Quote from: chewytikka on March 27, 2013, 08:29 PM

Just order online/You can get the Bolst mild or hot here
http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/acatalog/Curry-Powder.html

Thanks, but I'll give Spices of India a miss. Their minimum postal charge to NI is ?11.50. You need to order an awful lot of stuff to make it economical.

Just searching my memory, I believe I got my first curry recipe from Katharine Whitehorn's Cooking in a Bedsit, round about 1970. That must be where I got the habit of adding sultanas to the sauce. But, looking around here at other people's recipes, I can't see anyone else doing it. Am I weird?

Thanks for all the replies anyway. We'll see how I get on with the Rajah Hot Madras. I'll probably be back.

I mean, basically powders. I'm a curry lover, but lazy. I used to live in London in the 70s and 80s, where I could have got anything I wanted to make a proper curry, but I never learned to make one up from basic ingredients. I used to limit myself to a curry powder called Venkat, which I believe you can't get any more. I also liked Bolst's powder, but I haven't seen that for years. Since then maybe my taste buds have gone peculiar, or else the available powders are not as good as they once were, but these days I can't find any powder that I like.

In recent years I've been living in Northern Ireland where I can't (or not easily) get anything except what's available in supermarkets. The pastes are foul, and the powders are bland. But a few days ago I sent off (to London!) for some Rajah powder, hoping that would be better. It hasn't arrived yet, but in the meantime can anyone suggest other powders? The ones I've tried, and don't think much of, are Sharwood's, Schwartz, Colman's, and a couple of others I can't think of the name of.