Cashew chicken with Kaala masala

Made this chicken by using a recipe from Camellia Punjabi's book (pg 112).  Turned out to be pretty darn tasty but the color of my dish in no way matches the picture shown in the book.  My curry looks like a grey slurry - something out of a gulag movie rathe rthan a burnt brown shown in the book...   Well it taste great so I'll definitely be making it again.  Below is the recipe with my modifications. I have found a pet recipe peeve - in all these recipes it says sautee onions for 10 min or 5 min!  Heck no i'd be eating raw onions if I did this - i have to sautee them for almost 20-30 min to get any results.  What gas/cooktop do these authors use?
Kaala masala translates into Black masala - this is a type of spice mixture used in Maharashtra.

Since I had 1/2 the chicken I halfed some of the indegredients (some :)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb boneless chicken breast - cubed into small pieces (ask the butcher to do this to save you time)
1/2 cup of dry grated coconut (you can use fresh if you have it) - make sure you don't use the sweetened dry
6 large garlic cloves
1in piece of ginger - minced
2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 teasp cumin seeds
2 dried red chillies (so the book says use kashmiri chilies - I use whatever crap dried red chilies I got from indian store - I think this is my culprit for no color to my gravy)
4 cloves
2 in cinamon stick
4 oz cashews (I used 1/2 a cup) - use non roasted, non salted, shelled
1 large onion - finely diced
oil

1) Heat a large pan on low-medium heat (4) , once heated throw in dry coconut, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, ginger, garlic, red chilies, cloves, cinamon. After 5 min add  1/2 of the cashews.Let the coconut toast (becomes brown).  After coconut is brown take pan off heat and let it cool for 10 min. Put this mixture in a blender / food processor and make into fine paste.
2) Add oil to pan and throw in the 1 onion finely diced - let it cook for 20 min till brown.  Add the diced onion into same blender as step 1 and blend into step 1 paste.
The recipe calls for adding the onion in step 1 but i found my coconut would burn before the onion cooked so I separated it.
3) Separately using a coffee grinder or mortar/pestle grind the remaining cashews into a fine powder and mix with litte water to form a paste/slurry and set aside.
4) In large pan over medium  heat  - heat some oil (oil enough to coat the bottom of pan in a thin layer) - add mixture from steps 1&2. Let it simmer for 10-15 min.
5) Add in the cashew slurry from step 3 and let it cook 5 more min.
6) Add the chicken and mix into gravy - cover and let chicken cook - 10 min
7) Add 1 1/2 cup water and let the curry simmer - add salt to taste
8) pour into serving dish and throw some whole cashes on top (roasted or non roasted cashews)

As I said it doesn't look all that great as my chilis didn't give off any color so there are no pics.