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.

The final curry. Things did not go to plan as far as eating times, so I had to put it in a plastic container and store it in the fridge for a couple of hours. Some may say it is too oily, but this is how I have seen many BIR's and it really tastes so much better than it looks.

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.

I portion out my bases to 300g and use freezer bags. When I defrost them, there is an awful lot of water coming out of the bags. I usually leave them out on a large dinner plate for a couple of hours to defrost. Should I discard the water or mix it back into the base?

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

As a total novice cook, I stumbled upon this site googling curry recipes. What a great site. It gave me the confidence to cook my own curry for the first time. It is a chicken madras. It turned out amazing and I can't wait to try other recipes.

Many thanks to SnS for the recipe and Bobby Bhuna for his useful tips in the forum posts.

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....

Hi all. I share your love of curries and I have always fancied having a go at making one myself. I'm not a good cook at all, but I do have a fairly basic understanding of what's going on.

I'm originally from Yorkshire, but now live in Newquay, Cornwall. My favourite Indian restaurant so far in Cornwall is the Shanaz in Truro. Their onion bhaji's and naan breads are amazing. If anyone has been there, I would like to hear what you think of it.

Anyway, I usually go for a chicken madras or biriyani when I eat out. Yesterday, I finally decided to pluck up courage and make a chicken madras from scratch with a recipe from SnS. I made it as close to the recipe as I possibly could. I was really pleased with the final result, but not sure if I got it 100% right. The gravy and final curry seemed a bit too 'orange' in colour to me. The restaurant madras curries I have had are usually a lot darker brown in colour. I was also confused about adding the chicken pre-cooked. I thought that the chicken would have to be somehow marinated to taste better. I just cooked mine separately in a small amount of onions and garlic and added it in to the recipe when it said 'add pre-cook meat'. Is that correct?

Here are a couple of pics of the finished gravy (-2 portions for me and the other half!). Does it look right? I had WAY too much to drink to photo the actual finished curry itself, but it looked good and the consistency was right! I will try again next time!