the tomato puree might have been made by adding deggi mirch...
http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2espicesofindia%2eco%2euk%2fcgi%2dbin%2fsh000001%2epl%3fREFPAGE%3dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww%252espicesofindia%252eco%252euk%252facatalog%252fIndian%252dFood%252ehtml%26WD%3dphoran%2520panch%26SHOP%3d%2520%26PN%3dIndian%252dFood%252dTRS%252dPanch%252dPuren%252ehtml%2523aISW025_2dp&WD=mirch%20deggi&SHOP=%20&PN=Indian%2dFood%2dMDH%2dDeggi%2dMirch%2ehtml%23aISG036#aISG036
As for the chef wanting to show you how to make a REAL curry, i understand completely, BIR chefs don't go home from work and cook the same food as they serve in the restaurants for themselves, most would probably think that our western styled curries are pretty poor representations of Real food.
I know well knew an indian curry house chef in brum whom i sat next to in a mechanics college course who called restaurant food shite and wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, mind you he also said Indian housewifes were naff cooks also lol.
Also as regards the different spice mixes used, say for the same particular curry, id guess that one was the home made(maybe) curry powder/spice mix, the second garam masala.
Good thread this

I know cooking oil is expensive today, I was thinking of running my van on it but it wouldnt have worked money wise lol.
I said dirt cheap to get the point across that it was just no frills no added flavout oil, stops people asking you whether you use olive oil and the likes.

I agree with your thoughts about the stock being different to a sauce.
To me a stock is a clear liquid made from the boiled ingredients and passed/sieved.
A sauce is then made by adding other ingredients to this stock.
Incidentally, i have seen an indian restaurant stock that was boiling away, with the whole ingredients in it yet still whole, then the stock is added to the final dish via ladle, but only the liquid used. But if you take a blender to this pot of stock, it would undoubtably then become a sauce.
When i took a tub of my base sauce to an indian restaurant a couple of weeks ago, the chef called it a gravy. The same restaurant used the stock i mentioned above, ie unblended.
As for finding answers to the myth of bir flavour and taste, i really believe there will never be a concise answer/recipe or method to achieve this. It all comes down to personal taste.

On the different stock for a different curry/end result, id say your probably right, in michelin star restaurants maybe, but what the people here are trying to do is make a stock that serves all purposes, the same stock whether it be a balti/madras/korma or whatever.
Ive been in an indian restaurant kitchen and they use one stock for all.
Ive also worked on an indian restaurants kitchen roof and they used one pot of stock for all, and the asbestos that fell in it apparently had no ill effects either come to that! and it was and still is a really good curry house.
Im speaking for myself here, i love curry, but i dont think i want to spend a week in the kitchen making 5 different stocks for 5 different end dishes. One decent stock is all you really need, the different flavours come by adding the differing end spices and ingredients and the way in which its cooked.
As long as you have a tasty but fairly underpowering stock(spice wise) i dont think you can go too far wrong.
As for spice mixes, your right all the different recipes ie balti, madras,bhuna dopiaza jalfrezi, they all contain a different blend of spices to each other, and if you bottled up the different spices and labeled them you would have a different spice mix for each curry. It would save time but i dont mind just following a recipe and grinding them fresh whenever i make a curry, plus they taste better.

Everything ive read says that you can heat Ghee up to a higher temperature than cooking oil, yet, having just switched to it myself i notice it starts smoking long before it would if i was using oil, or maybe its higher temp than butter...
never mind im thick.
Bloody nice stuff either way. Im getting fat.

Looks nice
The next question everyone will be asking is what exactly do you put in your garam masala lol.
Measurements will only have to be down to microns though ;
)

Okay well the oil i use is just dirt cheap sunflower oil and you only need enough to fry the spices a little, i probably use about half a tablespoon for 2 portions, its just enough to heat the fennel and give the rice a LIGHT coating.

You might be able to remove the oil completely, just add the spices to your water and bring it to the boil, that might work, it might not but theres no harm in trying. As long as you've washed all the starch out of the rice i dont see why it shouldnt seperate when steamed at the end.

Yes m8 its a bit of a chore try this................
https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1475.msg36034#msg36034
Welcome to the forum btw.