Teach me (or my 11yr old) to make a good curry

[LittleOwl153]

So, my 11yr old likes eating curry - lots of varieties current favourites are katsu and Tika masala but also likes butter chicken, even beef madras (thanks wetherspoons!).

As a family we eat a lot of restaurant or prepped sauce curry's but rarely make our own due to varied success when we do. I do most of the cooking and dont have the time / ingredient budget to make stuff noone will eat.

My 11yr old has expressed an interest in learning to cook more so I'm thinking if I can find a beginners guide to curry style cooking it might given them an individual cooking space within our chaos. (Older teen is also a decent cook so 11yr olds efforts tend to get squeezed due to time).

So is there a book we can start with, or specific recipes which will lead to an understanding of how to spice etc.... help!

BBC do great recipes - I highly recommend.

I have been trying to learn too, this recipe is complicated (need to prep the base separately - I have batches in the freezer now) but is the most authentic I've managed to create so far! https://glebekitchen.com/indian-restaurant-dhansak-curry/#wprm-recipe-container-4296

Recipe book Made in India Cooked in Britain is fab and I use it loads!

We use the Curry Legend books and spice mixes. I don't bother with a takeaway anymore as curries at home are so much better! www.thespicery.com/currylegend/the-books

For many South Asian style curries the base for many dishes is usually the same.

Onions, cooked on a higher heat and constant stirr for a few mins, then lower the heat and cook for longer. And keep stirring. You need more oil than you think and can spoon it out later. The Dishoom cookbook explains this very well, there are 2 pages dedicated to it! This caramelises the onions and adds an incredible depth of flavour.

Garlic and ginger, both as fresh as possible. Finely chopped and added about 5 mins once the onions are in the pan.

Once the onions are cooked we'll only then add tomatoes. If you have time take the seeds out and finely chop. If you have been more time, put the tomatoes whole in hot water for one minute then rinse under cold water. Remove skins then finely chop. Curries made without tomato skins and seeds taste better. You could add a small amount of tomato puree for flavour and sweetness.

Then you have a onion, garlic, ginger and tomato base.

Optional - You can use something like a mashing devise or hand blender to mix into a paste. Restaurants do this a lot.

Then comes the spices which have to be gently cooked.

Spice - buy the best quality you can, I use Barts. If you have time, use whole spices that have been toasted gently on a pan and blend in a spiice blender or coffee grinder. Whole spices add so much flavour and you need less. Or if you're in a hurry, a good quality garam masala mix and coriander seeds ground into a powder using pestle and mortar. There is a world of difference between shop bought corian powder and home made which can be done in less than a minute.

Play around with spices. I find recipe books use a lot more than needed. Some prefer more cumin, some like more garlic etc. go with what works for you but start with smaller amounts.

You know the base is ready when the oil is separating from the base. Then you can add in whichever meat or vegetable you want and cook on a high heat and keep stirring for a few mins then slower to simmer for longer.

My mum used to cater for parties and this was her base for curries which always got reviewed well and was a repeat order for many.

There’s a fella on Instagram called ‘bored of lunch’ who makes some banging, easy, likely not at all authentic curries

Have a look at Chetna Makan on YouTube. Her recipes are delicious and fail safe.

My all-time favourite cookbook is India by Rick Stein. The recipes are not overly complicated, but authentic and delicious.

I like whatinthechef on Instagram, Nadia Hussain does some in her shows as well and my friend has taught me.

The main thing is onions, minimum 2 whole onions. Then frozen ginger and garlic cubes, then green chili if you want it spicy. Fresh tomatoes blended. Madras curry powder, ground coriander, garam masala, turmeric then you can make most things.

This butter chicken is beloved in our house.

I did make a much more complicated and authentic version from a different site once - family’s verdict was that it was 5% better, for about 30% more effort it didn’t seem worth it.

So my suggestion is to start with some simpler recipes even if not fully authentic and then go from there.

PS this version is even easier

this is good too - it uses curry paste, so a nice shortcut, but then tarts it up with extra flavour. Warning, some pastes are spicier than others, I use Mae Ploy and have to use half the curry paste amount she suggests (or even less than half).

Start off using spice pastes from supermarkets (not sauces, just the pastes you add yogurt, coconut milk and/or tomatoes to, then as you gain confidence you can make your own scratch pastes and other sauces.

to make completely from scratch I suggest buying one of those spice tins with little pots and a mini processor because the key to good curry is to sauté onions until golden then puree , dry fry spices and add to the processor with the onions along with any soft herbs, a little oil, fresh chilli, garlic and ginger, you then brown the meat, I add turmeric at this point and chopped onions plus peppers if using, then add this blended mixture - you can tweak the spices to suit you of course, I then add garam masala and more chopped ginger usually and often creamed coconut and stock.

My Dp has gir massively into making curries in the last year - he has learned so much from this guy -
https://youtube.com/@latifsinspired?si=ubGqEDGKnFeHS7Cw

I use Gizzi Erskine’s Katsu recipe and it’s lovely and easy. I don’t bread my own chicken though, I buy pre breaded chicken breast.

Katsu Recipe

https://greatcurryrecipes.net/category/indian-curry-house/

This woman has changed my life https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/

My DC started with red lentil dhal as you basically put everything in a saucepan boil it up and simmer. Don’t even need to fry onions for the topping as it tastes great anyway. Our recipe is from Leith’s vegetarian cookbook but sure you could find one online.

Another vote for Swasthi’s recipes (from a PP).

if you have a slow cooker the curries on this website are v good and its a really simple way to start cooking I think - https://www.slowcookerclub.com/category/fakeaway/

Usually I use Aagrah pastes which are in my local supermarket. They are lovely and very easy.

https://aagrahfoods.com/collections/cases?srsltid=AfmBOoq8ojD8IkM-ssI04HeS6ycRum84_UHzrfCxTjCN7NINGE95Zhaw

But I also do make them from scratch, I made this chap's curry, it took a long time but there was a depth of flavour that was lovely, took 90 minutes at least though.

Agree. This book is fantastic. Really easy to follow but delicious, authentic recipes. It's a beautiful, hardback book with great photography too.

I regularly make my own and second @zeddybrek on the base. I usually dry fry the whole spices first and then chuck them into the mortar / coffee grinder to cool while I start the base off & grind them once that’s at the tomato stage.

For coconut or butter base, invest in Ghee and use a mix of that and oil for the onions as that really changes the flavour and deepens it. Use a stock cube in water (match to the meat or veg) instead of the tomatoes, around 300ml of it equals a tin of tomatoes. If you don’t want the faff of peeling your own toms, use tinned but put them through a sieve so you only get the liquid & pulp and not the seeds & skin.

If you have an Indian / Asian shop close by you can pick up spices far cheaper than in the supermarkets too. The ones to have in are:
Coriander seed
Garam Masala
Tumeric
Paprika
Cumin Seed

as these will make most. The jars of ‘cheat’ ginger are also great as you don’t have to worry about using a root up quickly. For heat, use fresh chillies as these give a deeper flavour and heat than simply adding the powder.

We also pick up the Aagrah pouches in Aldi; they do a good range of both these and ones for Thai and Japanese curries (I picked up an African one there recently too) that are really reasonable and actually taste great.

As far as books go, I use Madhur Jaffrey and Nadia Hussain; both have failsafe and easy recipes.

Have fun & enjoy.

I can highly recommend The Three Sisters Indian Cookbook. It taught me which spices to use and how to prepare them. The resulting dishes have been delicious.

Thoroughly recommend this kit https://www.thespicery.com/how-to-be-a-curry-legend-cookbook-kit it enables you to create curry’s from all different parts of Asia and the Carribean you get 4 different pots that all taste different combined with different measures. Comes with a great box to keep it all in and a cookbook.

Miss Masala by Mallika Basu is a fantastic book for learning to start cooking Indian food from scratch. There's also a very good Madhur Jaffrey book 'Simple Indian Cookery' that you can get secondhand quite easily online

Thanks everyone! Certainly some stuff to go on... I will report back with what we make!!