I made the base first, Taz recipe, divided by a third to end up with approximately 500ml of base for one curry....

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/39030092/1/taz_base?h=a0b782

Then, went for Micks madras recipe, doubled the amount of chilli powder (Asda Hot Chilli Powder), used garlic puree instead of chopped garlic, missed out adding more salt as there was so much in the base, and substituted fresh coriander for Sharwoods bottled Coriander Leaf, mix used was Asda Madras Spice Blend...

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/39030092/1/micks_madras?h=579c45

Not quite sure if I reduced the base too much (see photos) but it was indeed very rich, not unpleasant but nothing like my two local BIRs (both of whoms madras dishes taste exactly the same - may be the same chef!), very salty (probably just my taste), difficult to put my finger on what it tasted most of, possibly garlic.  As an indication I like the taste of the Asda/Tesco bagged beef madras, and my favourite bottled curry sauce is Sharwoods Bhut Jolokia.  It was easy to make and not that time consuming compared to some others, and the taste did improve after the lefovers were in the fridge overnight.  Open to suggestions!

Well that went quite well i think, i made a couple of small changes, mainly when making the base i divided everything by a third so i ended up with enough for just one curry to try it out first.

I've got a few photos, is this the best place for them for now or should i put them elsewhere?  (apart from the recycle bin ;D)

Thanks chaps, I'm going to give the Taz base and Micks madras recipe a go to start with, and will post back with my results tomorrow hopefully

Sincerest apologies if I'm being thick but I can't find any reference to an actual Madras recipe to follow within this thread, can anyone please give me a clue?  :

i've made the base sauce, i'd like to use lamb or beef instead of chicken, is it a direct replacement for the chicken or do i need to make any alterations to the recipe?

1x large onion
1x teaspoon of salt
1x tablespoon of hot chilli powder (adjust to suit taste - i like 'em spicy)
1x tablespoon of mint sauce
6x tablespoons of tomato sauce
Red food colouring
dash of lemon juice

Peel and very finely chop/dice the onion, place in a bowl, add the salt, chilli powder, mint sauce, tomato sauce and lemon juice

Mix well (a hand blender is good for chopping the onions up even finer), add food colouring to give it that glow in the dark vivid bright red colour

Dilute mixture with water to suit

I got some of the mystery sauce last night from Qismat...  here's my best attempt at duplicating it (its basically spiced onions, thanks to the poster of the original recipe):

1x large onion
1x teaspoon of salt
1x tablespoon of hot chilli powder (adjust to suit taste - i like 'em spicy)
1x tablespoon of mint sauce
6x tablespoons of tomato sauce
Red food colouring
dash of lemon juice

Peel and very finely chop/dice the onion, place in a bowl, add the salt, chilli powder, mint sauce, tomato sauce and lemon juice

Mix well (a hand blender is good for chopping the onions up even finer), add food colouring to give it that glow in the dark vivid bright red colour ;D

Dilute mixture with water to suit

Excellent recipe, I've never made Pakoras before (tbh i'm new to all this cooking curry lark - an old hand at eating it ) but that recipe is spot on - almost exactly like both my local indian restaurants

Not sure about the yoghurt sauce but that's probably because they don't seem to make it that way here, one of the restaurants (the "Al' Bhar" in Elgin) uses the tomato sauce/mint sauce/chilli powder/lemon juice one without yoghurt but I can't work out what the other uses (the "Qismat" in Elgin), its like a thin red sauce with bits of onion or tomato in it im not sure

Are there any other variations on pakora dipping sauce besides these two?