Richard McComb takes a walk on the spice side to enjoy a taste of Hyderabad in rural Herefordshire.

Rayeesa Asghar-Sandys is standing at her stove, stirring several pots of curry and knocking out chapattis at breakneck speed, when her mobile phone rings.

I have dropped by for lunch at Rayeesa’s Indian cookery school, which is based at a 500-year-old Herefordshire farmhouse. She has been telling me about legendary Indian hospitality.

“Food has been a big part of my life simply because you are surrounded by lovely food in an Indian home,” says Rayeesa. It is a timely comment. The phone call is from her husband, Richard, who runs teepee adventure holidays along the River Wye.

Is it all right if he brings a few clients along for a bite to eat? There will be four of them.

“Yes, that fine. See you in 10 minutes,” says Rayeesa, without a flicker of concern. “There’s always plenty to go round,” she tells me, more than enough for unplanned guests.

Soon we are sharing lamb and spinach curry, Rayeesa’s chicken curry, dhal, rice and chapattis, one of which I have made. Rayeesa’s dinky breads are perfect circles, mine is a deformed oblong.

“You have created your own style,” she says, forgivingly.

“A diamond?” I suggest.

“Yes, a diamond. Very good.”

Rayeesa checks with Richard that he is hungry.

He says he would like a “smallish” portion. “I don’t do small,” says Rayeesa, scooping up curried meat, cooked on the bone for tenderness.

The curries are wonderful, light, completely unoily.

Richard says his wife’s fish dishes are sensational too. His favourite is Rayeesa’s trout curry, or her curry of lamb’s hearts. “It is just the richness and thickness of it,” he says, his eyes glazing over.

Rayeesa has been showing novices how to make curries and chapattis – and much, much more – for a year now at Rayeesa’s Indian Kitchen.

The cookery school is at Mordiford, about 15 minutes from Hereford, but don’t be fooled by the blissful rural English location. The dishes created inside Orchard Farmhouse are 100 per cent authentic Hyderabadi, a flavour-packed product of Rayeesa’s childhood.

Born in London, she then lived with her grandparents in India until she was four. She was immersed in Hyderabadi food culture from an early age and when she returned to London she learned the art of authentic homespun cuisine from her mother Kaneez.

Rayeesa was the eldest of four children and she was recruited for domestic cooking duties.

“From nine or 10, I was always helping in the kitchen, carrying and stirring and being a general assistant,” says Rayeesa.

“My mother was an amazing cook. For a short time my dad had a shop and she did take-aways.

‘‘I remember mum cooking for loads of people. They would queue up. Once people tried the food, they loved it.

‘‘She did Hyderabadi food – curries, rices, chapattis, pakora and samosa, all very authentic.”

Rayeesa, who is 46, went on to serve with the Metropolitan Police for 17 years.

She says she did not have much time to cook for pleasure, having to balance a demanding job with a busy family life (she and Richard have three children).

But she was always being offered food by residents and local shopkeepers while patrolling the beat in Southall.

Rayeesa recalls: “People would invite you into their house. They would get offended if you didn’t accept their food.

‘‘We had to build community relations and it is amazing what people will tell you while you are eating.

‘‘I got to know a lot about what was going on .... the who, the where and the what. Valuable information. And I was always learning about food, watching and picking up different tips.”

It was in her late 20s that Rayeesa discovered her passion for cooking, entertaining at home for friends. She would turn out biryanis, butter chicken, nihari, a “soupy” curry of lambs trotters and tongue, and “proper” kormas. “A proper korma is not mild or sweet,” she adds, dismissive of many English/Indian restaurant version of the dish.

She and Richard decided to quit London and relocate to Herefordshire seven years ago in order to enjoy a better quality of life, with more freedom and space for their children. Rayeesa admits she wasn’t sure how the cookery school would work out but she has been overwhelmed by the response.

She says: “Everyone I have spoken to loves it. They love Indian food and they all know someone who wants to come on a cookery course. It has been like a snowball effect. It keeps growing and growing.”

Boxes of spices arrive regularly from wholesalers and Rayeesa is encouraging local farmers, whose produce she uses widely, to grow traditional Indian vegetables such as okra, beans, chillis and ginger.