I am not one for buying prepacked curry powders, but I had to try the Madras Curry Powder from Fiddes Payne as I have not heard of them before.  It has just appeared on the shelves at our Tesco (on the IOW) so you may already have seen/tried the stuff before.  Anyway it comes in a rectangular tin with very well designed labelling; mainly red and gold.  The company manufacture a range of powders.

The powder is a deep golden brown colour.  The aroma is very good and the spices smell very fresh; to me there is a similarity to Bolsts.

I made up a simple base with onions garlic and the powder.  Like other prepacked powders it is quite a coarse grind and therefore somewhat gritty until it has been well fried.  It does not give off much aroma during cooking and I found the flavour, after cooking the base, quite pleasant but not hot at all, and I did use quite a lot of powder.  It does have a 4 out of 5 chilli rating on the tin!

I added some garlic powder and some chilli powder, salt,  tomato paste, 3 green cardamoms, some coarse black pepper, and then some KTC coconut cream.  I also had to add loads of oil as it really does expand and soak up the oil.  The result was very pleasntly suprising.  I left it overnight to mature before I go to stage 2 and make up a final chicken madras with it.  I tried it this morning and the flavour is still very pleasant with subtle flavours, but the spices still have some coarsness but not gritty.  I will let you know the results of the final dish tomorrow.

Verdict.  Very good, not hot enough, and far too expensive to use for bulk production. But I think it could be a very capable partner for making bases.

CP

thank alot CP i may try some.

I have used Bolsts in the past and just buy a small tin for about 80 pence
as i need it.

However i noticed they now have big bags at around 1.80,
I guess about 10-15 tins worth. At times we pay alot for a tin !

Well folks, I tried it (just hope the BIR police don't arrest me )  It was very pleasant, nice flavour, no heat, and well like by my family; also a good one for those with youngsters wanting to start them off on the curry road.  On the otherhand I think it would make a good curry powder to add to a base mix albeit a wee bit expensive for that purpose.

CP