Curry Recipes Online
Curry Base Recipes => Curry Sauce, Curry Base , Curry Gravy Recipes, Secret Curry Base => Topic started by: onion on March 05, 2007, 11:34 AM
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Hi all
This is my first post here, it is a recipe I have developed over a period of time, I use it as base sauce, some of my friends I make this for use it as is. I hope you give it a try.
You must follow these instructions to the letter, do not deviate. If you do not follow this list or method the result will not be anywhere as good.
It takes some time to do but you get quite a lot of sauce to freeze.
While you are cooking this, make sure you stir regularly.
Yes I know it sounds odd to use tomato soup, but, you know when you attempt to replicate the restaurant style, it looks right, it smells ok, but there is something missing!! A secret ingredient perhaps! Whatever, don?t leave it out. Trust me.
Some onions contain more liquid than others, depending on how long the retailer has stored them, should the base be a little thick after blending, just thin it with a little water.
The end result is a smooth very tasty sauce that you can use as is, or you can develop your own curries.
Curry sauce
Ingredients
? pint oil
5-6 Lbs of onions (not the large Spanish ones)(It looks a lot but they reduce down)
3 green peppers
2 inches of fresh ginger
6 cloves of garlic
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 ? tins Heinz tomato soup (220gm or 1 x 400gm tin)
3 heaped teaspoons of a good quality madras curry powder. (www.Kohinoorfoods.co.uk)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
? teaspoon chilli powder
1 ? teaspoons salt
1 desert spoon sugar
Mix the spices into a loose paste using cold water and set aside.
Chop the ginger and garlic very finely and set aside.
Chop the green peppers into 1 inch pieces and set aside.
Save about 6 onions cut them in half and slice thinly set aside.
Chop the onions coarsely and place in the hot oil, add the salt, cook the onions over a medium heat until they are reduced, soft and slightly brown. Do not allow them to burn.
Reduce the heat a bit and add the garlic and ginger, do not allow the garlic and ginger to burn. Cook this for about 20 minutes.
Add to this the spice paste you made earlier, cook this gently for twenty minutes.
Add the tinned tomatoes and continue to cook gently for 10 minutes.
Add the tomato soup and stir in.
Add the chopped peppers.
Add the sugar.
Cover and cook this gently for about 1 ? hours, a good test is when the peppers are very soft, the oil will have come to the surface. Do not be tempted to skim any off.
Whilst this is cooking, gently fry the thinly sliced onions you saved, use a wide pan and fry them until they are deeply coloured but not burnt, it is important cook them slowly to not burn them or they will impart a bitter taste to your sauce. It can take up to an hour to achieve this.
When the onions are ready, stir them into the sauce and continue to cook gently, they will impart a delicious flavour to the finished sauce.
Remove from the heat and allow this to cool for a few minutes, using a stick blender only, keep the blender below the surface do not allow the blender to suck in air. Blend this into a smooth sauce. Any other blender will add too much air into the sauce.
Your base is now ready to be used or frozen in batches, it is very nice as is, but you can add your own spices for your finished dishes according to taste.
For example, a king prawn madras, use raw king prawns, juice from ? a lemon, get the pan hot, add some oil, quickly fry the prawns until they just change colour, add some of the base sauce and heat rapidly, put in the lemon juice, stir in the chopped coriander. If you want it hotter add more chilli powder.
If you have tried this and enjoy it or there is anything you don?t understand please let me know.
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Hi Onion,
Great post and one i would like to try, great to see a new spin on a base sauce.
I like the bit about frying the onions and adding to the sauce.
Do you have any pictures of the finished base sauce so we know what we are aiming for?
Stew :o
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Hi Stew
I am making a batch as we speak, I am taking pictures at every stage, I will post them when it is finished.
I would love someone to give it a go.
Onion
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Onion
Thank you for posting your recipe.
>You must follow these instructions to the letter,
>do not deviate.
I subscribe to this approach. In order to stick as closely as possible to what you do:
- is it 5.5 lbs of onions we should use? Or why the variation between 5 and 6 lbs?
- which 'good quality madras curry powder' do you use, exactly?
- which garam masala do you use, exactly?
Many thanks
Regards
George
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Hi onion,
Great post!
Could I ask how you came up with the idea of Tom soup in your base recipe? Was this something you were told or just something you thought you would try and it worked?
Cheers
cK
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Onion
Thank you for posting your recipe.
>You must follow these instructions to the letter,
>do not deviate.
I subscribe to this approach. In order to stick as closely as possible to what you do:
- is it 5.5 lbs of onions we should use? Or why the variation between 5 and 6 lbs?
- which 'good quality madras curry powder' do you use, exactly?
- which garam masala do you use, exactly?
Many thanks
Regards
George
Hi George
I say 5-6 lbs of onions because some supermarkets do not have a weigh facility, it is just to give some idea as to the amount, as I say it does look a lot but they reduce considerably with cooking.
I get all my spices from http://www.kohinoorfoods.co.uk the madras curry powder blend is superb and the chillipowder has not been messed about with the colour is a nice deep red.
Regards
Martin
As I have mentioned in my previous post I will be adding some pictures from each stage
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Hi onion,
Great post!
Could I ask how came up with the idea of Tom soup in your base recipe? Was this something you were told or just something you thought you would try and it worked?
Cheers
cK
Hi Curry King
I was doing some research into the days of the Raj, I saw a video on the English returning from India, desperate for their beloved curries, they employed servants and cooks from there to re-create the curries they knew and craved. It was on one such video I noticed them pouring a tin of Heinz tomato soup into the saucepan, well, I had to try it, it worked well, I think the amount is about right for the quantities of other ingredients in the recipe.
Cheers
Martin
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Pic 1 onions 2, onions reduced add garlic/ginger 3, now with spice mix 4, after 20 mins gentle cooking.
More shortly.
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5, tomatos and tomato soup added 6, peppers added 7, saved onions ready 8 ready for blending.
As soon as I have finished I will post the last pic of the blended sauce.
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The final pic of the finished blended base.
Enjoy!
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Nice set of pictures onion.
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Welcome and thanks for sharing your recipes and photos with us Onion 8)
Regards,
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Onion,
great post and really great piccies - thanks !
The base sauce looks really good and I can imagine it stands on its own as a nice dippin' gravy.
I am getting to the end of my last lot of Darth's base (which is superb) and so will give yours a go next time.
No doubt the regulars here will give you some good feedback.
CL_NZ
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Onion,
I am getting to the end of my last lot of Darth's base (which is superb) and so will give yours a go next time.
CL_NZ
Hi Curry Lover
Thank you for your kind words, I do hope you give it a try. One thing to mention, some onions contain more liquid than others, if you find the finished base a bit too thick for you, just thin it down with some water whilst blending.
Regards
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Onion...looks delicious! What size tins for Tomato Soup? Here they have 3 diff sizes. What type of oil?
thnx
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Onion...looks delicious! What size tins for Tomato Soup? Here they have 3 diff sizes. What type of oil?
thnx
Hello Stargazer
I use the 200gm tins or you could use one 400gm tin, the oil I use is called again and again, it is a cholesterol free oil available from Tesco, but I guess any oil will do, I have used goundnut oil as well. I try to get one that is as healthy as I can.
I hope this helps.
Onion
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Onion, 1/2 pint of oil ...assume this is imperial - approx 19 ounces of oil or about 473 ml? Seems like a lot of oil. what's your total finished output of sauce?. If I read recipe correct you don't water it down at all?
thnx.... I will try this soon.
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Onion, 1/2 pint of oil ...assume this is imperial - approx 19 ounces of oil or about 473 ml? Seems like a lot of oil. what's your total finished output of sauce?. If I read recipe correct you don't water it down at all?
thnx.... I will try this soon.
Hi Stargazer
The oil is important to the finished taste, when you make your final dish you can skim off the oil if you want to, in another of my posts you will find a recipe for a King Prawn Madras which has a picture of the finished dish.
The measurement of oil is imperial, you are correct I do not water it down, the tomato soup and tinned tomato's make up enough liquid, however, sometimes I find that the water content of onions varies depending on how long the retailer/producer has stored them for, if you find the finished base is a little thick then by all means add a little water.
Regards
Onion
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Thnx onion. My original calcs were incorrect. should be about 10 ounces not 19 of oil! That sounds better :D
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Onion i grew up in south afria, i now live in the US, but ive always craved the curry and such from my childhood in south africa. i spend a day making your base curry and i just want to say its wonderfull. its a great base that i can start all sorts of star dishes from. Thank you!
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Onion i grew up in south afria, i now live in the US, but ive always craved the curry and such from my childhood in south africa. i spend a day making your base curry and i just want to say its wonderfull. its a great base that i can start all sorts of star dishes from. Thank you!
Thank you for your kind words, I am glad you enjoyed it.
Onion
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Joined the site today, by 1pm I had all the ingredients and started to follow your directions,Its now nearly 5.50 pm and the 3 kids and the wife are like smiling beached whales, I am struggling through as its never as nice when you cooked it yourself...
Thanks for sharing, its a great sauce to start from and there's loads left for freezing ;D
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Joined the site today, by 1pm I had all the ingredients and started to follow your directions,Its now nearly 5.50 pm and the 3 kids and the wife are like smiling beached whales, I am struggling through as its never as nice when you cooked it yourself...
Thanks for sharing, its a great sauce to start from and there's loads left for freezing ;D
Hi Curry freak
Thank you for taking the time to have a go at my base, I am pleased your family enjoyed it.
Next time you use the frozen sauce you will enjoy it more, I am the same, if I spend a long time cooking I never enjoy it as much, so now I make it one day and use it the next.
Onion
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Hi team, ;) I am going to give this a go at the weekend, it seems to have had some good reviews. Was it half a pint of oil? Has anyone who has tried it got a recipe I can use it on?
Looks like another Saturday afternoon in the kitchen. Will post...
Cheers all.... ;D
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Hi all, cooked this today and the main ingredient you need with this is time. I have spent all afternoon cooking it, But I can say it was well worth it. I started about 1:45pm and finished about 4:45. I just cooked a basic KD style curry and it was very good. The finished base came out a bit on the thick side but rather than add water to the base I added a bit of chicken stock to the curry until I got the right consistency.
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Cooked a simple chicken curry tonight using fried onions and spices with this base sauce and was very happy with the result....cheers Onion.. ;)
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Cooked a simple chicken curry tonight using fried onions and spices with this base sauce and was very happy with the result....cheers Onion.. ;)
Hi Mike
Thank you for taking the time and effort to give it a go, I really appreciate it when someone goes to the expense not only in time but money as well to try a new recipe and enjoys the result. The pictures are superb.
Thank you
Onion
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Thanks Onion, ;) it was a good afternoon in the kitchen and the end result was very good. Prior to freezing I did knock up a pint of chicken stock and added some to get a good consistency without altering the flavour. I cooked a curry the weekend using a recipe from a book I got from the library (50 great Indian curries)and used your base. I always start by frying onions for a least 30Min's. This combined with your base gave me that "chutney" texture I love. I am planning to cook a curry using blended boiled onions instead of fried to see if there is any difference.
I enjoyed making this base and although it was time consuming is a thumbs up for me. Thanks again........mike ;D
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on my second round of this base sauce and have found it to be superb. Thank god i found this site.
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Hi skelly2697, ;) welcome. God had little to do with it, it was your destiny that led you here to join us curry loving nutcases. Look forward to hearing more from you soon. ;D
:)regards...mike
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Was it half a pint of oil?
Cheers all.... ;D
I think when you get a "?" in any recipe it means "half"
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....be careful, it means any fraction (of whatever size), or an apostrophe, or inverted commas (see here http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1829.0 (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1829.0))
These characters seemingly don't copy over correctly from Word or from the recent site upgrade.
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hi just made your base and my boys think its great.
ty for posting your base have you any good currys to make with it ,just made a chicken curry was great . bighamx
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Welcome to cr0 bighamx ;)
Have a look here for a curry recipe:
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1533.0 (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1533.0)
Most can be made with any of the bases sauce recipes on the forum.
Let us know how you get on.
cK
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hi just made your base and my boys think its great.
ty for posting your base have you any good currys to make with it ,just made a chicken curry was great . bighamx
Hi bighamx
Just like to say thank you for taking the time to make my base, I appreciate it.
I have posted a recipe for King Prawn Madras using my base, here is the link, I think!!
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1718.msg15302#msg15302
Onion
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hi, i made your base sauce and it was a big hit with the family ;D. i had only used tom sauce once before in a recipe but it was only a couple of tb spoons. thank you for the recipe :)
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hi, i made your base sauce and it was a big hit with the family ;D. i had only used tom sauce once before in a recipe but it was only a couple of tb spoons. thank you for the recipe :)
Hi Merlin
Thanks for trying it, you say tom sauce :o My recipe says tomato soup, did you use sauce or soup.
Onion
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hi onion sorry i did mean tomato soup, and yes it was heinz :). finished the first batch so going to start another.
thank you.
merlin
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I am going to have a go at this sauce and will post results and hopefully some pictures as well. Watch this space.
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Ok, I have now made this sauce and it has turned out like I thought it would, very tasty but not BIR taste as yet. I am going to make a Bhuna using Curry Kings tried and trusted recipe and will post the results of that also. One thing I would change about this base is the amount of tomato soup, I would use a 300g tin as opposed to the recommended 400g as the soup seems to have over powered everything a bit. Thank you to Onion for posting this tasty recipe. Below are a few pictures.