Originally Posted by the_melon:
“I love spicy food, but not too spicy, I don't like it when the heat affects the taste of the ingredients, like some curries.”
That's the sign of a rotten curry. Experiment. Don't rely on a local takeaway. Make your own. The curry base is easy. But it's made in two stages and takes at least an hour to make. A better one takes longer
Curry Base:
A kilo of onions, peeled and sliced and put into a pan with 1.5litres of water. Add 50-60g of chopped garlic, 50-60g of chopped fresh ginger and a half teaspoon of salt. Bring to the boil, turn down to a gentle simmer, pop the lid on and cook for about 40 minutes.
When cool enough, put it into a blender (I need to do this in two batches) and blitz as smooth as you can get it.
Wash and dry your saucepan and put it back over a medium heat. Add two tablespoons of plain oil, a teaspoon of paprika and a teaspoon of turmeric. Mix together. Pour in a 400-500ml carton of passata (sieved tomatoes) and a teaspoon or two of tomato purée. Mix and cook at a gentle simmer for a few minutes. Add the cooled, blitzed, onion sauce. A froth rises to the top. You need to skim it all off with a spoon/ladle. Once de-frothed, cook for fifteen minutes over a medium heat and stir regularly to stop it catching on the bottom of the pan.
Done.
With the base ready, you can make almost any curry you want. This recipe makes over 1.5l and, unless you have a small army to feed, most of it can go in the freezer until you need it (I use 250ml tubs - they take a few minutes to defrost in the microwave). I like dry-ish curries so I will use maybe four-five tablespoons of base, at most, for each 150g of meat. So a 250ml tub is enough for about four portions of curry.
As it is, the curry base is only slightly spicy. How hot or mild you make your subsequent curries depends entirely on your personal taste and what you put into the frypan when you start cooking.
Incidentally, the onion sauce part is even better if you do it in a slow cooker and leave it cook away overnight. It extracts every last bit of flavour. Though your neighbours might not be too keen on the smell.
Quick Chicken Curry for two:
Put some long-grain rice on to cook. Get a frypan. Fry a medium onion in a little oil for a few minutes. Add 2-3-4 cloves of minced garlic and a thumb-sized piece of ginger chopped very fine or minced. After a minute or so add a teaspoon of ground cumin and a good pinch of ground fenugreek (this is a bugger to grind yourself, my grinder is useless at it). This is where you add your heat. Add just a pinch of dried red chili flakes (there is some additional heat to come from the masala you add just before serving). Add 200-300g of cubed chicken (don't cut it too small). Mix and cook until the chicken changes colour and takes up the spices. Add a small sliced tomato. Cook until the tomato starts to soften. Add 8-10 tablespoons of your curry base (to your taste) and bring up the heat until the chicken is cooked.
Arrange cooked rice on your plates. Add one teaspoon of either Garam Masala or Rogan Josh Masala to the curry, stir and cook for no more than a minute more before spooning it over the rice. Top with freshly chopped coriander. Done.
With your curry base at the ready, it will have taken you less time to make the curry than it did to boil the rice. If the resulting curry is a little mild for you - it shouldn't be - add a little more of the chili flakes next time you make it. If it's a bit too hot for you, use less of the chili.
If anyone wants a recipe for a general purpose (and very versatile) curry spice paste which lingers longer than Pataks, let me know. Though I've seen at least half a dozen decent paste recipes online.
I really don't like creamy, coconutty Indian foods like korma though. They're just a bit too sweet and cloying for my liking.
”
.
