Curry

[druiaghtagh]

EASY recipe for a home made cuury please

[Gef]

If you don't want to bother with individual spices yourself then you can do a lot worse than buying a jar of Pataks curry paste (not sauce) and following the instructions on the jar.

[Quizmonster]

Patak's curry pastes - not sauces - are wonderful as Gef suggests above and I say that though I can make a mean curry myself.
The first time I praised these on AnswerBank, the questioner claimed she found such pastes 'artificial' tasting. Perhaps she did not follow the Patak family inheritance court-case at the Old Bailey in 2004. In the course of the case, it was made clear that 80% of Britain's 'Indian' restaurants actually buy and use Patak's pastes. I'll bet that lady had many an Indian meal she enjoyed - with no notion of 'artificiality' - little realising it had probably come largely from a Patak's jar!

Personally, I brown the meat before cooking the curry, which the instructions on the jar do not suggest. Not so much with chicken, but - with beef, lamb and pork recipes - I brown the meat in oil, then drain it and put it in a casserole. That way, you do not get the rather unpleasant, greasy liquids that usually appear and make the curry too sloppy. I then proceed to make just the sauce, which I pour onto the meat and put the casserole in the oven for 45 minutes at Gas Mark 5.
Do not just put the tinned tomatoes into the sauce as the instructions suggest either... put them in a bowl, mash them down a little with a fork/potato-masher then drain them, this time saving the juice. Again, this avoids an excess of liquid. You can always add some of the saved tomato-juice if the curry seems too dry. Check for that at the start and again halfway through, when you give the curry a stir.
To be honest, these pastes are so good that I really have to be "in the mood" to bother creating a curry from scratch nowadays.
I hope the additional 'instructions' above don't make it sound too complicated!

[indianwells]

I do make curries from scratch but when i'm short of time I use a Lloyd Grossman sauce. Usually the Balti.
I just heat up the sauce with a little water and a couple of skinned, seeded tomatoes and a few drops of Encona Hot Sauce. Then throw in some chopped chicken. Bring back up to a simmer and take off the heat. 10 minutes later the chicken is cooked and tender. Just before serving stir through a good amount of Coriander and that's it.
I do insist on making my own Pilau Rice though!

[druiaghtagh]

Thankyou, all. Quizmonster, i like the idea for getting rid of excess liquid as its always a problem in other dishes as well

[WeAreBongo]

If you want to re-create a chinese chip-shop style curry sauce, try this:

CURRY SAUCE
3 tbsp sunflower oil
3 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
1 inch ginger, peeled and very finely chopped
3 tbsp plain flour
3 tsp curry powder
1 � tsp salt
1 tsp chilli powder
1 � tsp paprika
� tsp ground black pepper.

1. Mix curry powder and flour and keep aside.
2. Heat oil.
3. Add ginger and garlic and stir fry for 1 � 2 minutes
4. Add flour mixture and allow it to bubble.
5. Add salt, pepper, paprika and chilli powder. Stir.
6. Add enough water, a little at a time, to get sauce consistency. Bring to boil and simmer briskly for a few minutes. Add more water if the sauce becomes too thick. Remove from heat.

[leelapops]

Hi druiaghtagh.

Funnily enough, I am having curry tonight! I can't eat restaurant or supermarket curries, but I love my own! For 2 people:
I use chicken, then brown it. Throw a load of veggies in (whatever you like, I use onions, peppers, baby corn, courgette, chickpeas etc.), cook 'til soft. Then add 1 tin chopped tomatoes, a good lot of mixed spice, a good lot of medium curry powder and some balti spice, and some garlic puree and tomato puree. Add heat however you want (more curry powder, or some chilli powder-I don't like to have my mouth blown off, but I like a kick!) Cook down 'til the sauce is lovely and rich and dark, adding water if needs be.
Easy! Well, I like it anyway! Lisa x

[chinois]

re the water problem - Try buying passata instead of tomatoes. It's basically tomatoes with a lot of the water taken out. Use it for curry's, pizza sauce and all pasta dishes where you might use tomatoes.