OK if you guys don't mind I intend to just fill in as I can what happened in the odd moments I get a chance. I am really busy travelling and working till pretty much the middle of December so bear with me as I fill in as I go.

I will do what I can to post the recordings but intend to listen to them and post as I go the recipes I got and the processes and other interesting input. Some of the recordings include interuptions from the other staff as I am pulled here and there to witness stuff being cooked or presented so editing them into clear recipes will need to be done as it was recorded as it happened and as you would expect in relatively cramped conditions much was going on and the top chef and myself were bye and large in the way as the other chef and his two support colleagues were meeting demand from the front of house. That said it was still fantastic and I have much to share that should make a big difference if not for all of us then I am sure most of us certainly for me it will change a number of things I do and improve my cooking no end.

So first things first and as it came.

Green Chili Paste. Used in hotter curries Hand blended Green chili's and oil.

Garlic and Ginger Paste. Critical and used almost universally. For convenience pre cooked and preserved in the oil for up to 15 days. 70/30 proportion of Garlic and Ginger heated in oil and turmeric until begins to fry and releases aroma then immediately taken off the cooker and aloud to cool set covered in the oil for preservation.

Marinade. This is also universally used for either pre cooking chicken or cooking from fresh. for convenience it is used in pre cooked chicken however where possible the Chef recommended cooking it from fresh after marinading for at least four hours. He cooked me a Chicken Bhuna with it later and although only marinading for couple of hours the chicken was the best I ever tasted in an a BIR succulent and almost juicy. For 1 KG of Chicken diced. Salt to taste about 1 TBS, Turmeric 1 TBS, Chili Powder to taste 1TBS, Tomato Puree 2 TBS. mix and and cover chicken by hand add then some oil and mix through.

For pre cooking place in oven for 25 minutes at 150 degrees. Check after 25 minutes its cooked through and and cool before  cleaning and  freezing or refrigerating. Having tasted the difference of it used fresh I will probably tend to cook from fresh with chicken.

Chicken Ticka Marinade. Cut 1 KG chicken thiner and longer for skewring. again Four hour minimum for marinading. Salt to taste 1 TBS, Lemon Juice 1 TBS ( recommended lemon dressing from most Asian stores ), Red Chili Powder ( Deggi Mirch MDH brand highly recommended for its taste and natural red colouring ), Garam Masala 1 TSP, Ticka Paste ( Pataks ) 2 TBS  Methi large pinch, Turmeric 1 TBS, Garlic Ginger Paste 100 GMS, Plain Yogurt 100 GMS, Mix and add some oil mix through and refrigerate for minimum of 4 hours before placing in oven at 150 degrees for 25/30 mins, checking after 25.

That is all I can do tonight. You can see what is used so far you may wish to experiment with the measures but these are the ingredients used.

To come, Chicken and Vegetable Pakora ( having searched for 30 years to get this right I am excited about what I learned unknown to me till yesterday ), Korma, Base sauce, Secret Onion Paste/Sauce and Best Bhuna I have ever tasted and more still.

I am only sharing it with you as it happened and as he choose to inform me. I can probably at some time go back to him if we need clarity. Cheers Panpot

Secret Santa, The Ashoka chain has resteraunts found all over the west of Scotland and beyond. They serve quality Indian food and have been successful because of the passion the owners had for the food and being of service to a hungry market. They would not place themselves as a posh outlet I don't think. The resteraunt I was in was in an entertainment estate that is built around a multi screen cinema, a Bingo Hall, eateries such as Harry Ramsdens, Nandos, etc, etc. The Sunday evening fare included an all you can eat buffet so I think you get the picture.

The food is really good quality BIR no doubt about it. Hope this helps. Panpot

The frozen garlic paste may be it though sitting above the burners one would imagine it would melt,anyway if it was coconut block it gave no hint in the taste. The cooking with a drop of oil and a quarter of base sauce I witnessed at the Ashoka and the Onion I refere to was a big part of the process at the Ashoka the recipe for which I will post in due course.

The spoon sizes are all based on the typical chef spoon. I agree with JerryM it was probably not a Bhuna as we know it but tasted great. The bhuna cooked for me at the Ashoka was diferent. The spices were puffed out of the bottle dry.

, much of this can be enhanced as I gate through the Ashoka experience on the other post. Cheers Panpot

Thanks guys, Ive just skipped away from my work to check in for a moment. I can answer all the questions in due course. i have recipes and can get more info too. My recording is audio only on two apps Ecco Note Lite and iTalk. I should be able to sync them to my laptop then hopefully give you access to them. I also have some photographs but may need some help from you more technically minded to assist.

One thing I need to have you respect is the confidentiality of the info. I promised it was for our info only and it would not be taken or disclosed further though didn't specifically ask to be able to share the voice recording but I am sure we can all treat it with the respect its due.

The chain is very well respected and the owners are big players in Scotland and amongst the Indian community. The chef is an award winner and again we really need to be careful how we deal with this, I am sure you all understand.

Folks I am just back from the afternoon in heaven. I got more or less 3 hours behind the scenes in the above BIR the latest in the famous Scottish Chain of BIRs. I was given full permission to share with you what I found although I did explain it was for the personal use only of the members.

The Owner kindly gave me permission to spend the afternoon with their award winning chef in the working kitchen with clients still ordering and eating and while they prepared the buffet for the evening trade.

I have taken notes and I managed to record most of it on my iPhone which has just completely justified its existence.

I will take time over the next wee while to bring it all to you but I do have a busy couple of weeks ahead of me.

For starters some highlights, They take pride in the base and believe it is critical,without it being perfect all else is worthless. It contains amongst other things tomato puree (White Tower Brand) but any should do, curry powder medium (East End Madras Brand) turmeric,chili powder again East End brand, he swears by this make. Blocked Coconut Cream and wait for it vegetable margarine and vegetable oil. The full recipe I will post asap.Bye the way not a lot if any oil is recovered.

Two other stand out ingredients was a pre cooked Garlic and Ginger Paste which has oil and turmeric with a 70/30 Garlic Ginger proportion. The really important ingredient was a caramelised onion sauce, which is extensively used along with the Garlic,Ginger Paste. This onion sauce may be what was substituted in the controversial Onion paste posted elsewhere.

So much to report,he also showed me how to make the Pakora with some secrets and how the chicken ismarinaded before pre cooking,however the same marinade was used to cook my take home Chicken Bhuna to prove that pre cooking is only a convenience thing while actually cooking fresh is so much better and boy did it taste amazing.

I was shown how to make the Ticka Marinade, how to cook Korma and how he pre cooks his lamb the most melt in the mouth lamb I have ever tasted. I can go on and on, They use ali pans as they feel they are safest and don't burn, they don't use ghee other than for dressing nan breads. The never use Worcestershire sauce they pointed out that your nostrils adjust after a short time in the kitchen so you cant really smell it after a while so I had my theory posted elsewhere vindicated. They don't eat these meals for no other reason than their home cooked has no pre cooking is so much better they say and more healthy. They don't eat Kormas or Patia or such things though they would eat the Bhuna. The chef does all he can to cook the food as near as he can to Indian home cooking. There is absolutely no food dyes used.

Korma is made with the base sauce(yellow in colour)and UHT Single Cream only. The addition of coconut or nuts etc is just for simple variations on the menu.

I need to stop now since I have a life beyond this addiction (just) and will edit my recordings and decipher my noted before posting below in due course. I had the time of my life, bye the way they do not flame the food claiming after initial high heat they cook on a slow flame. I could go on but need to stop now, cheers a delirious Panpot.

Plugsy,well done for having a go and for pointing out how it all comes together at the end. I suspect many who have failed with it in the past gave up or compromised  after the length of time it takes and it is no wonder they don't wish to waste time again if it doesn't work for them. I do feel as I have pointed out so often now that it is important. In my post re "When is a Bhuna not a Bhuna" I point out that the red paste was put in later on and way after the tomato paste. It was there and as I pointed out it seemed to have a dye in it that coloured the rest of the dish.

Onion Paste is well worth a go.

Thanks JerryM for your support for this idea. I didn't want to name any of the present stalwarts in case I missed someone out like Bobby Bhuna who has been really cool along with Unclebuck and too many to mention. If I have missed you out or indeed JeeryM has then please forgive us since I would also include Haldi SnS and George, Secret Santa and soo many others from recent posts especially the absolute beginners who ask some of the best questions. Look this site is wonderful and everyone is really valued by me and I am sure everyone else in the community and if The big guys of a few years ago got back in it would just add something more, so if Curry Queen is looking in or Darth or any of the countless back then too do us all a favour and make a comment especially on the topic of this thread.

OK Secret Santa, I was gob smacked too but what do think it was since it was pure white it was 12 feet away from where I was standing and it melted into the sauce. I was also positioned in one of the metal tubs that fit into the rack above the gas rings exactly the same as the one in the Malik video? What do you also make of the Ghee and Sauce for frying in and the use of the red paste? In addition the onions which were a just below me in the corner of the counter were chopped about half an inch square but cooked in an oily almost curry like looking sauce?

How about this then. I just had a Chicken Bhuna from my local TA. It has an open plan set up and its possible to watch everything though some of the tubs of ingredients are out of sight so cant be sure of everything but here is what was done with the Bhuna.

First he used the spoon(chefs spoon) to take out a little of what looked like Ghee and put it in the pan. Now the interesting thing about the pan was that it was not cleaned from the previous dish. He immediately added a little (about a quarter of the spoon) base sauce (yellow in Colour) and gave it a stir he then added again with the spoon about a table spoon of what looked like tomato puree then off the heat turning round away from the cooker he put in spoonful of what looked like precooked onions in an oily almost sauce like state. he stirred it all round scraping round the pan,as they do.

Next to my amazement he put in with the precooked chicken about a quarter to a half of a block of Coconut Cream cut into rather big chunks roughly an inch square in size. Next a quarter of a spoonful of methi leaves before almost immediately adding a ladle of base sauce. All stirred round while tipping to let the pan catch fire then added from a plastic bottle not unlike a catering tomato sauce bottle a good squeeze of spices together with two quarters of a medium tomato and what looked like a good dollop of the red onion paste and a little chopped coriander but as it was all stirred together it coloured the rest so I feel it had red dye in it as the chicken was a kind of off pink once it was served up. The finished dish had a red colour to it but not overly so.the pan was left to cook the lot on a medium heat for about five minutes with an additional quarter of a spoon of base sauce added with a stir half way through.

That was it,it did taste good and had much of the smell but not hot chili wise. The menu describes it as "Cooked in tomatoes,onions,ginger and spices served with a thick sauce". The Coconut block may have made the sauce thicker but it certainly didn't add a coconut flavour. There was no obvious addition of ginger and again no taste of it in the final dish.

A bit different from our best BIR Bhuna. Not sure this is how it would be cooked in a BIR locally but will find out all going well Sunday as per my other posts.

Even worse Secret Santa, photographs of freezers with their doors or lids open, God help us!

I too have too many tubs in my freezer but will have a go at this one next time I make a base but it would be good to get a review by someone too.