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Technically in India, Madras curry doesn't exist. It's an Anglicised version of a hot curry, chiefly made with a mix of spicy curry powders instead of fresh chillies and meat of your choice.

Vindaloo originates from Southern India where all curries are hot and hotter still.

I love spicy food, specially Indian and my favourite comes from the Northern region using Kashmiri chillies which taste fruity and often are ground into fine powder, but nowhere as hot. Hottish, yes. But if you prefer the heat of what Everglow referred to, then use bird-eye chillies, seeds included and finely chopped. Bird-eye chillis are generally known as 'Apache' of which red are the hottest, preferably closer to the stalk instead of the end.

There are green chillis which are mostly used chopped up in a salad. I love eating them. They are cooling on hot weather but won't burn your mouth out.

There is a wonderful book, decades old now by the late Harvey Day 'with Sarojini Mudnani'. Wendi has a hardback copy of The Curries of India which she bought online for less than £5. If you have a second-hand bookshop in town you might find a copy there. Also she bought Harvey Day, The Complete Book of Curries, 1970. It's well worth seeking out because both books give great recipes.

Wendi has just given me the address of Sarojini Mudnani's Curry Powders here. http://macheads2.net/recipes/SMCurryPowder.html

Another book Wendi put on my desk with a smile is Ismail Merchant's Indian Cuisine. Another lovely book which contains pickles and chutney recipes from India.

I love Tandoori Chicken or Turkey. There are many recipes the best being found in BBC Good Food. You don't need a tandoor. A hot oven will do just fine. Skin the bird, slash the flesh all over with a sharp knife and wearing vinyl gloves, slather spiced plain yoghurt mix all over the fowl, getting it deep into the flesh. It's yummy! When we make it we use finely chopped bird-eye chillis, or Kashmiri chillis (the latter usually dried); we'll use at least 5 because the yoghurt mixture will cool the heat down, so more chillis are used.

Side salads are never eaten with curry and you will be silently laughed at. Either sprinkle broken up puppadams or use a Peshwari naan to mop up the juices. For a real side I love cauliflower bhaji, Bombay potatoes (Harvey Day), or Aloo Ghobi which is a nice tasty mix of cauli and taters.

I like hot curries including Balti, but avoid seafood such as shrimp because that needs to be very fresh but can be expensive, so it's either chicken, turkey, beef or lamb.

Here is the excellent Wikipedia that describes the Scoville Scale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale


Whenever handling chilli always, always use vinyl gloves!