Madhuban Hot Madras Sauce

Being in the deep south, the locals are partial to chilli or two in their otherwise typically south-Indian, mostly fish or vegetarian curries. The early British traders quickly adapted to curry, and finding it addictive, they soon started to build up a tolerance to Madrassi levels of chilli heat. Eventually, these early ex-pats retired back to England, but they wanted to take their newly acquired taste for hot curry back with them to blighty. Someone unrecorded in the mists of time, dreamed up the notion of curry powder, or as those early sahibs also called it, ‘curry-stuff’. And so began a trade which has continued to this day. Being a spice-growing area, Madras was easily able to manufacture curry-stuff, and one extra hot version became known as Madras Curry Powder. Coming more up to date, the earliest British curry houses were operated by Punjabis, whose food style and homelands were over a thousand miles from south India.

The early curry menu formula did not offer particularly hot curries, but in the early post-war days, demand began to emerge for them. In response, one of those wily restaurateurs dreamed up the notion of adding a teaspoon of chilli powder, tomato, ground almond and lemon juice to a standard Medium Curry, and calling it by a name he knew to be associated with chilli heat, and hey presto, the Madras curry was born.

It goes perfectly with our higher welfare diced chicken fillet.