Best mild but flavoursome curry EVER? Want to really make an effort.

[CharminglyOdd]

DSis is coming to visit at the weekend. We grew up in a very plain meals household and neither of us had anything apart from (plain) European food until we were adults. We both love flavours now but she has (as far as I can tell) some very uninspiring housemates so rarely eats anything 'different'.

She has requested Indian curry as she's never had a home-cooked one before but she can't handle spice at all - korma level.

I'd like to make her something really flavoursome with a very small kick but am a bit stumped. I'd rather have a recommendation as I really want it to go well (we live 400 miles apart and don't see each other often). She enjoyed an Asian fusion mango (mild) curry we ate when out together a year ago, so maybe a mild mango/coconut curry? Nuts are also welcome as our mother has a fatal nut allergy so they are also something of a novelty (and she'll be living at home for the next few months - just graduated).

I'll also be making some kind of sag or daal side dish and peshwari or nuts pilau rice. In addition will be making something spicy for me & DP.

Any recommendations/suggestions welcome!

Oh, I forgot to say - am a very confident cook so fiddly recipes are also no bother :)

Third time's the charm: and a pudding too if anyone has any recommendations

There's a good curry recipe in River Cottage Everyday - it's a baked curry but I used left over roast chicken so just made the sauce and threw the chicken in for a while.
www.rivercottage.net/recipes/pdf/baked-chicken-curry/

Actually, it wasn't as mild as a korma, maybe you could cut down on amount of green chilli?

Everything from here really works.
Look at the kormas, but leave the chilli out of anything else.
The recipes are brilliant.

There is a gorgeous Nigella recipe in teh Feast book here - looks like a lot of faff but it's worth it. Mild but has loads of flavour.

The daal in the river cottage veg everyday is divine, there is also a squash and chickpea one in there which is awesome but do use good quality squash or roast them first. i think with curry it is nice to have several small dishes to mix up flavours HTH

i potter with curries, and tend to avoid the whole spicy hot chilli thing

i use lots of the background spices, turmeric, cumin, ground coriander, fenugreek, ginger, cinnamon, cardamons. ....usually dry roast them in a pan and crush the seedy/pod ones and hurl in with the onions and the oil/butter to cook them

...trying to remember what i haul out of the cupboard... yellow mustard seeds, cloves sometimes. The mustard seeds are fun cos they pop like mad when the oil is hot! :D

It's all very freeform I am afraid, so no real recipes!

If on the off chance you live near York or Sudbury go look here I buy the curry mixes all the time and they are amazing. They will also do the curry at any spice level you want.

Oh wow, thank you all so much :) As you can probably tell I really want to spoil her. Have seen Netto's link before, thank you - I will get a pudding from there. Nigella's one looks great as I have all the ingredients already, including some unused garam masala that I was getting stick from DP for buying

PS - I live not that far from York McKayz so will definitely look next time I am there.

I love going into the shop. It smells amazing

There's a fairly mild recipe for mattar paneer in Nigella's Feast. To me, the dahl in Veg Everyday seems v bland, but I like mine quite spiced-up, so it may well be a v good base for your sister (you could always make a spicy tarka for those who like it hotter to stir in at the last minute).

I quite like a really spicy mushroom curry as a side dish. If you can get hold of chaat massala you could make a side of channa chaat too - dead easy and really lovely: sort of sweet and sour rather than spicy.

How about a yummy squash, spinach and mushroom curry?

This recipe contains peanut butter which can easily be left out for allergy sufferers. The amount of korma paste used can be adjusted to taste.

Butternut squash
Spinach
Button mushrooms
Onion
Garlic
Tomato passata or tinned tomatoes chopped finely
Peanut butter
Korma paste

• Fry onions in some oil until soft.
• Add a couple of tablespoons of Korma paste and fry off.
• Add cubes of squash and cook until softened.
• Add tomato passata and heat through.
• Fry mushrooms in a separate pan until they just start to release their juices.
• Put a few tablespoons of peanut butter into a separate container. Mix in a little hot passata to loosen and then add to the squash mixture.
• Add mushrooms and roughly torn spinach to the squash mixture.
• Serve when spinach has wilted.

Mmmmmmmmm!

Just realised that you were cooking curry this weekend ? derr ? sorry, I missed your deadline! Hope you had some lovely food!

Hello CharminglyOdd,
I cook mild curries for my kids and rest of the family.
I like to go for the healthy section on the BBC Indian food eg. www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2220666/healthier-chicken-balti
Another site that looks good is www.healthyindianrecipes.co.uk/
as everything is low fat. I have tried the rice pudding from this site and its really easy and quick.
BTW - What curry did you make in the end?

I checked out bbcgoodfood, but there are so many on there. Also checked
www.healthyindianrecipes.co.uk and made a chicken curry from there and just added one chilli instead of two (deseeded it first) even though there are a not tonnes of recipes there, they look easy and not so rich.