This is my effort at making a basic sauce for restaurant style curries. The following quantity is for 8 people, as you may wish to freeze some for a later date.
Ingredients
Ingredients
Printable 🖨 shopping 🛒 list & 👩🍳 method for this recipe
- 120 ml vegetable oil
- 950 g or about 8 cooking onions, thinly sliced
- 175 g (about 3-4 bulbs) garlic, diced
- 50 g ginger, peeled and diced
- 1.5 litres water
- 2 good teaspoons salt
- 1 additional tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon fenugreek
- 1 teaspoon chilli
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1 teaspoon cardamom
- 1 teaspoon tomato purée
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes, puréed
Method
Stage 1
- Heat the oil over a medium-high heat.
- Add the onion slices and fry for about 10 minutes, until they are starting to brown, and even stick slightly.
- Stir vigorously, add the garlic and ginger and cook for a further few minutes until softened.
- Add the water and blend thoroughly - the mixture must be absoluely smooth.
- Add the salt, bring to the boil and turn down the heat to low.
- Simmer, covered, for 40-45 minutes and allow to cool.
- If you wish to freeze the sauce, do so at this stage.
Stage 2
- Meanwhile, heat the 1 additional tablespoon vegetable oil in a clean pan, add the spices and tomato purée cook for about a minute - no longer.
- Add the tomatoes, bring to the boil , reduce heat and cook for about 10 minutes.
- Skim, allow to cool and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
Variations
Combine spices to your taste.
Chef's notes
Make your the sauce two to three days in advance and refrigerate. This will improve the flavour and gives more of a restaurant aroma.