This is my method for a quick and easy Indian-style curry. You can turn it into just about an particular curry by modifying the spices you add. This recipe is for a tikka masala The key to a nice rich gravy is the onion/ginger/garlic base. Recipes will get you to create this in a range of different ways (chopping onions, grating ginger, mincing garlic, and frying them in various orders. You can simplify this with a single blend-and-fry process, though if you haven’t got a blender or nutribullet, you can revert to chopping, etc.
Ingredients
5 cm piece of ginger root
5 cloves garlic
2 medium onions
2 fresh red chillies
1/3 cup of plain oil
600 g chicken meat or 300g tofu or one block paneer, cut into chunks/cubes
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp of ground or whole seed coriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
3 cardamon pods, crushed
2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder or half cinnamon quill
1.5 cups of water
2 tbs of either tomato puree or tomato sauce or barbecue sauce or chipotle
2 tsp garam masala
Base ingredients: onions, ginger, garlic, chillis and oil
Other ingredients: protein and spices
Method
- Peel the onions and ginger and roughly chop them along with the garlic and fresh chillis. Put in a blender with the oil and pulse until finely chopped. Using a nutribullet will give you a blend with a porridge consistency. If the chunks are not working through, you may need to add more oil or even a lick of water.
- Scrape blended mix out into a large frying pan and fry on medium heat, stirring regularly, until the oil starts to separate. Be careful not to stick or burn. This may take around 10 minutes.
- Push the fried onion mix to the side of the pan and add a bit more oil, then add the chicken or other protein, increase the heat to medium hot and fry on all sides. Add the salt and all other spices except the garam masala and stir to coat the protein and slightly cook the spices. Progressively stir through the onion mix until the protein is evenly covered with spice and onion mix.
- Rinse the water around the blender/bullet bowl to pick up any leftover onion and pour into the pan. Add in the tomato puree (or alternative) and stir to evenly distribute and leave to simmer for about half an hour (or until the sauce has nearly reduced to a rich gravy consistency).
- Add the garam masala and stir to combine. Heat through for another 5-10 mins garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve with yoghurt and rice. Leftovers will refrigerate or freeze and reheat well for another meal.
Notes and options
You can go as elaborate or simple as you like with this. At a minimum, you need the onion, garlic and ginger to create a gravy of appropriate flavour and consistency. You don’t need fresh chillis; you can just add dried chillies or chipotle later in the process. For spices you could get away with cumin, turmeric and garam masala. That plus salt and water will give you a basic but flavoursome curry.
Adding or subtracting spices is all about the type of curry you’re after. The original tikka masala would have the chicken cooked in a tandoor, giving it a smoky flavour. I’ve added the smoked paprika, and you could add barbecue or chipotle sauce to add to this.
Rogan josh wants a more aromatic spice mix, and brings in cloves and fennel as well as adding some yoghurt to the liquid mix which helps tenderise the lamb. So if you want to use this recipe as a cheat’s version of a classic curry, look up a recipe for the curry you want and just add in or remove spices into the basic process to adapt the flavour.
The process
Pre-blender chop
Into the blender
Frying the onion ginger garlic porridge
Push it to the side once the oil starts to separate (note that it’s not browned)
In goes the protein and spices, along with a bit more oil for frying
Stirring the onion back through once the protein is fried
Adding tomato paste after the water has been added
Adding garam masala once it has reduced down and thickened. Check seasoning at this point.
perch 