Chicken Tikka Masala is a favourite in the ‘Ome Made house. Only thing is, we have to have it a little hotter. Madras hot is about right for us. Paneer is also a great addition. If you’re not a fan or you’re struggling to get hold of some, it can always be left out.
Chicken Tikka & Paneer
For this recipe I use chicken breast which I coat with a basic Tandoori Marinade and bake in the oven. I also coat the paneer in the marinade as well and bake that alongside the chicken.
For this recipe I use 1kg of chicken and 400g of paneer. This will feed the six of us with a little left over for 2 more light meals. If you want less just halve the ingredients.
For the marinade I take 4 teaspoons of ‘Ome Made Tandoori Masala (you can use your own mix or another brand) and mix that with about 4 tablespoons of plain yoghurt. I also added about half a teaspoon of red food colouring powder, this is optional as it’s purely cosmetic.
I leave the chicken breasts whole, just scoring the tops of them slightly to help the marinade stick. I also leave the paneer whole in a block. It’s a lot easier and less fiddly to cut the paneer in to blocks and slice the chicken after they’re cooked. I also like the contrast of the red marinade on the outside against the white interior of the chicken and paneer.
The chicken and paneer want cooking in a pre-heated oven at 200℃ for around 25 minutes.
Onion Paste
Quite often when I’m cooking curries I will purée the onions, garlic and ginger before frying. However for this recipe I fry sliced onions with a little salt until they are starting to caramelise. I then add sliced garlic, ginger and fry some more before adding some chopped coriander stalks, some diced red pepper and sliced chilli. The mixture is then cooked to soften the peppers before being left to cool so it can be blended in a food processor.
This paste is the fried again before adding the spices and everything else.
This method gives a lovely deep and sweet, from the natural caramelisation of the onion, base to build the curry on.
Spices
For this curry I use my ‘Ome Made B.I.R Curry Masala which is a Madras style masala with a few added extras to give that authentic Indian restaurant flavour. Of course you could make up your own masala, or use one of the recipes from the many curry chefs out there such as Mistys, Dans or Als! And of course you could use any shop bought curry masala/powder.
I also use Kashmiri Chilli powder. This is mainly to give a deep rich red colour. If you haven’t got any either leave it out or use a little sweet paprika instead. Also I add some chilli powder for some heat. If you don’t want extra heat and prefer a more ‘traditional’ Tikka Masala, then leave the chilli out.
Tomatoes
For the tomatoes in this curry I use a little tomato purée and tinned tomatoes. The tinned tomatoes get blitzed in the food processor for that smooth texture that you get in an Indian restaurant or takeaway.
If you haven’t got a food processor you could get a way with cooking the onion etc and instead of pureeing them as described above you could carry on adding the spices, tomato purée and then use a stick blender to blitz the whole lot in the pan.
1teaspoonTamarind concentrateoptional (add a splash of vinegar if you have none)
1tablespoonKatsuri methi (dried fenugreek leaf)
3teaspoonmango chutney
300ml creamI used double but whipping or single is fine
largehandfulfresh corianderchopped
Instructions
Heat a little oil in a heavy based pan. Add the onions and 1 teaspoon of salt. Fry on a very gentle heat for around 20 minutes until starting to colour light brown.
Add the ginger and garlic to the pan and continue to fry gently for a couple of minutes.
Add the peppers and chillies and fry very gently for around 10 minutes.
Turn the heat off and add the coriander stalks to the pan and stir in. As the mixture cools any caramelised juices that have stuck to the pan can be scraped off and stirred in to the mix, it's all flavour you wan to get in there! Leave the mixture to cool before blending well in a food processor.
Once the mixture has been blended add some more oil to a pan (2tbsp). As long as the original pan is reasonably clean you can just use the same one. Once the oil is hot add the onion mixture to the pan. heat through on a medium heat for a couple of minutes.
Add the Kashmiri chilli to the onion mixture and stir through. Add the curry masala to the pan and fry for a couple of minutes. If the mixture is sticking you can add a splash of water to loosen the mixture.
Add the tomato puree to the pan and continue to fry gently for a minute.
Add the tinned tomatoes and water and stir through. Once the sauce begins to splutter and form little craters turn to a low heat.
Add the sugar, tamarind, coconut block, methi and mango chutney. heat gently, stirring until the coconut has melted.
Add the chicken and paneer to the pan and continue to cook gently for twenty minutes.
Add the cream and fresh coriander and cook for a further 15 - 20 minutes.
Notes
Serve with Pilau rice and some naan bread or chapattis. Finish with a drizzle of cream if you want a fancy picture for you Instagram page!Don't forget to share your pictures to www.facebook.com/omemade.
British Indian Restaurant Curry And how to Make It!
Scroll down for a basic recipe for Curry Base Gravy and how to use it!
Just like any other food curry has it’s trends and opinions on how to make it. In this article we will find out what British Indian Restaurant Curry is and how to reproduce it in your own home.
I have been following the trend for British Indian Restaurant (BIR) style curries for many years, starting in the 90’s when Pat Chapman started his series of books. Recently Dan Toombs,Misty Ricardo and a handful of other curry aficionados have taken over the mantle.
The British Indian Restaurant style of cooking curry relies on the use of a basic curry powder and a special ‘mix powder’ as well as the use of a ‘base curry sauce’.
Base Curry Sauce
The base curry sauce is basically a thin type of stock/soup. Onions, garlic and ginger are sautéed in a pan before a little spice is added. Carrot and peppers are often added along with fresh coriander stalks and I’ve even seen cabbage added, in fact I’ve used it myself!
The problem I have with the British Indian Restaurant Curry method is that;
1, it usually relies on cooking base sauces and ingredients in bulk and then freezing in portions.
2, it’s best cooking one or two main dishes at a time as it relies on high heat to reduce the base sauce quickly and caramelise in the pan. this is difficult to achieve if like me you are cooking for a family of six (even more if I’m cooking extra for another day!). Also do you want to spend the rest of the night cleaning your cooker top after curry has spat everywhere? I mean it’s bad enough when I just normally cook!
If you’re cooking for just yourself or two people and you haven’t got Kids to look after, the second point may not bother you too much, in fact, I remember those days! If that’s the case you can find some great recipes online. Here’s a couple places to get started:
Curry Personalities
Romain at Glebe Kitchen has some amazing recipes. Easy to follow and explains every stage in detail but without the process sounding like you need a science degree to put some food on the table!
Misty Ricardo has some great recipes on his You Tube channel, or check out his books on Amazon.
Dan Toombs also has some great recipes on his website and again he has a few great books out.
Julian Voigt is somebody else that is worth having a look at. Again he posts lots of ‘how to’ videos on You Tube.
However If you are like me, sometimes you just can’t be bothered to follow a recipe, and personally I don’t think it’s necessary, if you remember the basics.
And I think the most important thing is that there is no right or wrong way of doing things providing you are getting great end results!
The BIR Curry Masala is a cheeky little thing. I’ve combined the ingredients you would normally find in a standard curry powder (minus the copious amounts of salt, flour and all the other fillers it would have) and added extra spices that would make up the Indian Restaurants ‘special mix’. Obviously they would add more or less of the curry powder and mix depending on the dish but I have found this is a pretty happy medium and we’ve had fantastic results with it when I was trialling it at ‘ome.
Obviously there are plenty of standard curry powders out there for you to try and it’s really easy to find out what the basics are of a BIR ‘special mix’ powder are if you want to make your own. Or you could just use a standard curry powder without the extra spice mix.
Back To Base!
Now on to the Base Curry Sauce.
If I have the time I do, nowadays, make one.
Do I follow a recipe? No. I don’t always have everything that ‘should’ go in to it so sometimes you just have to go with what you have.
Oh, and here’s a tip. If you really can’t be bothered with making a base sauce try using one of those fresh, chilled Carrot & Coriander soups you find at the supermarket. Never done it myself but I’ve read it gives great results! I have also just developed a Curry Bouillon which is a dried blend of onions & vegetables. This is simply fried for a few seconds before adding water and simmering for 10 minutes. You then have a curry stock which you can add to your curry or use as a substitute for base gravy if you haven’t had the time to make one or you’ve emptied your freezer supply!
So, even though I don’t use a recipe myself, here’s two recipes for a base sauce! If you haven’t got some of the ingredients leave them out or replace with something else. See this recipe as a starting point, adapt and customise it how you will and to your taste. It’s the best way!
The first recipe is a bit more complex. The second is about as basic as it comes and you should be able to memorise it after a few goes. If I was honest I use the second one more than the first!
Base curry sauce No. 1
Makes enough for approximately 12 portions of curry. It will keep in the fridge for 3 days or can be frozen. if you don’t want to make so much just halve the ingredients.
coriander stalks (if you have them, basically if you are using fresh coriander to finish your curry off cut off the stalks now to add to your base!)
big dollop of tomato paste (you could use a squirt of tomato sauce if you don’t have any)
2 litre of water, ideally hot from the kettle.
1 heaped teaspoon of sugar/jaggery/palm sugar
optional extras; few fresh tomatoes, white cabbage, extra peppers, a little coconut powder (or coconut milk or creamed coconut)
Method.
Heat the oil in a pan and add your onion. fry gently for 10 minutes before adding your garlic and ginger, fry for a couple minutes more. Add the curry masala/powder and fry for a minute or so. If it’s sticking add a splash of water. Now add your carrot and peppers and give a stir around. Add the tomato paste and cook for 20 seconds or so. Add the water and bring to a simmer. Now add the coriander stalks and cook gently for at least an hour (and up to 2 hours). If it’s starting to look a bit thick or the liquid is disappearing just add some more water.
Once all the veg is soft you need to puree the sauce. The best way to do that is with am immersion/stick blender. It can be done in a blender but let it cool a little and don’t overfill!
Once your sauce is blended it needs to cook for 30 – 60 minutes more. it should be the consistency of a thin soup.
Base Curry Sauce N0. 2
This is a handy one for us as it does enough for 6, exactly the number of people in our household! It can be doubled up and again it will keep in the fridge for three days or you can freeze it.
Ingredients
4tbsp of oil
3 large onions, sliced
1 tsp salt
3 cloves of garlic
1 inch cubed piece of fresh ginger
3 tsp ‘Ome Made B.I.R Curry Masala (or another curry masala or 1 tsp each of ground cumin, coriander & turmeric)
1.2 ltr water
a handful of coriander stalks (if you have them)
1 x 400ml tin of tomatoes (chopped or whole as they get blitzed)
Method
1. Heat the oil in a large pan. Once hot add the onions and salt and gently fry for 10 minutes or until the onions are starting to soften. 2. Add the garlic and ginger and fry for a couple more minutes 3. Add the curry Masala or spices, along with a splash of water. Give a quick stir and mix and then pour in the water 4. Bring to the simmer and cook for 45 minutes, lid off 5. Add the tinned tomatoes and coriander stalks 6. Bring back to the simmer and cook for another 30 minutes 7. Take the pan off the heat and blitz with an immersion blender until you have a smooth sauce 8. Put back on a low heat ready for adding to your curry. If it looks a little thick add some water. It should be slightly thicker than full fat milk. 9. Use in a curry recipe as directed.
Notes
I have made this sauce in less time than it says, giving it 30 minutes before adding the tomatoes and coriander and then cooking for only another 20 minutes. It was still good! Of course you could fry your ingredients off and then add to a pressure cooker or soup maker along with all the other ingredients and it will still be just as good. Just follow the cooking times for a soup. This base works really well in a curry when you use the method of adding diluted tomato paste to you cooked out spices. For 4 people use 2 tbsp of tomato puree diluted in 300ml of boiling water. Add this to your curry when you have fried your onion, garlic, ginger and spices and let it reduce down so you’re left with a thick paste. Then you can start adding your base sauce as normal.
Basic Medium Curry British Indian Restaurant Style.
serves approximately 4
Ingredients.
2 tablespoon of oil (not olive) or ghee
1 1/2 medium onions, roughly chopped
4 fat cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
small piece of ginger (to taste) roughly chopped
4 heaped teaspoons curry masala/powder
a half portion of Base sauce No. 1 or all or nearly all of base sauce No. 2
600g of your main ingredient (uncooked chicken, lamb, vegetable, prawns etc)
fresh coriander, chopped
a pinch of garam masala or grind of black pepper
salt to taste
Method
Blitz your chopped onion, garlic and ginger in a food processor, grinder or blender (you may have to add a little water to help) to make a paste. If you haven’t got a food processor you could use a pestle and mortar or just chop finely.
Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion paste, careful as it may spit a little. Fry the paste gently for 10 minutes or so, don’t worry it will probably turn green!
Add the curry masala/powder and cook gently, if it is sticking add a splash of water, a little at a time. You want the spices to ‘cook out’ the oil will start to split from the paste when this happens and the mixture will spit in little eruptions.
Now add your main ingredient and give it a good stir. Add just enough base sauce to just cover the main ingredients and simmer gently until cooked, if it’s looking a little dry add more sauce. once your chicken, lamb or whatever is just cooked turn the heat up and add more of the base sauce a little at a time until you have your desired consistency. If it’s to thick add a little water. Add the chopped coriander and season to taste with garam masala or pepper and salt.
And that’s it! not exactly BIR style but good enough to give your favourite Indian restaurant a run for their money!
Once you have the basics it’s easy to tweak a recipe to make a lot of different dishes.
There’s some variations you can follow further down the page. Keep Checking Back as I will keep updating and adding recipes and ideas.
Tandoori
The ‘Ome Made Tandoori Masala can be used to make your favourite Tandoori and Tikka dishes.
If you just wanted something quick you can literally rub a little of the Masala in to some chicken, prawns or whatever you fancy before grilling, frying or barbecuing.
For a simple tandoori or tikka marinade just add some of the masala to plain yoghurt to coat your main ingredient.
If you want to go the whole hog, fry roughly 1 heaped teaspoon of Tandoori Masala per 200g of main ingredient (chicken, king prawn, lamb, paneer etc.) in a little oil. This then needs adding to some plain natural yoghurt (Greek yoghurt is fine).
For four people you want roughly 800g of main ingredient and 250g of yoghurt.
If you want a truly authentic flavour add a splash of lemon or lime juice, a teaspoon of grated garlic and ginger, some chopped chilli and coriander. You may want to season with salt and pepper or Garam Masala.
‘Ome Made Tandoori Masala has some beetroot powder in it to give it a slightly more reddish colour but it won’t be the vibrant, garish red that you get in an Indian restaurant. If you want that you need to add a small amount of red food colouring.
To cook I use the oven on a relatively high temperature. Once your chicken, lamb or whatever is cooked, you may want to just give it a blast under the grill to get those nice charred edges. I actually use a blowtorch. Of course if the weather is good Tandoori and Tikka is great cooked over charcoal on the BBQ!
Madras Curry British Indian Restaurant Style
This is as simple as it gets for a British Indian restaurant style Madras curry!
Follow the Basic Medium Curry above to frying the onion, garlic, ginger and spices. Once you have done this add the following;
400g chopped tinned tomatoes (blitz smooth in a blender or food processor if you want a restaurant style curry)
2 Tablespoons Tomato Puree
Cook this for a couple minutes then add your main ingredient. Add a little water or base sauce to thin the sauce a little then leave to cook.
Once your main ingredient is nearly cooked you need to add the coriander, garam masala, salt and the following;
1 tablespoon ground almonds
2 tablespoons of lemon juice, fresh is best but bottled will be fine
3 teaspoons of sugar
2 – 3 teaspoon of chilli powder.
Cook for another 15 – 20 minutes before serving. Simple!
Ceylon Curry British Indian Restaurant Style
Again follow the above Basic Medium Curry recipe. go easy on the base sauce as you are adding more liquid later.
once your main ingredient is nearly cooked add the following;
1/3 of a block of creamed coconut (i usually grate it straight in t the pan) or 3 tablespoons of coconut milk powder
150ml of milk
1 tablespoon of lemon juice, ideally fresh but bottled will work as well.
1 – 4 fresh green chillies chopped (or more or less to suit your taste)
cook for a couple of minutes before adding the garam masala, salt and fresh coriander and cooking for another 15 minutes or so before serving.
Again once you have mastered the basic recipe for a curry you should be seeing now how easy it is to tweak it and make lots of variations.
Chicken Karahi
Ok, this is another easy adaptation to a basic medium curry.
To me Karahi is about the lovely fresh taste of ginger along with some nice fresh peppers and tomatoes. I usually add fresh chillies as well. To be fair when you add fresh chillies this dish is virtually indistinguishable from a Jalfrezi so this is almost a two in one curry!
So follow the recipe for medium chicken curry above EXCEPT add more fresh ginger. You want a piece roughly as big as your thumb. Also add a teaspoon of turmeric powder and 1 teaspoon of chilli powder (more if you like it hotter) when you add your curry masala.
about 15 minutes before you’re ready to dish up add some chopped peppers (1 red, 1 green or whatever you have), 4 tomatoes cut in to quarters and some optional fresh chillies, and of course the chopped fresh coriander.
I’d love to see and hear about your own variations. Remember to post your creations on my Facebook page – www.facebook.com/omemade or Twitter account @Omemade
Remember to keep checking back here as I will add more recipes!
We started drinking Chai a good year ago now. Not proper Indian Chai but the well known brand, tea bag variety.
Recently however the well known brand that we used decided to re-brand their packaging, putting less tea bags in and charging more. Meaning our bag of Chai cost more than twice as much!
Now we like Chai but paying 25p a bag seemed a bit much! Sod it I thought I’ll make my own!
D’ya know what? It’s dead easy. The only downside is you have to strain the tea before drinking but to be fair thats not that much of a hardship!
You can also customise your blend to your own taste.
I roughly ground some cinnamon, star anise, cloves and cardamoms which I then add to some loose black tea in a teapot and let infuse for 5 minutes. That’s it done, all you have to do is strain the Chai as you pour it out and add milk and sugar to taste.
If I had had any to hand I would have added a little dried ginger (not ground though as that would be too powdery).
If you want to give it a go here are the amounts I used;
4 sticks of cinnamon, 6 star anise, 8 cloves and 5 cardamom pods
Pulse the above in a coffee or spice grinder so they are roughly ground, you don’t want a fine powder.
Use roughly 1/4 teaspoon of this mixture with one teaspoon of tea per mug of Chai.
At some point I will have a go at brewing a proper Indian Masala Chai. For this the whole spices are simmered in the water with the tea before milk and probably a little too much sugar is added.
Here is how Rick Stein recommends doing it in his excellent book Rick Stein’s India.
Ingredients;
1 black cardamom pod, bruised with a rolling pin
15 green cardamom pods, bruised with a rolling pin
6 cloves
4 black peppercorns
8cm piece of cinnamon stick, broken in 1/2
500ml water
4 tsp black tea leaves (equivalent to about two bags if using bags)
2tsp sugar, plus extra to taste
200ml milk
Method
Put the spices into a saucepan with the water. Bring back to the boil, add the tea and turn down the heat to low and simmer for 7 minutes. Stir in the sugar and milk, bring back to a simmer for 3 minutes. Strain through a fine strainer and serve, adding more sugar to taste.
You could try making the delicious Indian sweet Jalebi to go with your Chai. Mr Stein has a recipe from the same book the above recipe is from.
Right… think I’ll go and make myself a nice cup of Chai!
I’ve already done a post on making your own curry masala. I thought it was about time I did one on making a curry sauce.
If you’ve had a go at making your own curry masala that’s great but if not then this can be made with curry powder, paste or a basic mix of spices that I will put in the recipe.
One of the most important processes in making a good curry sauce is the cooking of the onions. The idea is to cook as much water out of the onions as possible.
My method for doing this is to puree the onions, along with the garlic and ginger, in a liquidizer or food processor before they are cooked. If you haven’t got a liquidizer or food processor the onions, garlic and ginger can be cooked and then a hand blender can be used to puree your sauce at a later stage. If you have none of the above appliances you can still make a good curry, it just won’t have that texture of an Indian restaurant cooked curry.
With the following recipe don’t worry about exact quantities, it’s more about the technique and I’m sure most people will customise the recipe to their own taste.
Once the sauce is made it’s up to you what you want to serve in it. I will also give some pointers on how to turn this basic curry sauce into your favourite Indian curry.
Basic Curry Sauce (enough to feed four people with about 1lb/500g of main ingredient)
1 large onion (or 2 medium) roughly chopped (finely chopped if you have no way of pureeing).
3 big fat cloves of garlic (or more if you’re a real garlic fan) chopped roughly
2oz fresh ginger (a piece as big as your thumb) chopped
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 level tablespoon of curry masala/powder/paste (or 1 level teaspoon of ground cumin, coriander, paprika, cinnamon, turmeric, ground ginger and chilli powder)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 240g tin chopped tomatoes
1lb/500g of main ingredient (chicken, lamb, beef, prawn or vegetables)
Chopped fresh coriander to finish the curry off (and some turmeric, allspice, dried mint and garam masala)
Method
In a liquidizer/food processor/blender puree your onion garlic and ginger (they can be mixed)
In a large pan put about 6 tablespoons of oil (not olive or anything else strong flavoured). If you have ghee that’s even better.
Gently heat the oil and add the whole spices. Fry for about 30 seconds.
Add the onion, garlic and ginger. Fry gently for about 10 minutes.
Add your masala/curry powder/paste and fry gently for a minute or so adding a splash of water if it’s catching.
Stir in the tomato puree and again cook for a minute.
Add the salt and sugar.
Now add some water to the pan (about 500ml). Bring to the simmer and cook for about 20 minutes until the mixture has reduced and quite thick again.
If you didn’t puree your mixture earlier then you can puree the sauce now using a hand blender.
The chopped tomatoes can now be added (if you want a really smooth sauce you can blend again).
The sauce should be a nice thick consistency, if it’s too thick add a bit more water or stock.
Bring the sauce to the simmer and add your main ingredient.
Diced chicken will take around 20 – 30 minutes to cook. Diced lamb wants to cook for a good 75 – 90 minutes. If you are doing a vegetable curry I would par-cook the vegetables and then finish them off in the sauce for the last 20 minutes.
20 minutes before your curry is ready add the chopped coriander and a pinch of all spice, turmeric and dried mint and a teaspoon of garam masala.
Check for seasoning and add a little more salt if needed.
If the sauce is a little runny finish the curry off on the hob without the lid on.
I have to mention at this point that as I am writing this Kit is preparing some onions for a curry tonight. I also have to mention that Kit has forgotten to put the lid on the blender when pureeing the onions… I don’t think I have to mention that the kitchen is now covered with onions!
Anyway, where was I… Yes cook for a further 20 minutes and your curry will be ready.
Variations
The above recipe makes a medium strength curry but it’s easy to adapt and add other ingredients to make different variations.
For a Madras add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (fresh or bottled), 1 tablespoon of ground almonds and 2 teaspoons of chilli powder 20 minutes from the end of cooking.
For a Korma add 1 tablespoon ground almonds, 3 tablespoons of cream and 2 teaspoons of sugar 20 minutes from the end of cooking.
For a Dupiaza fry 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds, 1 roughly chopped onion until caramelised add to the curry 20 minutes before the end of cooking.
For a Rogan Josh toast some flaked almonds, roughly chop 4 large tomatoes and add to the curry 20 minutes before the end of cooking.
For a Jalfrezi add 4 roughly chopped tomatoes, 6 chillies roughly sliced and two teaspoons of turmeric 20 minutes before the end of cooking.
For a Tikka Massala add 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup, 2 tablespoons of cream and 1 teaspoon of sugar 20 minutes from the end of cooking.
Or of course you can experiment with your own ‘add ins’!
I can especially recommend a curry made with the leftover Christmas turkey, cranberry sauce and cream… to be honest I think it went down better than the Christmas dinner itself!
Speaking of Christmas… I still haven’t done the cake or pudding!
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