How do you make a good curry?

[Bluebluetuesday]

Mine are always too tomato heavy or a bit watery and bland. How do you make a really good, medium hot, rich curry please?

Lots of good advice here re spices. I use quite a lot of cumin seeds. My family are Indian and if we don’t have time to make our own paste then the only commercial curry paste we use is Ferns. It’s very good. But we still use all the usual spices too. About a tablespoon of ferns paste as even the mild one is spicy. And coconut cream. My quick go to recipe which is always lovely is: 1-2 tbsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp ground turmeric, 1 tbs ground coriander, 1 tbs ferns mild curry paste, 4-6 garlic gloves, large piece of ginger, large piece fresh turmeric, 1 large onion all fried in ghee, add chicken thighs or lamb (don’t be afraid of fatty meat if you want the best taste), salt and pepper, add a can of coconut cream and simmer or oven cook on low for as long as possible. https://amzn.eu/d/i0oiNlw

As an Indian, I would never add chicken stock to a curry.

The key is to fry the dry spices, add the onion, ginger & garlic and fry till the onions almost look burnt. Then add the powdered spices. Lastly add the tomatoes. Let that all simmer for a couple of minutes. That's your base for most Indian curries, called tharka. You then add your meat/veg & let that cook in your tharka for however long the recipe requires. Enjoy! 😋

I used to share a house with an Indian woman. She couldn't cook. She lived on fish finger sandwiches. According to her my curry tasted like it was genuine. But maybe she was humouring me.

I'm loving this thread. I feel so inspired.

Incidentally, I follow Recipe Tin on Facebook and she posted a chicken tikka masala today. I know it isn't authentic, but looks delicious.

The curry secret by Kris Dhillon was one that we used and we had some lovely curries from it.

The Dishoom black dal is amazing. My DS17 absolutely loves it. Allow about 7 hours to make it but it's worth it!

A handful of ground almonds can thicken up a creamy curry sauce.

Make sure you're using enough salt (obviously depends on the quantities, but a few pinches isn't enough).

If you can't find ghee, use butter and add it later if you're worried about burning.

Marinate meat in yoghurt/garlic/ginger/spices/salt and brown separately to your onions.

The main thing: I know it's a pain, but it's actually worth grinding your own whole spices. You can buy a basic coffee grinder for that purpose. Whole spices last for ages, are cheap to buy in bags and you don't need THAT many different types to start - cumin, coriander, cloves, green cardamon, cinnamon, maybe bay.

660 Curries is a good book if you want to learn more authentic/regional cooking and has loads of fantastic recipes. I think as might be out of print now but it's available on Kindle.

@tabbycatslave You forgot turmeric / haldi. Surely that is an oversight?

Cook it low and slow.

Add fenugreek (althouh your kitchen, maybe your house, will smell of curry for hours or days afterwards).

Always cook the meat on the bone.

Get Meera Sodha’s Made in India, fabulous curries from scratch on the table within 30-45 minutes

I was just thinking of whole spices for grinding, but yes would def always keep that on hand too.

She's excellent and explaining what to do and how things should look and smell as you cook them. There are on line recipes of hers if you want to try them out.

I like the Anjum Anand recipes

I also think curries taste better left for a day

I've been obsessed with this website since you recommended it! A game changer. Everything I've made has turned out incredibly delicious. Thank you!