Hi Pete,  Yes it is Blondies recipe, I thought I would try it out as I needed some bhuna onions.  I made only half quantity as I have some gravy already in the fridge.  I have just compared new gravy to one I had in fridge and there does seem to be slight difference.  Whether is is because the new gravy was at room temperature and the old cold I'm not quite sure.  I did use 6 plus garlic cloves and about 4 tomatoes in the half quantity gravy (new one)  It has a good aroma about it and the fresh tomatoes gives it a tomatoey taste.  Old gravy you can't really define too well whether there is tomato in it or not, but, then again has that certain aroma as well.  I will leave the new gravy for a few days and then see how it is then and post.

Please can we define between authentic an BIR.  There are a lot of helpful people in this forum, but, I am sure that an Indian restaurant do not use lots of ingredients, that are very time consuming to make gravies etc.  We need to define between AUTHENTIC and BIR here!  Have made a new gravy tonight with the suggestion that no ginger should be used and peeled tomatoes should be used instead of tinned or pasatta, also that garlic should be fresh - I used about eight cloves.  It smells promising, I will let you know the results when I have tried it out.

Keep trying Ghanna and you will get there in the end I am sure of it!   One day....................

Plenty of restaurants that I have been to use spanish onions, I have seen them and for what it's worth I buy a sack at a time for ?6 from a local market. 

Hi Darthphall,  I always use spanish onions because they are sweeter.

Tried in my Asian store too and the response there was "what is it"?  I told them and they said that all they had were melon seeds and they could not see that these would give "that flavour".  Also that they had never heard of it.

Use fresh chillies in the beginning stages of making a curry and use as little chilli powder as possible.  Too much chilli powder tends to mask the flavour of a dish.  Use more chillies and the heat is absolutely wonderful - trust me!

Havn't got a clue.  Come on give!  You can't do this to us.  What is the big secret? 

You are right Pete, it must be an ingredient or technique!  I have to say that I am convinced that re-using the oil gives that certain "aroma" in my kitchen.  The combination of oils from loads of different curries made and mixed together. 

I am pretty disgusted with the Bengal, they take your money and then don't care.  Having said that my curries from there did not have the taste at all either, so, it's quite obvious to me that they were not in the same league as a good BIR!

I must see if I can get into another restaurant kitchen in the near future.  How about you?

I am still retrieving oil from my curries and now bottling it Pete.  It does make a vast difference to the end product I think.  Don't know about the chicken jelly though.  We normally eat prawn curries so the taste is somewhat different to chicken.  Oh, by the way, never heard back from Bengal, did you?