The latest one I have made did not include the peppers and onion. I also used less oil. The final result is even better. The sauce is really good and thick with no separation. See first pic. The second pic is the remaining curry plated up and left overnight in the fridge. Some oil has seperated, but it still looks VERY good. Unfortunately, I will have to eat it for research purposes. For my taste, I am getting closer to the perfect curry every time.

I have used this madras recipe with the SnS base for over six months now. I have to confess, that as a TOTAL newbie to curry cooking, it was the first one I looked at on this forum and I fancied giving it a go. I have probably made about 6-8 curries with it. My finished curry never seemed to taste or look much like any BIR I have tried, in fact, it seemed bland overall and tasted a bit like spicy curried soup if you know what I mean. I guessed I must be doing something wrong. To cut a long story short, I believe that the 2 major mistakes I were making are as follows:

1. Not letting the spices fry enough. To me, the smell of 'toffee' seemed to be there as soon as I started frying them. I was paranoid about burning the spices, so I think they were never releasing the full flavour.

2. Using a larger stainless steel pan instead of the non-stick pan I was using. I am now almost stir-frying the spices and base. I found that this frequent method of stirring on a fairly high heat meant that I did not have to add any water.

My final method of producing what I class as the best curry I have ever tasted to date is a bit of a variation of this madras recipe as follows (for 2 people):

1. Base gravy - same (I used 400ml in the end)
2. Double up on the spices, garlic, tomato paste and ginger. I added 1 tsp of Rajah curry powder to the spices.
3. Seal and partly cook the chicken in another pan with some chunks of red pepper and onion in oil with a teaspoon of curry powder. Set aside.
4. When the madras recipe says add the pre-cooked meat, add the chicken, pepper and onion mix in and add 2 thirds of a can of coconut cream (milk) to it. I used blue dragon.
5. Simmer for 20-25 mins.

I had to reclaim some oil, but the end result in my opinion is amazing. I will add some pics later.

My local BIR does a really good chicken biryani. I usually prefer a curry myself, but the other half likes this rice dish. Can anyone recommend a good recipe? I saw one on youtube that looked good, but it seemed a bit complicated and there were no ingredient measures. It was from 'VahRehVah.com' Below is the youtube link to it. I think this is probably an authentic Indian recipe though.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QjvQ7T01tLo

Here is the finished version tonight. It does look a bit darker than the base, but still not dark brown as I expected. The taste is amazing though, real BIR and the texture is just right. I used basmati rice, garlic & coriander naan, home fried poppadoms and a mint raita sauce recipe I found on this site. The dip was good, but I added some extra fresh mint to it. Thanks for your replies.

PS. I know I may be a bit heavy handed with the fresh coriander, but I do love it! I hope all the photos came out clear enough for you to see the colours and were not blurry....