Mild Curry from scratch (must be easy)

JIL

And heres a recipe for a healthy prawn and chickpea curry.
1 finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons curry paste
150 ml coconut milk
150 mls vegetable stock
1 tin chickpeas drained and rinsed.
225g frozen prawns thawed
coriander or spinach
juice of half a lime

In a pan heat a tablespoon of oil, add onion and fry gently for 5 minutes.
Add the curry paste and fry for another minute
Stir in the coconut milk, stock and chick peas and simmer for about 10 mins
Stir in the prawns and simmer for about two minutes, add the coriander and/or spinach and the lime juice and heat through. Season to taste.

You could of course use cooked chicken instead of the prawns, potatoes instead of chick peas, add green peas etc,

jobbingmusician

Basic rules for (generic Indian) curry from scratch.

1. Always start with onion.

2. Curry spices need cooking. Add some to the onion and fry them. Experiment with the following (listed in approximate order of frequency of average use)

Chilli powder
Chopped fresh green chilli
Turmeric
Cumin
Cardomom (whole, or get the 'mouse droppings' out from inside)
Coriander (seeds)
Cinnamon (the Indian kind, that looks like tree bark, not the normal sort in pale brown tubes you are more used to seeing)
Mustard seeds (a useful barometer. They are cooked when they start jumping, and so are the other spices)
Cloves
Onion seeds (kalonji - who remembers these from The Apprentice? I actually knew what they were! They are the ones you get in naan bread)
Curry leaves (see if your Indian shop will give you a few to experiment with!)

OK, these are the most common ingredients for any garam masala (mixed spice). Apart from the chilli, you can't really overdo any of these.

RANDOM CURRY

Fry an onion and add any mix of the above. Fry meat with the spices if you are using meat. Add a tin of tomatoes, some potatoes and any other veg or beans. Infinite variety!

Chop coriander leaves and sprinkle on top if you fancy it

PS And if you want to cheat, real Indian old style housewives in this country do use Patak's pastes
PPS I'm not Indian, but went out with an old fashioned Indian guy for over 10 years.

DCFC79

been looking for a korma recipefor ages, might try that link posted by spike7451. The curries we make always come out a bit too thick(its not really a sauce but more a gloop) but i think thats down to be in the oven for too long .

Maitane

juliapenguin wrote: »

I know it's not strictly from scratch but Patak's curry paste (not the whole sauce) is lovely and much nicer than a ready-made sauce, but easier than combining spices if you're in a hurry - I just fry onions and peppers, add curry paste and other veg/meat then add chicken stock and coconut milk/cream/powder.

Also, I find that curry spices taste old and stale if you keep them too long and now there's just two of us I don't get through the more unusual ones quickly enough. I just buy cumin now and use the pastes otherwise.

To be honest, you're spot on. My family use Patak's all the time for the very laziest curries. I found some in Home Bargains the other day in a tin. It's the closest you can get to good curry from a jar/tin.
I use it for annoyingly complex stuff like Korma.

spike7451

Maitane wrote: »

To be honest, you're spot on. My family use Patak's all the time for the very laziest curries. I found some in Home Bargains the other day in a tin. It's the closest you can get to good curry from a jar/tin.
I use it for annoyingly complex stuff like Korma.

Pataks are better than the likes of Sharwoods but I find these are very good as well;

http://www.geetasfoods.com/currycreations1.htm

I particulary like this one;

http://www.geetasfoods.com/tikkacurrynight.htm

You can get them from Asda.