Ok Garp, let us know how you get on, I found that using blended tinned toms instead of tom puree gave a smoother more balanced curry, and also bashing the onion/green pepper(or green chilli) in a pestal/mortar and frying gently for longer reduced the acid and improved the sweetness, as for the chilli powders I think the deggi mirch gives a more moreish taste than normal chilli powder. I am still working on that aspect of the curry and am again experimenting tonight and may just use deggi mirch only, or may just use kashmiri only to see what the flavour difference is. I made a base last night but couldnt decide which one so ended up making a mix between KD1/admin new base/ Ca /taz, hopefully it will be ok . Which base are you using Garp?

Hi Garp i would just stick to this recipe that I first made-

MADRAS RECIPE

  1Tb - Green Pepper (finely chopped)
  1Tb - Onion (finely chopped)
   1ts - Hot Chilli Powder
   1ts - Deggi Mirch
   1ts - Kashmiri Chilli Powder
  1Tb - Mix Powder
   1ts - Fenugreek Leaves (rubbed between fingers)
   1ts - Cumin Powder
   2ts - Lemon Juice
   2ts - Garlic Pureed
   1ts - Ginger Pureed
  2Tb - Blended Tinned Toms
  1Tb - Coriander
1/4ts - Salt
   4 drops of worcester sauce
  6Tb - Reclaimed oil
350ml - Base sauce

I bashed the onion and green pepper in pestal to form a paste

Heat oil low to medium heat
Add onion/pepper and cook for 3 mins
Turn up heat
Add garlic/ginger and cook 1 mins
Add tomatoes and cook for 1 minute
Add methi and stir, and mix powder stir, add chilli stir, add cumin stir add salt lemon juice and worcester sauce and stir for 1 minute
Add ladle base and evaporate off stiring ang shaking pan continuosuly
Add Chicken stir and add remaining base and cook 5 mins
Cook on full for last 30-60 secs then add coriander
Done!

Of course you can feel free to change anything in the recipe to suit your needs, personally I think this is absolutely wonderful and all others experiments I have done havent been as nice as the this original recipe. Chilli can be upped a little but havent decided on what proportions of chilli powders work best. Also a thin green chilli in place of the green pepper works well but it does up the heat considerably so chilli powders need to be altered to get the correct heat for a true Madras. Hope you try this Garp and could you please report back your findings and any alterations made.
I think this is a great Madras, the best I have made but it is still only a work in progress, a few tweaks here and there, but only small ones, and it will be perfect.
It would be good if you made it to spec and then decided what you think it needs more/less off and maybe we could crack it , other peoples opinions are most appreciated and helpful.

STILL NO EBOOK CHRIS

Yes Stephen I have been taking notes, havent been updating post with them though as I had no positive results to post, and great point on using the original base again , thankyou

 Been experimenting with this recipe for last 2 weeks, but with the KD2 base as I ran out of Admin New Base. Ive tried different tomato (fresh/puree/passatta), tried different combinations of chilli powders(deggi,kashmiri,chilli), different spice mixes, different quantities of garlic/ginger, different cooking techniques from hard frying spices to not frying spices, with no significant breakthrough or improvement on first attempt.
My very first attempt was a huge success and it used Admin New Base and was excellent, so last night I made it again to spec apart from one different ingredient, THE BASE, I used KD2 base sauce and I have to say it was a very average curry, I could taste the base sauce more than the curry, it was a little overpowering.
I will not be making or using the KD base again and feel all my experiments have been wasted because I used the KD base for the past 2 weeks of my testing. As it doesnt even make a good curry for my first attempt recipe any experimentations are never going to be worth while.
  Oh well we learn from our mistakes, back to the drawing board!!!
  I will be making a new batch of base sauce this week, prob Admin New Base, but I am open to suggestions as to what people think the base sauce I should make for this experiment is.

Please comment for what base sauce you would like/think I should use ?

 Hi Petrolhead, glad you enjoyed the recipe. I too have used tom sauce in previous curries and may even have a go at this madras using it next time. I made it again last night and instead of green pepper i used 2 thin green chillis. The result waqs fantastic but a little too hot to be called a madras but it could be a winner if the chilli powder is altered. I still intend to test this recipe substituting the 3 chilli powders to just using 1 type of chilli powder. I think i would have to make it 3 times in one night, 1 with just chilli, 1 with deggi mirch and 1 with kashmiri, just to compare the difference in flavour for each curry. There are still many things you can change to a recipe and hopefully soon I will have a final recipe, if I havent already got it !

  Once I have perfected the madras I will be moving on to a Vindaloo and documenting that in the same manner as the Madras.

 I will do CH, made it again last night but used KD2 base (added a few extra spices to the spec), I cant really comment on it though as I had spent 3 hours making the base first, and as we all know the senses become nulled after all that smell, but I wasnt as impressed as previous attempt but that could just be down to making the base. Ive kept a portion of base and am making the Madras again tonight so will post results later.

 Yeah I know what you mean jb, ive always noticed a slight aniseed ish taste in a madras, in the non-bland variety of a few years ago anyway

Forgot to mention that on the the 2nd attempt I also added a star anise to the oil and fried for a minute with onions then removed star anise while still frying onions, it gave it a little bit of extra flavour that I have noticed in certain BI madras's.

It is seen on the home page