You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I have chicken, peppers, mushroom, garlic and tinned tomatoes.
I also have a veritable plethora of spices.
I don't have a sauce.
How do you make yours?
I use the base sauce recipe in The Curry Guy Bible. Do a job lot then freeze in portions. It’s quite bland on its own but the idea is you then add more spices etc when you make different curries. It’s basically a shed load of onions, garlic, ginger, spices, vege and oil. Simmered for ages and then skim off the oil to be used as seasoned cooking oil in any number of curry or non curry dishes. Blend what’s left to a soup consistency.
I know a few lads at work who use this
You're gonna need onions too - I struggle to think of many authentic curry recipes (Bangladeshi/Indian) that don't have a base of onion.
They are correct about the onions.
Onions, coriander, cumin, ginger, garlic, turmeric. Those are the ‘essentials’
Other stuff depends on whether you want to make traditional or British takeaway curry.
Or a ‘student curry’. ie put some Asda curry powder in some tinned toms and proceed to boil whatever else available in it!
Chicken? I like an Andhra inspired gravy, ie
Here’s also a very basic chicken curry:
https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/chicken-curry/
Less is often more, especially with fresh ingredients.
The answer here is The Spicery You can thank me later…
Came here to recommend this, it's fantastic. Such tasty meals and simple recipes
Onions, garlic, ginger etc as required,
Paste/powder
Chickpeas/lentils/soya chunks/tofu (I'm a veggie)
+
Yogurt
or
Stock/gravy
or
Coconut milk
+
fresh tomatoes, roasted cauliflower, cubed potatoes, roasted squash etc.
The Curry Guy Bible.
^^^^^this^^^^^^
That Curry Guy Bible base sauce is great - works really well making a larger batch and then freeze as @scamperjenkins says
After someone asked the same question on here a long while back, I've been using thismuslimgirlbakes.com as there's lots of recipes with idiot step by step how to guide and photo's.
That Curry Guy Bible base sauce is great – works really well making a larger batch and then freeze as @scamperjenkins says
+1.
The books are really good and you'll find he's done a YouTube tutorial for most recipes - you really can't screw it up.
@freeagent you'd be surprised 😬
Cheers for the pointers.
Will check out thismuslimgirlbakes and probably purchase the curry Bible.
Will check out thismuslimgirlbakes and probably purchase the curry Bible.
One day I definitely recommend trying a slow-cooked traditional home-made everyday Indian chicken curry like the second link I posted. ymmv, but as much as I like Brit takeaway style (curry guy etc) food you still can’t beat the original.
Think a Gregg’s pastie, High St, Tooting vs Mrs Pethick’s family recipe pastie from her home kitchen in Delabole. Or mum’s shepherds pie vs a Sainsburys ready meal. I can eat hundreds of takeway/commercial-homemade-hybrid shepherds pies, currys, pasties, ready-roasts etc and have - but they lack that homemade authenticity which is impossible to describe but always remembered as a meal that was particularly savoured.
as said, ymmv and...
...ymspmv😎
The thing with most curries is not to rush them or they just taste thin and hot rather than rounded and flavoursome. If a recipe says 'simmer on a low heat until the oil separates from the sauce' then do just that. Turning it up when you are in a rush will not get the same results.
Base spices, tumeric, ground coriander, cumin, fresh ginger. I also like fenugreek - not everyone does. Fresh chillies are better than chilli powder IMO and Chuck some fresh chopped coriander leaves as a garnish.
Fresh chillies are better than chilli powder IMO
Dried chillies that have been soaking for an hour in warm water are also just about as good as fresh IMO
Coconut milk and ready made curry paste in a pinch :p
Another tip is to NEVER eat it on the day you make it, absolutely always tastes better when reheated after a night in the fridge with chopped coriander added just before serving
Another tip is to NEVER eat it on the day you make it, absolutely always tastes better when reheated after a night in the fridge
See also, chilli.
Bookmarked.
I bought a book years ago by the owner of my fave Gujarati place (Prashad, Bratfud) and still default to the recipes in there even though I know them all by heart now.
Key is a masala - fresh hot green chilis ground into a paste with garlic or ginger, or the tempering/tarka spiced oil. I go through a lot of mustard seeds in particular and asafoetida (sp?) makes a big difference in the 'authenticity'.
What I don't tend to make is curryhouse style recipes, so don't do that big pan of onion & ginger sauce - but actually should, as I miss UK-style curry.
Curries and Spicy Dishes for Your Slow Cooker by Kris Dhillon is a book worth getting.
https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/lamb-pork-or-beef-madras
This is my go to curry sauce, I tend to substitute tinned for fresh tomatoes and if I can get a big bunch of Coriander I add the cleaned roots and stalks to the sauce. I usually blend the sauce with a hand blender and add the meat. It needs a fair amount of reducing to thicken and concentrate the flavor.
I've got a few 'go-to' base recipes but I normally end up adding a pinch of this and a dash of that.
Number one tip for me is to have at least some of your onions, garlic and ginger whizzed into a paste after cooking, then added back and recooked a little bit just before you put the main liquid (usually canned tomatoes) in. This gives a middle bit of texture between the liquid and any chunky bits of onion.
I also did a 'chip shop' curry sauce from BBC Good Food involving chicken stock and then blended into a smooth gravy-like sauce. It was bloody lovely and was a very close copy of the typical chinese curry sauce.
For more advanced flavours have a look at the Fudco ingredients that are stocked by Sainsbury's. I have a bag of Kasuri Methi from there that gives a flavour you 'know' from restaurant curries but would never get without it.
You’re gonna need onions too – I struggle to think of many authentic curry recipes (Bangladeshi/Indian) that don’t have a base of onion.
Authentic? You mean Brindian 🙂
Jains don't eat onions - and plenty of other things
bob_summers has it right.... Prashad’s curries are the biz 👍👍
Jains don’t eat onions
I had not heard of a Jain before today, but now I have read up a little about the Jain religion I am not seeing the connection between Jains and traditional Indian/Bangladeshi cooking though.
I'm embarassed to say this, but Jamie Oliver's curry paste recipes have been working really well for me:
https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetable-recipes/easy-homemade-curry-pastes/
I've used the Jalfrezi and Rogan Josh ones, or a mash up of somewhere in the middle...
A few people have mentioned the importance of onion - i very gently fry a big white onion for quite a long timeuntil super soft. I alwasy use ghee for this too. Then bosh in the paste and gently cook that for as long as you can cope with - the idea is to get it as dark as possible without burning, before then adding your meat/protein to seal that in the paste/onion. Then in white a tin of chopped tomatoes. Add in whatever extras you want now - winter has seen squash in there most times, but obvs peppers, chick peas, cauliflower - whatever - i'm normally just emptying the past its best stuff in to not waste it. You'll probably also need to top of the liquids with an ish half a can of water. I'll normally fire in a handful of dried cayenne chillis now too.
I'm sure doing this over a low heat on the hob will be fine, but I've been doing mine in the oven for an hour and a half, or more, depending on what meat is in there. 160 fan, in a big cast iron casserole dish.
Its probably not even close to authentic - but results are pretty damned good every time. Apologies again for the Jamie Oliver link. Haiyaa...
I know he's not being serious - hell, I don't know anything of the sort, it's Binners so he might well be - but that Bisto instant stuff does actually make a half decent curry sauce of the sort you'd pour over chips. You need to use like double the amount of granules it suggests, and it's quite mild so adding a dash of chilli powder or curry powder wakes it up a bit.