Favourite (scratch) curry recipes please!

[thankyouforthedayz]

I usually make Jamie Oliver pastes as base for curry, but we're a bit bored with them. Looking for new ideas.

There’s a potato & mushroom curry on the Tesco website that I know by heart now. It’s so easy! Not massively impressive, but good for throwing together. I swap aubergine for peppers.

tbh I don't bother with recipes much.

roughly for 4 people
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 small courgette or aubergine
1 small cauliflour or brokkoli
1 pepper
2 tablespoon curry powder
1 cup red lentils
coconut milk
1 block tofu or paneer or halumi

saute the chopped veg
add the curry powder
add a stock cub
add the red lentils
add the water (ca 500ml)
cook until lentils start to melt
add coconut milk
add tofu/paneer/halumi just before serving

not authentic at all and I don't claim it is.

There's a Pinch of Nom
rogan josh that I make. The recipe is in two parts - I make a job lot of the paste, and freeze it into tablespoon size chunks, then when I want to make the curry I just use a few of those with the meat, veg etc so it's fairly quick and easy, and really tasty

Not sure if links work on here but you can just search for Pinch of Nom rogan josh.

Butter Chicken - my DD loves it. Random recipe I found, so not sure whose it is. I always make double the sauce though.

I also make a tomato sauce in my slow cooker which I use on my homemade pizzas and also add to pasta dishes and Theo Randall's Aubergine Parmigiana (which DD also loves).

I've found a couple of really good recipes books in charity shops including Madhur Jeffrey's Indian Cookery.

I've made this with chicken or just veg- spinach, pumpkin, sweet potato etc. You can make the red curry from scratch too, but some of the jarred ones are very good.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/thai-pork-peanut-curry

This one https://annajones.co.uk/recipes/roasted-coconut-lime-and-tamarind-curry

Madhur Jaffrey's Easy Chickpea Curry is my go-to

www.columbian.com/news/2018/oct/09/easy-chickpea-curry-just-might-change-your-life/#:~:text=Adapted%20from%20“From%20Curries%20to,Trail%2C”%20by%20Madhur%20Jaffrey.&text=Combine%20the%20tomato%2C%20ginger%2C%20garlic,a%20blender%20or%20food%20processor.

https://www.redonline.co.uk/food/recipes/a500770/chilli-chicken-balti/

Get a copy of the Madam Jaffrays Curry Bible, best thing to do is use whole spices and grind them fresh

Any old dahl - lots of recipes online.
Homemade bhajis, beetroot and potato are awesome. Pan fry small bhajis and oven finish.

Homemade naan, replace yogurt with light coconut milk for the vegans. Cook in a covered wok to maintain humidity.

Homemade lime pickle
Homemade garlic chutney

https://meerasodha.com/

I just throw in whatever I fancy! I have a large array of spices. Sometimes I feel like a paprika forward curry, or cumin etc also whatever is in the fridge.

So it would be as follows
Protein
Onion/garlic/chillis
Spices
Herbs
Some kind of tomato (tinned, paste, fresh)
Or/And dairy (cream, creme fraiche, yogurt, butter)

I measure by sight/heart

I've got a few different ones that I make from scratch, they're adapted from the Modernist Cuisine cookbook from 2011.

These are a couple of recipes from the book, I tend to round up or round down the amounts and not worry overly if i don't have all the ingredients. Eg use ordinary sugar and vinegar when I don't have the fancy stuff or butter when I don't have ghee

The first one is a vindaloo (Portuguese style) Goan curry sauce, it's not like a typical British curry house vindaloo at all, it's very mild indeed. If you do like a bit of a kick to your curry you will need to add some chilli to this

Sliced onions 120g
ghee 35g

saute until lightly golden 10 mins

tomato puree 60g
grated garlic 7g
grated ginger 7g

add to onions and saute for 5 mins

black peppercorns 5g
green cardamom seeds 4.2g
grated turmeric 4g
fennel seeds 3.4g
coriander seeds 2.4g
cumin 2.4g
yellow mustard seeds 2g

toast in shallow pan in 170C oven until golden and aromatic 10-15 mins
grind to fine powder in coffee grinder or blender
add to tomato & onion mixture and saute until fragrant 10 mins

water 250g
cane vinegar 40g
raw cane sugar 12g
bay leaf 0.5g

combine with sauce simmer for 45 min

lime juice to taste
salt to taste

season sauce to taste

The second is a coconutty Keralan curry

minced shallots 120g
ghee 35g
green chilli 12g

saute until shallots are golden about 10 mins

grated garlic 10g
grated ginger 10g
fresh curry leaves [not dried] 5g
bay leaf 0.5g

add to shallot mixture and saute for 5 mins [I found that if you're using dried curry leaves you only need 3 or 4]

black peppercorns 14g
cumin seeds 4g
green cardamom seeds 3g
star anise 1.4g
cinnamon stick 1g
whole cloves 1g

toast in shallow pan in 170C oven until golden and aromatic 10-15 mins
grind to fine powder in coffee grinder or blender
add to shallot mixture and saute until fragrant 5 mins

coconut milk 140g [I've found that something like 200g or 250g works better]

add to shallot mixture and simmer for 45 mins

season with salt to taste

Fresh tomatoes rather than tinned make an incredible curry! Especially with fish. Also fresh herbs like curry leaves, coriander. Really help bring a curry to life. Use home made garam masala as a seasoning at the end.

The hairy bikers curry book is great! Also second meera sodha. Her coriander chutney chicken is 👌🏻

This lady, Bee has the best and easiest curry recipes.

https://www.authenticpunjabee.com/

Bbc good food simple mushroom curry.

BBC Homestyle Chicken Curry is my go to. I usually add a handful of lentils as well to bulk it out a bit.

I did a fast one last night, to take to a Curry Swap dinner tonight!

Pumpkin spinach dahl- chopping the pumpkin is the hardest part really.

Dice onion/ginger/garlic (or skip that and use powdered garlic, tube ginger etc, it won't matter much) & choose your spices. I used cumin & mustard seed, powdered cardamon/coriander/turmeric/garam masala. Fry onion mix, add spices and toast them for a couple of minutes, take off heat.

Add diced pumpkin & canned legumes of choice (I had brown lentils & cannelloni beans- fine). Add can of coconut cream, maybe a stock cube, water cover & simmer 45 mins. Finished with a bag of fresh baby spinach. Looks like way more effort than it is 😁

Pinch of Nom Dahl is good.

If you look on the Gousto website there's a great recipe for Fragrant Chicken Saag Massala which we all love.

https://www.thecurryclubhomecooking.com/

This website is full of recipes. Look up Al’s kitchen on YT, or the Curry Guy or Misty Ricardo.
I found freshly roasted and ground in pestle and mortar cumin and coriander seeds give you much better flavour.
A bit of habanero chilli give awesome flavour as well(mind you it’s hot).

For milder curries I’d second butter chicken or chicken lababdar (also known in my house as chicken labrador 😂)

I have made this for veggies and meat eaters, and everyone raves about it. Its a favourite in our house, I batch cook and freeze the stock in portions so its a quick and easy curry 4 times out of 5! I also add an extra aubergine because I adore roasted aubergine.

www.bosh.tv/recipes/curry-house-jalfrezi

Thank you all. I did BBC Classic Butter Chicken today (without dried mango powder, don't have that in!) and it's lovely. Thank you for all these ideas.

@Another2Cats I did your Portuguese vindaloo last night - with sweet potato, black beans and spinach. Very delish, thanks

Next time you are near an Indian grocers, check out the imported boxes of spice mixes. It turns out that Indian people don't all cook everything with 15 individual spices.

There is one base-level mix called Kitchen King which is an all-purpose curry powder, kind of like garam masala except that you add it early on rather than at the end, and with much more complex flavours than 1970s English curry powder. It takes a lot of the faff out of making a simple midweek curry. Onions, garlic, couple of teaspoons of KK, bit of extra chilli if you want ("Deggi Mirch" is good, not too hot so you can add heat gradually), tomatoes, your main ingredient (lentils, chicken, etc), maybe add some crushed dried methi leaves at the end, job done.