Chaula Patel's curries became so popular with the people of Lewes she had to stop making them because she could not keep up with the demand.

Now the enterprising chef has started production in a more sustainable way and is supplying village stores across Sussex with her authentic Gujarati cooking.

From the general store she runs with her husband Janak in St Pancras Road, Lewes, scores of people used to buy freshly-cooked, home-made curries based on the tradition vegetarian cuisine of the state of Gujarat in Western India.

Chaula said: "We took over the store in 1994 and built it up to a good business. The idea for the curries came in 1997 and I was surprised at how successful they were.

"The curries are very different to the general idea people have of Indian cooking. I use traditional recipes and techniques taught to me by my mother and grandmother and I use traditional ingredients."

Every third Friday night used to be curry night when Chaula would ring customers to take orders from a menu including spicy vegetarian pancakes, steamed cakes in a lentil and yoghurt sauce and stuffed baby aubergines.

In formulating her menu, Chaula started with recipes from Punjabi restaurant menus that people are more familiar with and transformed them using the expertise for cooking vegetables for which Gujaratis are famous.

The venture was a victim of its own success.

Chaula found the queue to collect an average of 250 curries stretched down the road and became unmanageable.

But then she branched out in a more practical way.

Her curries, now frozen, are once again available from St Pancras Stores and from Lansdowne Healthfood store in Cliffe High Street.

They are once again selling out.

Now sales are set to go Sussex-wide.

One of her greatest fans is Alan Wyle, of the Sussex Rural Community Council, who persuaded her to start selling in village shops throughout Sussex.

It would, he said, boost business for local shops and for her curries.

Alan said: "I saw this as a great opportunity for a local producer and for local shops."

Last week, Chaula took her first order for 100 curries from shops in Cuckfield, East Hoathly, Laughton, Plumpton Green, Horstead Keynes, Balcombe and Mannings Heath and more inquiries are coming in.