The Lemon Fool

Me being lazy again - can anyone recommend a ready made curry sauce? Not into creamy, I like a bit of bite.
Not holding out too much hope as the ones I've tried have all disppointed so far.

Leo

I don't usually buy ready made sauces as I've found them to mostly dissapoint and easy enought to do replicate yourself.
However I'm less disappointed with the curry pastes, I've used a Massaman and Thai Red from Morrisons and Pataks tikkia massala

The Patak's curry pastes are pretty good.

John

Curry from scratch isn't difficult or usually time consuming. That said it does involve thinking and reading a recipe which is why we use to use quite a few jars.

Go for the ones with a separate container of spices. Frying the spices makes a huge difference. Sure a jar may have fried spices in it, but the aroma in the kitchen and home will make the food taste 10x better if you fry the spices as you make the food.

We have stopped using jars, as I'm trying to restrict the amount of salt we consume. Hence I also avoid the pastes.

I do suggest having a go from scratch though. It does often taste better and is nowhere near the effort you think. Indeed you could even do so in a way as easy as buying a jar.

Ie take this recipe from the net
https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/rec ... ogan-josh/
Use frozen chopped onion to save effort and time.
If trying to control salt, make a spice mix that you can gab and fry rather than using paste.

Too wet? Well I understand that curry basically means gravy, but try this recipe instead.
https://yummyyummytotummy.wordpress.com ... g-chicken/
Use frozen blocks of garlic & ginger for continence (available in most supermarkets)
Hing is Asafoetida BTW.

I confess that I now have time to chop onions, garlic and ginger. Though I do use powdered onion and garlic to make quick spice mixes for fajita's, Taco's etc.

Spice Tailor Firey Goan Curry helper is decent
Particularly if you grind the herbs and chili before hand

Also works really well as a slow cook

Urbandreamer wrote:Use frozen blocks of garlic & ginger for continence (available in most supermarkets)

As I have noted before, I blend equal parts of fresh ginger and garlic with a little oil, freeze it in ice cube trays and transfer to a box in the freezer.

My Indian cooks (I had 80 odd in my brigade) always made ginger/garlic paste in bulk.

Why do we continue to call Indian food curry? So many recipes that no one is the same. Far more varieties of Indian food than curry pastes availabe.

john

johnstevens77 wrote:

Urbandreamer wrote:Use frozen blocks of garlic & ginger for continence (available in most supermarkets)

Why do we continue to call Indian food curry? So many recipes that no one is the same. Far more varieties of Indian food than curry pastes availabe.

john

Rick Stein did a whole TV series asking people in India what curry meant.
It seemed to change meaning in every city he went to.

James wrote:

johnstevens77 wrote:

Urbandreamer wrote:Use frozen blocks of garlic & ginger for continence (available in most supermarkets)

Why do we continue to call Indian food curry? So many recipes that no one is the same. Far more varieties of Indian food than curry pastes availabe.

john

Rick Stein did a whole TV series asking people in India what curry meant.
It seemed to change meaning in every city he went to.

Is there any derivation in the sizzler they call Karai, or is the phonetic similarity merely coincidental?

Try this by redsturgeon, March 25th, 2017, 9:05 am

A basic curry sauce

Postby redsturgeon » March 25th, 2017, 9:05 am
They make a stock sauce that they liquidise that contains quite a few onions. Here is one I use when making Korma for my son...he only likes one that tastes like a takeaway korma. I prefer to make curries from the basic spices freshly ground though and there is nothing to stop you liquidising your onion, garlic and ginger first in any recipe.

600g onions (about 6 large onions)
6 cloves of garlic
6 pieces of ginger (dice sized)
2 tablespoons of tomato puree/
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoons turmeric
1.5 teaspoons chilli powder
1.5 teaspoons ground coriander
1.5 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoons garam masala
3 teaspoons vegetable oil

Add the onions garlic and ginger to about 800ml water and boil for 30 minutes.

Add the rest of the ingredients and boils for another ten minutes then puree.

You can use this as a base sauce and add to whatever ingredient you wish

I have used it a couple of times, one can vary the ingredients to suit one's taste.

hth

john

johnstevens77 wrote:Try this by redsturgeon, March 25th, 2017, 9:05 am

A basic curry sauce

Postby redsturgeon » March 25th, 2017, 9:05 am
They make a stock sauce that they liquidise that contains quite a few onions. Here is one I use when making Korma for my son...he only likes one that tastes like a takeaway korma. I prefer to make curries from the basic spices freshly ground though and there is nothing to stop you liquidising your onion, garlic and ginger first in any recipe.

600g onions (about 6 large onions)
6 cloves of garlic
6 pieces of ginger (dice sized)
2 tablespoons of tomato puree/
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoons turmeric
1.5 teaspoons chilli powder
1.5 teaspoons ground coriander
1.5 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoons garam masala
3 teaspoons vegetable oil

Add the onions garlic and ginger to about 800ml water and boil for 30 minutes.

Add the rest of the ingredients and boils for another ten minutes then puree.

You can use this as a base sauce and add to whatever ingredient you wish

I have used it a couple of times, one can vary the ingredients to suit one's taste.

hth

john

Yes that was one I used to use when I had a houseful and it does taste really good but now I'm on my own I tend just to make whatever I need each time.

I mentioned the Pataks because they are about the best that I used to use although I haven't used one personally in a few years.

These days I'd just fry up some onions, add chopped garlic and ginger and some chillies, add a teaspoon or two of coriander, cumin and half a teaspoon of turmeric. From there I either leave it at that with salt to taste and you have a pretty good tasty curry.

If I am in the mood I add any or all of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom (black or green) fenugreek (I have my own garam masala premixed with these if I wish to use it) plus perhaps curry leaves and fresh coriander and maybe some asafoetida or jaggery if needed.

It doesn't need to take long.

John

If you're looking for something ready made / off the shelf then the Kohinoor range is excellent in my humble opinion! Available in Tesco, Sainsbury etc.

redsturgeon wrote:

johnstevens77 wrote:Try this by redsturgeon, March 25th, 2017, 9:05 am

A basic curry sauce

Postby redsturgeon » March 25th, 2017, 9:05 am
They make a stock sauce that they liquidise that contains quite a few onions. Here is one I use when making Korma for my son...he only likes one that tastes like a takeaway korma. I prefer to make curries from the basic spices freshly ground though and there is nothing to stop you liquidising your onion, garlic and ginger first in any recipe.

600g onions (about 6 large onions)
6 cloves of garlic
6 pieces of ginger (dice sized)
2 tablespoons of tomato puree/
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoons turmeric
1.5 teaspoons chilli powder
1.5 teaspoons ground coriander
1.5 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoons garam masala
3 teaspoons vegetable oil

Add the onions garlic and ginger to about 800ml water and boil for 30 minutes.

Add the rest of the ingredients and boils for another ten minutes then puree.

You can use this as a base sauce and add to whatever ingredient you wish

I have used it a couple of times, one can vary the ingredients to suit one's taste.

hth

john

Yes that was one I used to use when I had a houseful and it does taste really good but now I'm on my own I tend just to make whatever I need each time.

I mentioned the Pataks because they are about the best that I used to use although I haven't used one personally in a few years.

These days I'd just fry up some onions, add chopped garlic and ginger and some chillies, add a teaspoon or two of coriander, cumin and half a teaspoon of turmeric. From there I either leave it at that with salt to taste and you have a pretty good tasty curry.

If I am in the mood I add any or all of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom (black or green) fenugreek (I have my own garam masala premixed with these if I wish to use it) plus perhaps curry leaves and fresh coriander and maybe some asafoetida or jaggery if needed.

It doesn't need to take long.

John

Every taste is different, but I do like extra Cumin and Ginger! As with most dishes, marinate the meat overnight and cook slowly.

Steve

PS When we were students, a curry was judged by how much you suffered.