Take Away Style Curry

This method is adapted from the best selling ‘Curry Secret’ book by Kris Dhillon. I highly recommend this book for the full method and many more recipes but this is my take with a few corners cut.

Base Sauce
2 large onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp groundnut or vegetable oil (groundnut is best)
700g Bottle of Passata (keep the bottle for storing unused sauce)
150ml water
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp salt

1. Sweat the onions in the oil on very low heat until transparent and very soft but do not brown the onions. Add the garlic towards the end of cooking.
2. Add turmeric and salt and stir to dissolve.
3. Add the passata and water and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Blitz the sauce in a food processor until completely smooth. Pass through a sieve if you want to be sure.

This is your basic sauce. From this you can make any restaurant style curry.


Cooking your Meat (for 500g meat)

3 tbsp groundnut or vegetable oil
4 tbsp base sauce
4-500g chicken or lamb, trimmed of any fat or sinew

1. In a smallish non-stick saucepan heat the oil over medium heat then add 4 tbsp of the base sauce, be careful that it doesn’t spit too much.
2. Allow the sauce to darken in colour a little before adding your meat.
3. Put on a tight fitting lid and lower the temperature to a slow simmer. Cook chicken for 25 minutes or lamb for 35 minutes.
4. Remove from the cooking liquor and set to one side. Discard the liquor.


Lamb or Chicken Saag

1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp groundnut or vegetable oil
1 inch ginger, grated
½ tsp ground cumin (buy cumin seeds, dry fry for a couple of minutes then grind)
1 level tsp chilli powder (more or less to your taste)
Half of the remaining base sauce (about 500ml)
4-500g prepared meat (as above)
1 tsp Garam Masala
5 or 6 balls of frozen spinach

1. Heat the oil and fry the onion until just starting to colour, add ginger and continue to stir for a minute.
2. Add cumin and chilli powder and stir for another minute.
3. Add the base sauce and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Add the meat and simmer for another 10 minutes then add the spinach and garam masala.
5. Allow to simmer until the spinach has dispersed through the sauce and it is piping hot. Serve!


Chicken Korma

4 tbsp groundnut or vegetable oil ½ tsp ground cumin (buy cumin seeds, dry fry for a couple of minutes then grind) Half of the remaining base sauce (about 500ml) 1 tsp paprika 1 tsp salt 1 level tsp chilli powder (or to taste) ½ tsp ground coriander (buy coriander seeds, dry fry for a couple of minutes then grind) ½ tsp garam masala
4-500g Chicken prepared as above 6 tbsp single cream 1 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped

1. Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan, and stir in the cumin. Fry for a few seconds and add the curry sauce. Bring the sauce to the boil.
2. Add the paprika, salt, chilli powder and ground coriander and continue to cook on high heat stirring frequently for about 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
3. Turn down the heat and stir in the garam masala . Simmer for about 3 minutes.
4. Add the chicken and simmer for about 5 minutes to heat the meat.
5. Stir in the cream and simmer for a further 2 minutes.
6. Serve scattered with the fresh coriander.


Perfect Basmati Rice (serves 4)
1 cup basmati rice
2 cups water

1. Rinse the rice in a sieve under cold running water.
2. Put rice in medium sauce pan with tight fitting lid then add the water.
3. Bring to the boil then immediately fit the lid and turn heat onto the lowest you can, listen to the pan and make sure it is slowly simmering.
4. Time the rice for exactly 10 minutes from fitting the lid then turn off the heat and leave for another 10 minutes. Do not remove the lid at all during this process.

If you want to make Pilau rice instead of plain boiled rice then use chicken or vegetable stock instead of water and sweat half a finely chopped onion in 1 tbsp groundnut oil, before adding the rice and stock and 4 cloves, 3 green cardamom pods, half a stick of cinnamon and a bay leaf during the cooking process. Otherwise follow the recipe above.

Tags: curry