Hi there, I am sending you a brief email about me attempting
to make your chicken madras recipe at the weekend. It says you can
double it up, (the basic curry sauce) for the recipe, but if you need
to double the whole recipe, do you double the recipe with the dried
chillis and paprika as well? As i want to make it for 4 not 2 people.

Firstly, the recipes are not designed to be doubled but, if you're careful, they should double up with reasonable results if you use a large pan.

So, for the Madras. Double everything in the Madras recipe APART FROM the chillies, chilli powder, the fenugreek leaves and the garam masala. I would add only half again extra for the fenugreek leaves and the garam masala.

I would suggest keeping only the single recipe amount for the whole dried chillies and the chilli powder and then boosting up the heat later with more chilli powder if you want it hotter. Leave the curry to simmer for a good few minutes after adding chilli powder before you add more - the heat emerges gradually. Be patient and add the chilli powder a little at a time - once you've overdone the heat there's no going back!!!

You should get away with just one portion of Basic Curry Sauce if you strictly follow the recipe (some people don't and they find the volume comes up a bit short - see the FAQ for advice on this). However, some people like extra sauce in their Madras so if that's you AND and you want plenty left over to make side dishes then you'll need to make 2 batches of BCS.

Some restaurants' Madras recipes are quite tomato rich. If that's how you like yours add a little (about 1 teaspoon) tomato paste to the Madras.

If the sauce gets too thick be VERY CAREFUL how you add extra water to loosen the sauce (step 5) . Literally use 1 tablespoon water at a time - NO MORE. You can add more water. a tablespoon at a time, if you need it but if you flood the sauce you would have to boil it off which will ruin the Madras. The Madras should be almost stir frying while it's cooking.

The recipes in the book are a lot easier to manage, especially for the novice cook. The free recipes were the prototypes and assume some cooking experience.