Curry Base Gravy Recipe – everyone has their favourite. This is a fantastic foundation recipe if you are new to making curries. Or if you want a simple gravy so the ingredients in your actual curry can shine!
I have done a post before on British Indian Restaurant Curry. However, with many people wanting a recipe for a base sauce, I decided to create a separate recipe.
Make It Your Own Curry Base Sauce!
Remember, you can add what you like. Leave out what you don’t have. Add more or less of an ingredient to suit your own taste. I see people ask “What’s the best base sauce” well my answer to that is, your own!
So see this as a guide or a starting point and then make it your own.
Don’t Believe The Hype
B.I.R curry has a lot of followers. Some of these people will tell you that so and so’s curry base is the best. Some will tell you that certain ingredients shouldn’t go in a base sauce. If you add something to a recipe and the result is not very nice, that addition was probably a mistake. On the other hand, you think “that recipe needs this.” You add it and just happen to create the perfect base sauce!
My advice is start off simple and start building the flavour layers from there.
I’ll let you in to a secret. No two base sauces I make are the same. I don’t follow a recipe and it all depends on what I have in the fridge.
Don’t let all the long winded techniques some chef writers use put you off making a base sauce. It can be as simple or as complex as you want.
Buy ‘Ome Made Masalas!
You can buy ‘Ome Made Curry Masalas at the ‘Ome Made Online Shop.
Social Media
There are a ton of curry related groups on Facebook. Why not join UK Curry Group for some inspiration. And of course, there is the ‘Ome Made Facebook page where I post curry dishes that I’ve made.
Curry Base Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp oil or ghee not olive oil
- 4 Medium sized Onions sliced
- 1 Tsp salt
- 8 Fat Cloves garlic chopped
- 1 inch cubed piece ginger chopped
- 1 green pepper diced
- 2 teaspoons mild curry masala/powder or half a teaspoon of coriander, cumin, turmeric & garam masala
- 1 Tbsp tomato puree
- 1 litre hot water
- 1 teaspoon sugar, jaggery or palm sugar
- 1 Tbsp Coriander stalks Cut the stalks off fresh coriander leaving leaves to finish your curry off with.
Instructions
- Gently heat the oil in a large pan.
- Add the onions and salt. Fry on a moderate heat for 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic and ginger to the pan and fry for another 1 minute.
- Add the chopped pepper and give a quick stir.
- Add the curry masala/powder and fry gently while stirring for around 40 seconds. If the spices are sticking add a splash of water to loosen them.
- Add the tomato puree and stir in.
- Add the water and give a good stir to make sure it's not sticking at the bottom of the pan. Bring up to the boil.
- Once the sauce has come to the boil turn the heat down so it is just simmering. Add the sugar and the coriander stalks.
- Continue to cook for around 15 - 20 minutes
- Remove from the heat and cool slightly. the sauce can now be blended using an immersion blender or stick blender. You could use a food processor or jug blender, but you may have to do it in batches and let it cool first.
