I've tried Dips and IG's bhajis and found both lacking a little something. IG's were a little bland for me, Dips didn't quite cook correctly, so here is my recipe which (hopefully) combines the best from both recipes.

Ingredients:

1.5 Large onions (300 grams)
0.5 Potato (50 grams)
1 egg
1 tbsp Kashmiri Masala paste
1 tbsp Spice mix (I use IG but any will do)
0.5 tbsp Aniseed (Essential, don't substitute with anything)
0.5 tsp Asafoetida
1 tbsp Lemon dressing (juice will do)
2 tbsps Chopped fresh coriander
1 tsp salt
A few drops yellow or orange colouring
Gram flour

Method

1.   Slice the onions pole to pole very finely and put them into a large mixing bowl.
2.   Chop the potato into the thinnest matchsticks your knife will allow, if you can get them half the size of an actual matchstick then you are doing well. Any larger and the bhajis will look like they have french fries sticking out of them!
3.   Add all of the other ingredients apart from the gram flour, egg and salt and mix well.
4.   Add the salt at the last second and give it a quick mix.
5.   Add the egg to the bowl and mix well.
6.   Start adding Gram flour until the mix gets very sticky and all of the onion has a coating of flour. You don't want too much so it gets too dry. See Dips video to get a good idea of what I mean. There is enough moisture with the egg and lemon juice not to need to add any water.
7.   Now for the most important bit, preheat your oil in a medium sized saucepan to around 140 degrees (any hotter and the mix cooks too quickly on the outside and the onion will have a raw taste).
8.   When you form the bhajis it is essential not to squeeze the mixture together too much. The secret here is to keep the mixture airy, like a birds nest would be. This means the oil can penetrate to the middle of the bhaji and cook it through evenly. Drop in 2 - 3 balls (about 2.5 inches in diameter (bigger than golf balls, smaller than tennis balls)) of mixture at a time and reduce the hob to low. You need to maintain a temperature of around 140 degrees (it will drop by at least 10 degrees when you put the bhajis in). Any lower than 125 degrees and the will go greasy and break up, and higher than 150 and they cook too quickly. They should gently bubble in the oil.
9.   Turn them every couple of minutes until they start to go golden brown (after about 10 minutes). They can be eaten immediately, or left to cool and then either reheated in hot oil for a minute, or frozen for a quick snack another time.
10.   Very important tip. Save the oil in a bottle to use next time. Once you have made these 2 or 3 times, the oil will smell amazing and the bhajis will taste even better. Wait until it is completely cool then pour it into the bottle. When you next use it, if you have a few floaters in the oil, just pass it through a sieve when you pour it into the saucepan.

I was bored at lunchtime so I decided to have my first proper go at Bombay Aloo. I used JB's Aloo Saag recipe but left out the spinach, and pitted it against Dipuraja's. I'm afraid we ate it all before I thought about taking photos but I'm sure everyone knows what it looks like.

Some of the big differences were Dipuraja - 0.5 tsp g/g paste and 1 tbsp tom puree, JB - 1 tsp tom puree and 1 tbsp g/g paste. Dipuraja also adds methi leaves and a pinch of chilli powder, JB adds green pepper and coriander stalk which didn't really add a lot and I don't remember seeing in the local BIR bombay aloo. I guess some do and some don't.

Taste wise they were both excellent (apart from the potatoes which needed about another 3-4 mins boiling). Dipuraja's was a bit stodgier, mainly due to the amount of tomato puree added. I did like the extra dimension that the methi added. JB's probaby just edged it taste wise as everything was slightly more balanced and it tasted really nice without being overpowering. I think the extra g/g paste really came through and gave it a lovely taste. I was using the undercover base which has lots of hing in it so this might have helped bring out the garlic taste too. I fried the g/g paste until it started to go golden before adding the other stuff. I find this is essential for getting that BIR flavour. My wife helped me eat them both with a big pile of poppadums. She is usually by harshest critic but even she liked them both and said they tasted similar to the ones from the takeaway - high praise indeed!

In future I'll be using the JB recipe but I'll add in the pinch of methi to get the best of both worlds.

Apologies for the delay in this test but hopefully this will be complete in the next few weeks.

Solarsplace has kindly agreed to step in for PeterandJen who is likely to be away for most of the month so unfortunately is unable to take part.

Fi5h has already completed all of his with some interesting results.

Myself, Razor and Axe will get ours done as quickly as possible. I've got all the ingredients on order which will hopefully arrive tomorrow in time for a weekend Tikka-fest.

The recipes we are testing are:

Kushi - http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4496.0
CA - http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1555.0
Dipuraja - http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4432.0
Blade - http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=874.0
Maddhur - http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=51.0
Lasan - http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4182.0

I know there are lots more good options but we had to draw the line somewhere.

I know this isn't the best forum for this but I know we have some great experimental cooks in here that strive for perfection with each dish rather that settling for a standard recipe.

I'm hoping this will be one of those times and some of you will have an ultimate shortbread recipe up their sleeve. I got railroaded into entering a competition for the local gardening club, they have a men only cooking class and this year it is shortbread. I intend to win the rosette

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Ta
Chris

I'll move this thread over to the new section once it is up and running.

I'm doing the Kebab group test today and I have some results in from some of the others too. Once I have all the info I'll post the results. Mine are all in the fridge hardening up ready to BBQ this evening.

Axe - yours better be worth it, they were even more time consuming than CA's!