A mother-of-five from Oxford is celebrating landing a £300,000 deal to sell her home-made curry sauces in Asda supermarkets.

Kiran Bhandari began mass-producing her Indian table sauces after pupils at her cooking classes hailed them as the best they had ever tasted.

She is now working full-time with her daughter Anu to keep up with demand, as the tasty sauces are snapped up by curry-mad cooks.

Kiran, from South Oxford, said: “Given the current climate, you would think this would be the worst time to launch a new brand, but we’ve found the range is already selling extremely well.

“I realised there was a gap in the market when the pupils started telling how much they enjoyed it.

“I thought a few people might enjoy them but I didn’t think it would take off in the way it has. It has been amazing.

“But I couldn’t have done it without the help of my daughter.”

The 63-year-old was born in New Delhi, India, and began to cook for her family with her sisters from the age of just eight years old.

She moved to the UK in 1970 and ran a successful business with her husband Sarvjit. She began teaching Indian cooking at evening classes to adults at schools in Oxford in 1998.

But it was only when her pupils began complimenting her on the recipes, some of which have been passed down through her family for generations, that she hit upon the idea of selling them.

Kiran and Sarvjit persuaded Anu, 34, to give up her job working in the computer department of a City bank to join her fledgling venture.

Anu set about contacting the major supermarket chains to gauge interest in her mother’s sauces, such as Himalayan Hot Garlic Sauce, Goan Extra Hot Lime, Madrasi Hot Mint and Spicy Monsoon Mango.

And she has now secured a deal with Asda to stock the range.

As orders grew, the Bhamndaris had to move production from the family home to a small industrial unit in Oxford.

Anu said: “We first brain-stormed and came up with the brand-name Holy Cow. We wanted to hint at the Indian origin of the product, without the range being overtly ethnic.

“We thought this would help us to reach a wider audience, not just people looking for Indian food.

“We narrowed down the flavours we wanted to make from mum’s array of recipes and designed packaging and our website, www.holycowfc.com “The sauces are really versatile and can be used as accompaniments to dishes like fish and chips, pizza or tapas.”

As well as the Asda order, the family has received requests for the sauces from Europe, the US and Australia.