Is it easy to cook curry?

[Europilgrim]

I've never really done it properly but I am missing curries and there is noone near me that does a decent curry! If you have any great curry recipes (or even recommendations for books) I would love to hear them. Thanks.

I learned from Madhu Jaffrey too - I have one of her books from the 1980s. Apparently she arrived in the UK unable to cook or to find a decent curry so her mother sent letters with instructions.

Some of the tinned curry sauces are quite good, so to start try a tin of madras sauce, add meat / veg and cook some rice.

You do need a good selection of spices but you can start with cumin and turmeric.

Fry the spices in a little oil or ghee, add finely chopped onion and garlic, then add meat, make sure the meat is covered in the spices. Boil a kettle, add boiling water and simmer until you have a thick consistency.

More garlic or chilli will add heat.

For a potato accompaniment rather than a main meal use cracked black pepper, cracked coriander seeds and cumin - cook as above.

quick tip re spices...if you dont have an indian supermarket in your area which does cheap spices, Morrisons do a Rajah range of spices which are 6/7 times cheaper than schwartz and I think better quality
EG their garam masala is 76.5p per 100g and schwartz is 55p for 10g

@karmakameleon

Snap PickAChew!

I'd love a drool over some of them!

YY to buying spices from Asian supermarket including bay leaves
I bought 60g of panch phoran from Waitrose once - £2.70-3.00 for 60g. At Asian supermarket, 400g for £1.86 😳

Coriander bolts really easily and needs more light than we have for much of the year. The M&S frozen stuff is really good. I've given up on the pathetic supermarket packets that have often gone off long before their date and don't currently have ready access to anything else.

Agree with PP - Meera Sodha's Made in India book is fab.

I've also been cooking different biryanis thanks to www.indianhealthyrecipes.com which has step by step pictures, videos as well as text instructions so you can see what it's supposed to look like.

Thalassery biryani is wonderful and the kaima rice worth getting. I've now got an entire large box of spices.

If you're a beginner, or just like having fun stuff through the post, go and look at The Spicery! They source all the dried spices and send them to you, together withdetsailed recipe instructions, timings, and a fresh ingredients shopping list.

www.thespicery.com/

*with detailed

Fresh coriander freezes well, wrap in newspaper and freeze.

Just crumble it into curries from frozen.

Yes Indian / Asian grocers sell spices for a fraction of the cost, usually in bags which can be decanted into a jam jar.

If you don't have a local grocer it is worth a trip to a city that has not just shops but supermarkets.

I'm in Wolverhampton, I'm spoiled rotten for spices, poppadum flavours, various 'mixes' from Bombay to London, catering size jard or chutneys and fab veg.

Maunika Gowardhan has an app(which is a bit clunky) with some brilliant recipes. I cook a lot from it.

Another vote for cooking the onions and tomatoes well.
And since I make curry often, I buy whole spices and grind them myself for maximum freshness.
I like Swasthi’s recipes - her sweet potato curry is amazing!