AS cold, dark nights set in, many of us will soon be reaching for a saucepan and whipping up a curry. And who better to show us how to cook the ultimate in comfort food than Madhur Jaffrey, the authority on Indian cuisine?

The 79-year-old is making a welcome return to front her first cookery show on British television for 17 years.

In Madhur Jaffrey’s Curry Nation, she travels around the UK, meeting Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities and sampling their dishes three decades after she introduced the western world to the food of her birthplace.

‘‘I loved the idea of going into people’s homes and seeing the state of Indian food in Britain today,’’ says Jaffrey, who lives in New York. ‘‘It’s improved, but it’s also changed. It’s found its own niche and character, and it’s different from Indian food anywhere else.

‘‘If you go to Trinidad, the set of circumstances that brought Indian food there is different from Britain, and the food is different. And if you go to Guyana, Fiji or Singapore, each place has Indian food but it’s different.’’ Her fact-finding mission revealed a varied picture – from the chips drenched in curry sauce (made from a yellow powder straight out of China) at a chippy in Glasgow, to curry-and-pint nights on Thursdays at pubs across the country, to the smart Cinnamon Kitchen restaurant in London, where chef Vivek Singh combines Indian seasonings with French techniques.

But something that stood out to Jaffrey as uniquely British was our need to categorise dishes in terms of heat. ‘‘When you go into a restaurant, you know that a chicken vindaloo is going to be very hot and that a chicken korma is not going to be,’’ she says. ‘‘That’s not the case in India or anywhere else because you can make anything hot or not hot. But in Britain, even a child knows that a korma will be mild.’’ Goan Pork Vindaloo with Potatoes (Serves 4) 2tsp mustard seeds 1tsp cumin seeds 2tsp coriander seeds 3 cloves 1 medium onion, roughly chopped 5 garlic cloves, chopped 2½cm root ginger, peeled and chopped 2tsp cider vinegar 1tsp chilli powder 2tsp paprika ½tsp turmeric 560g boneless pork shoulder, cut into 2.5cm chunks 3tbsp olive or sunflower oil 340g waxy red potatoes, peeled and cut the same size as the pork ½tsp caster sugar PUT half the mustard seeds and all the cumin seeds, coriander seeds and cloves in a lean coffee grinder or spice grinder and grind as finely as possible.

Tip this spice mixture into a blender with the onion, garlic, ginger, vinegar, chilli powder, paprika and 3 tablespoons of water. Blend until smooth.

Rub one teaspoon of salt, all the turmeric, half a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper and 2 tablespoons of your spice paste all over the pork.

Put in a plastic food bag, seal and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, or longer if desired.

Pour the oil into a large, heavy-based, non-stick, lidded pan and set it over a medium-high heat.

When the oil is hot, add the remaining mustard seeds. As soon as they pop, which will be in a matter of seconds, put in the remaining spice paste.

Stir and fry for five to six minutes, or until the paste is lightly browned.

Put in the pork with its marinade and stir for a minute. Cover and reduce the heat to medium. Let the meat cook for about 10 minutes, lifting the lid now and then to stir; it should become lightly browned.

Pour in 750ml of water and add the potatoes, half a teaspoon of salt and the sugar. Stir and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to low and cook very gently for 50-60 minutes or until the meat is tender, then serve.