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.
Notes
Optional extras you can add to your base sauce include extra peppers, a small amount of white cabbage (roughly 30g), a small amount of fresh chillies, a few fresh tomatoes, coconut powder (1tbsp) or creamed coconut block (around 50g), a small amount of potato or a small carrot. If you add anything like carrot, cabbage or potato, you will need to cook your base for a little longer. Around 20 - 30 minutes should do it.
To use the base sauce you want around 160ml for 1 person. This wants diluting with another 160ml of water to thin it out. There are plenty of recipes for British Indian Restaurant classic dishes on the internet and you tube that you can use this base sauce in or you can look at my earlier post British Indian Restaurant Curry for a couple of pointers.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
