Curry Night

meg72

I was wondering if an Oxo cube would make it brown or would it change the taste?

kittycat204

i thought at lot of the colour comes from cooking the onions slow and gentle still soft and they start to caramalise, as well as the spices etc.

If you want a great curry book, i suggest the curry bible by pat chapman. One of the best curry books I have ever bought.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Cook the onions until soft brown first. At the end of cooking the sauce (when any fat rises to the surface), chuck in some mango chutney and boil hard. (or tamarind sauce/paste/ketchup if you have it - it's sweet, sour and brown). Then add your cream and fresh coriander .

Stephen_Leak

OP's recipe looks like a nice simple one but, with cream it's going to be beige.

Try this one of mine. The magic ingredient is the little bit of ginger. It just gives it what I can only call a "zing", and is the first thing the bean counters would take out of a commercial curry.

MEAT CURRY

Makes 4 x 200g portions

INGREDIENTS

375g of beef, lamb or pork, chicken or turkey
1 clove of garlic
2cm (1 inch) piece of fresh ginger
2 onions
2 tablespoons of oil
200g (½ a 400g tin) of plum tomatoes
1 teaspoon of chilli powder
1 tablespoon of garam masala
½ a teaspoon of ground turmeric
250ml of water

DEFROSTING

If you are using frozen chicken, make sure that it is completely defrosted before use. Leave it in the fridge overnight, or out of the fridge and covered for 6 hours.

METHOD

Chop the meat into 2cm (1 inch) pieces. Peel the garlic and chop it into tiny pieces. Peel the ginger and chop it into tiny pieces. Peel the onions and chop them into tiny pieces.

Put the oil into a saucepan on a moderate heat. Put the garlic, ginger, meat and onions into the pan. Cook for 20 minutes until the meat is an even colour, with no pink bits. Stir frequently to stop it sticking.

Open the tin of tomatoes. Pour the juice into a bowl. Chop the tomatoes while they are still in the can (it’s easier than chasing them around the bowl). Put the chopped tomatoes into the bowl. Put half the chopped tomatoes into the pan and save the other half.

Add the chilli, garam masala, turmeric and water. Stir thoroughly.

Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat until it is just boiling (simmering). Put the lid on the saucepan and cook for 30 minutes, stirring as the mixture boils, until the sauce has reduced.

ADDITIONS & ALTERATIONS

The quantity of chilli powder above makes for a medium curry. For a hot one, increase this to 1½ teaspoons. For a mild one, decrease this to ½ a teaspoon.

TIPS

Plum tomatoes can be used either whole or chopped. It is difficult to stick chopped tomatoes back together again if you need to use them whole.

PS. Still here.

Slinky_Malinky

If you are happy with the taste of your curry, but just wish it looked brown, dare I suggest a drop of gravy browning?

Tiby

Your recipe uses green chilli, replacing it with red chilli powder or paprika powder ( if you like it mild) will give it reddish brown colour, I add a bit of both green chilli and red chilli powder. Frying the onions a bit longer so that edges start getting golden /very light brown also gives the curry a deeper brown colour.

WaxiesDargle

great replies...thanks all

working

You need to nearly burn your onions. I'm not joking.

Heat the oil until it's really hot and carefully put your onions in and cook on high until brown, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick.

Get your tomatoes ready to cool it down. You might need to add some water to stop it from sticking.

The cream will always make the curry pale. Have you tried one without? We never add cream to our curries; I may be wrong but isn't the addition of cream an innovation to satisfy the western palette?

joedenise

Agree with Working, you need to fry the onions off first really hard until dark brown. Then add garlic, ginger, chillis and any other spices which need to be fried off to release the aromatics. Stir in the chopped tomatoes & some water, bring to the boil and then simmer for about 15 minutes.

Should be a really dark brown and smell and taste gorgeous!

Denise

rachbc

Yep its all in the onions - you want them much much browner than for a european dish - this adds flavour, colour and a richer texture too