Good point, I was in fact going to email them to see what hing they refer to. I would guess the diluted form for their published recipe - the most common one hereabouts is "Gum Arabic, Wheat Flour, Asafoetida" no percentages, but they have to list in order of weight. I haven't seen the little rocks yet but might be in luck in Sydney with their bigger population compared to Brisbane.

I was a bit puzzled about the garlic and onions thing as well, but note that he goes fairly heavy on the hing. Before there were even Indian restaurants in Brisbane I used to eat at the Hare Krishna "Govindas" restaurant in the city and for several years I was convinced that they used a lot of garlic, as I would get a lovely fragrant burp all day afterwards.

Then as I got more into cooking I discovered that they cook to Vedic traditions that forbid garlic and onions, but use hing. So maybe that will be the saving grace with this one.

Good teaspoon, none of this sissy "pinch of hing" nonsense  ;D

Slow day at work and I was Googling away (why not, I retire today hahahaha so sack me  ;D ;D) and came across what could be a great resource for regional dishes, no BIR here but a hint of mainstream AIR with heavy use of caramelised onions in some of the recipes.

The restaurant is Nilgiri's at St Leonards Sydney which is in a "restaurant precinct" area just to the North of Sydney Harbour Bridge and you gotta be good to be able to lease premises there.

http://www.nilgiris.com.au/pages/indian-recipes/recipes.html

The chef Ajoy Joshi specialises in Hyderabadi cuisine and reputedly makes the most authentic Biryani. I'll shortly be moving about 3 hours drive north of there on the Mid North Coast to retire, and will give it a whirl when I'm down in North Sydney picking up spices from a big Indian store up the road.

In the meantime I've got a kilo of goat in the freezer and will try his Goat Rogan Josh Kashmiri Pandit style, which looks spectacular as well as my having all the ingredients apart from the Rattanjot root (red colour).

http://www.nilgiris.com.au/pages/indian-recipes/indian-goat-recipes/rogan-josh-kashmiri-pandit-style.pdf

Many of his recipes have a photo walk through version as well. It's great that he publishes recipes, and does cooking classes as well - I've got relations nearby, I can feel a road trip coming on 

I'll report fully on the goat effort.

Looks great Podmore. What recipe? I'm getting a bit vindaloo'd, jalfrezi'd and madras'd out lately and looking for a new curry to try  ;D

I've often wondered myself if the tomato soup thing was an urban myth, supposedly a chef knocked together a CTM from a tin of Campbells and some ground cashews as the base when some customers were complaining about the Chicken Tikka being too dry.

Some AIR chefs put a squirt of tomato ketchup, not soup, in some of their base gravies. 

I'd definitely include Aloo Ghobi for the veggites - I make this fairly traditional version Aloo Gobi (Potatoes & Cauliflower) Recipe by Manjula, Indian Vegetarian Foodfrom Manjula, she's always good value  ;D. And of course the good old butter chicken with lashings of cream.

A good AIR "gravy" or base paste for the butter chicken would be:

6 large onions finely chopped then slowly fried in spiced oil (cassia, cardmoms)
When soft, add GGP then turn heat up and cook until well caramelised
Add spice mix (coriander, cumin, etc or a good dash of BIR dry mix if you have some already prepared) and some water, cook the paste for a while and add a bottle of passata, half a cup of almond meal, and cook until the oil breaks.

In your main pan cook some kasoori methi leaves in some oil then add precooked chicken, the base "gravy", thin it out a bit with chicken stock if you reserved some from the precooked chicken.

Cook it all in for a few minutes then keep adding cream until the curry begs for mercy  I've noticed the methi really standing out in the restaurant versions, I'd be fairly lavish with it.

I went to Brat-ford once but don't remember much about it after 15 pints of Websters Pennine Bitter. 

Quite a few of us Aussies here, mostly ex pats (I was born in Pontefract) but quite a few home grown. Whereabouts are you?
I'm in SEQ but moving to North of Forster NSW in a month.

If you are just cooking for yourself and maybe the Mrs as well I'd seriously consider viewing Curry 2 Go's video about making a quick base gravy with fried onions, which is a great base to practice with. 

Wow, the first guy was a maniac. Makes me want to have a go myself. The fourth one is from Hunter TAFE ( TAFE - college of Technical And Further Education ) which is in Newcastle on the Hunter River so the instructor is doing it rather painstakingly.

He can't be a real butcher as he's middle aged with 10 fingers still intact  ;D

Whenever I mention "Australian Indian Restaurant cooking" to people they always go "huh?" - I mean Vindaloo and Madras and Chicken Tikka Masala are all authentic Indian Recipes aren't they, right?  ;D

I would guess it's similar in the UK with the concept of BIR although it gets discussed a bit more in the UK media.

AIR uses hing extensively in vegetarian dishes, such as Aloo Ghobi and dals. It's a component of Chat Masala that also gets used a lot.