Thanks a lot -- I will follow your advice, indeed -- I've been dying to be back in Dublin to try blade's recipes, which everyone seems to like/enjoy, so I can't wait to try it!

OK, it seems these pastes are "the be all end all" of CTM, but sadly, after looking around I can't find it available in Portugal. I managed to find "tikka paste" as opposed to "tikka masala paste", which I bought in error before. I figure the chances are slimmer, but here it goes anyway: Is there any thing I can buy/do as an alternative to fill the kashmiri paste gap?

writ large and in red.... 'tis the season of goodwill  :

fwiw i haven't seen any readily available alternatives to gram flour (the local tesco have really cut back on their range and seem to only stock the small bags of their own brand now - quite a bit dearer), but there may be some mileage in these alternatives:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Flournw.html

chickpea flour = besan (flour) = gram flour = cici flour = chana flour = garbanzo bean flour   Shopping hints:   Look for this in Indian markets or health food stores.  To make your own:  Lightly roast dried garbanzo beans, then grind them in a blender until mixture has the consistency of flour. Substitutes:  lightly roast dried yellow split peas, then grind them in a blender until mixture has the consistency of flour OR all-purpose flour (different flavor and consistency)

Thanks a lot for the input. I just arrived in Lisbon, where I know no spice shops (though I know where to look them up) but presumably they close for xmas and I wanted to make curry tomorrow, however I was looking forward to make bhajis to produce the so famous seasoned oil out of before going for the curry, but hey, it seems it's not gonna happen tonight. Thanks a lot though :-)

I just realized I didn't buy gram flour. Could I use normal flour for cooking onion bhajis?

The more recipes/videos/books I look at, the more intrigued I get about certain advice.

For example:

• Chefs picking teaspoon quantities using a chef spoon and you can almost swear they've picked up more than a single teaspoon (and yes, don't get me wrong, I know it can be done using a chef spoon and it's not the size of the spoon that matters but the quantity, but it just doesn't help to elaborate with precision.
• The advice of storing spices in dry, air-tight containers  away from light, when you can see not all cooks practice this (i.e Julian Voigt has these large containers open throughout all of his vids and I'm pretty sure he doesn't go through one of those large containers in a single day)
• what puzzles me is that the chef spoon after mixing the g&g paste in oil in a pan goes into all these separate spice containers, which not only leads to lumps of spice caused by any drizzle of the sauce/g&g paste from the spoon , but presumably overtime it alters the flavour?

May be I'm being naive, as I'm a rather inexperienced cook, but still, I would like to hear any thoughts?