Category: Curry

Chip shop curry sauce recipe


Perfect with some nice chunky chips.

For me this is another big comfort food!

Love it or hate it, it’s a staple when it comes to fish and chips, or more importantly chips.

This recipe is somewhat similar to Chinese curry sauce, but with a slight variation on flavour and a few raisins thrown in.

Ingredients (makes enough for about 6 people)

  • 60g butter for cooking
  • 1 large onion or 2 medium
  • Garlic paste (about 1tbsp)
  • Ginger paste (about 1 tbsp)
  • 3-4 tbsp mild curry powder
  • 1-2 tsp ground turmeric
  • About 50g of raisins
  • 1 star anise
  • 1-2 tbsp of malt/white wine vinegar
  • 500ml chicken or vegetable stock
  • Salt and pepper

Equipment

  • Saucepan
  • Knife
  • Chopping board
  • Wooden spoon
  • Measuring jug

Prep and cooking (60-90 minutes)

  1. Heat the butter in a pan, dice the onion and cook for about 5 minutes on a medium heat.
  2. Add the garlic and ginger paste and cook for another 5 minutes. You want to get the mixture nice and soft, but not too much colour developing.
  3. Mix the curry powder and turmeric together with a little bit of water and add to the pan with the star anise, raisins and vinegar. Cook for another 1-2 minutes, be sure to keep stirring so nothing burns to the bottom of the pan.
  4. Add the stock and turn the heat up full to bring to the boil.
  5. When it starts boiling turn the heat down low and simmer for about half an hour, again be sure to stir occasionally to ensure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan and burns.
  6. Take out the star anise and mix 3-5 tbsp of cornflour with some water to make a slurry, add it bit by bit to the sauce, cook for a minute or so before adding any more until you reach the desired thickness.
  7. I like to serve the sauce how it is, but if you want it smoother just put it in a food processor or blend it with an immersion blender.

Costing

Looking at price, I was in the chip shop a couple of days ago and got some curry sauce, it came in the usual polystyrene cup which is guess is about 100ml and it set me back £1.40

The above recipe will cost about £1.80-£2, Working out around 30p a serving!

So quite a saving, but it was a long day, we were all tired, and that’s kind of the point of paying someone else to make food for you(!)

The most expensive components here are the curry powder, butter and stock cubes (for chicken stock, unless you have fresh) do you can cut the cost further by replacing butter with oil, using a bit less curry powder and use 1 less stock cube (I usually use 2-3 for 500ml).

Just remember this will compromise in flavour a slightly on texture, but it can cut the cost to about 20p a serving.

Enjoy!

More recipes soon.

Chicken tikka masala recipe


The dish of a thousand recipes and probably most well know as being an ‘English’ curry.

Over the years I’ve seen and cooked so many variations of this. This is the recipe that I’m currently using.

I’ll do a post soon on how to butcher a whole chicken (saves a lot of cash!) but you can use any kind of chicken meat you like, alternatively the sauce (which is made separately) can just be a base for a vegetable curry.

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

For the sauce

  • 2 large onions, or 3-4 medium
  • 2 red peppers
  • 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
  • 2-4 tbsp garlic paste
  • 2-4 tbsp ginger paste
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2-3 tbsp cumin seeds
  • 5-10g dried curry leaves
  • 1 tbsp paprika (not smoked)
  • 2-3 tbsp garam masala
  • 2-5tbsp double cream
  • Salt and pepper
  • Chilli powder (optional)

For the chicken

  • 1 whole chicken, cut into parts and thickly diced, or 500-900g of thickly diced chicken meat
  • 250-300g natural yoghurt
  • 1 tbsp garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp ginger paste
  • 2-4 tbsp mint sauce (shop bought or homemade)

Equipment

  • Mixing bowl
  • Knife
  • Chopping board
  • Immersion blender/ food processor
  • Roasting tray or oven dish
  • Saucepan
  • Wooden spoon
  • Cling film
  • Tin foil
  • Slotted spoon

Prep and cooking (optional 1.5-2+ hours)

  1. First to marinade the chicken, put the largely diced meat into a mixing bowl with the yoghurt, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper and mint sauce. Mix well, cover and put in the fridge (preferably overnight).
  2. Finely dice the onion. Heat some oil on a medium heat in a pan, when warm add the onion, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Cook for 3-5 minutes stirring occasionally until the onion is soft.
  3. Slice the red pepper, doesn’t have to be neat but not too thick, add to the pan and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
  4. Add the garlic and ginger paste and cook for another 2-4 minutes.
  5. Mix the dry spices with a little water to make a paste, then mix with the tomato paste, add to the pan and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
  6. Add the tinned tomatoes, reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
  7. Remove from the heat to cool. Heat the oven to 180°c (fan) and put the chicken in a roasting tray or oven dish and cover with tin foil, cook for 30-40 minutes until the chicken is cooked.
  8. Remove the chicken from the oven. Now blend the sauce with your immersion blender/food processor until smooth and return to a low heat.
  9. Remove the chicken from the baking dish with a slotted spoon into the sauce. Pour any remaining liquid in the baking tray into the sauce, cover with a lid and cook for 20+ minutes.
  10. Tikka break and have some curry.

Chicken tikka, tell me what’s wrong..

Another chicken tikka recipe to add the the masses.

It seems there’s a ton of claims as to where it originated, mainly either India, or the UK but it seems pretty conclusive whoever came up with it was of Indian decent.

The masala refers to the sauce, chicken tikka refers to the marinating and roasting of the chicken.

Supposedly here in England it’s one of our nations favourite dishes!

More recipes soon, feel free to message me with any recipe requests.

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Chinese curry sauce recipe


Can ya smeeellll, what the wok, is cookin’

Always a distinctive flavour, but I always hate how they put peas in it.

It’s Chinese curry sauce, of course!

This recipe is a request from @mattcudmore on the Facebook page, hope it works for you!

The main flavour of this sauce actually comes from pre mixed curry powder, and in the traditional Asian fashion the sauce is thickened with corn flour rather than butter and flour like a roux.

This recipe is for the sauce only, to turn it into a veg/chicken/beef etc curry just cook the desired meat/veg in a pan then add the sauce and cook through.

Ingredients (serves 2-4)

  • 1 medium onion
  • Garlic paste and ginger paste (about 2-3 tsp of each)
  • 3-4 tbsp of curry powder; I find mild curry powder from Asda works well, failing that most madras curry powders have the right kind of flavour
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric (optional, for colour)
  • Chilli powder (optional, if you want some heat)
  • 1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
  • Cornflour
  • 1-2 tsp light soy sauce
  • 400-500ml chicken stock (stock cubes and water if you don’t have any actual stock)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Sugar (1-2 tsp)
  • Cooking oil

Equipment

  • Chopping board
  • Knife
  • Wok or saucepan
  • Measuring jug
  • Immersion blender (hand blender) or food processor

Prep and cooking (20-25 minutes)

  1. Heat some oil in a pan on a medium-low heat and finely dice the onion.
  2. When the pan has warmed up add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes until soft, stirring occasionally.
  3. Add the garlic paste and ginger paste and cook out for a minute or two while stirring.
  4. Mix the dry spices and sugar with a little bit of water to make a paste and add the the pan, cook out the spices for another minute or two while stirring.
  5. Add the soy sauce and stock and whack the heat up full, when it comes to a boil reduce the heat to low and leave it to simmer for 10-15 minutes stirring every so often to make sure nothing sticks (and burns) to the bottom of the pan.
  6. Get the immersion blender and whizz it all up until smooth, or is using a food processor blend and return to the pan.
  7. Mix some cornflour (about 50g?) with water or chicken stock if you have any left with your fingers to make sure there are no lumps.
  8. Heat the sauce the pan to a medium high heat, add a little of the cornflour slurry at a time until you reach the desired consistency.
  9. Add salt and pepper to taste
  10. Enjoy!

Wok this way…

Though curry isn’t typical of Chinese food it’s still apparently quite a popular dish in southern parts of China, where they add curry powder to some dishes.

As you’d expect, curry powder is a largely western thing making an appearance somewhere around the 18th century, the Asian version tends to have either cinnamon or star anise as additional ingredients (which is why we add a little 5 spice)

On to costing, this sauce rolls in at £1.58, which is about 40p per serving.

A 500g jar or premade sauce is 80p at Tesco so a bit cheaper, but it’s about 150g less than the recipe above and fresh is always more enjoyable.

As someone mentioned in a post the powdered Chinese curry sauce is a good alternative, I’ve used it before and it generally works alright but it’s a bit pricey, about £2.75 for 405g or 0.68p/100g which works out at £4.42 for the amount the above recipe would make you.

So you can see while it’s convenient, it comes at a cost of an extra £2.84, which is enough for a whole chicken.

More recipes soon!

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Mughali Murgh Korma (Moghali braised chicken/Chicken Korma) recipe


I always used to think a korma was a poor excuse for a curry due to the lack of heat.

This recipe is a second request from @rachaelireland on the Facebook page.

That was until my (current) head chef shew me a recipe and i can’t deny, it’s bloody delicious, If you like coconut this is a dish for you!

The recipe i have is to make about 20 portions so i’ve cut it down best i can and hopefully it shouldn’t affect the flavour of the dish.

Ingredients (serves 2)

For the sauce

  • 4 cloves
  • 1 medium/small cinnamon stick
  • 3 black peppercorns
  • 5 green cardamom pods
  • 2 tablespoons of desiccated coconut
  • 1-2 tsp garlic paste
  • 2 tbsp almond powder
  • 1-2 tsp ginger paste
  • 1tsp ground turmeric
  • 2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 2 pints of natural yoghurt
  • Salt & pepper
  • 1 large onion

For the chicken

  • 2 chicken breasts
  • 1-2 eggs
  • 1-2 tsp garlic paste
  • 1-2 tsp ginger paste
  • 1-2 tsp garam masala

Equipment

  • Knife
  • Chopping board
  • Frying pan
  • Medium/large saucepan
  • Measuring jug
  • Fork, or whisk

Prep (10-15 minutes)

  1. Start by cutting the chicken however you like, i prefer to dice it into fairly large cubes, usually about an inch in size. Beat the egg in a measuring jug with the other ingredients ‘for the chicken’, when fully mixed add the chicken to the measuring jug and mix again to coat the chicken.
  2. Finely dice the onion.
  3. Warm the frying pan up on a medium-high heat (with no oil). When it’s hot add the coconut to roast it, make sure you keep it moving constantly so it doesn’t burn, you’re looking for a nice brown colouring but not black, it should take a minute or two.
  4. Now turn the heat down to medium and add a little oil or butter, fry the chicken off until cooked through and remove from the pan onto a plate/bowl.

Cooking (20-30 minutes)

  1. Now we can get onto making the sauce, heat some oil in a saucepan on a lowish heat and add the whole spices (cinnamon stick, cloves, peppercorns, cardamoms & cumin seeds) and cook until lightly coloured.
  2. Add the onion and garlic, turn the heat up a little and cook for another 3-5 minutes while stirring.
  3. Add the remaining ingredients except for the yoghurt (coconut, ginger paste, turmeric and almond powder) and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
  4. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool down a little. Get a desert spoon and take 1 tbsp of yoghurt and mix into the saucepan, keep doing this until all the yoghurt is mixed into the sauce. We do this because if you add all the yoghurt at once into the hot pan it will split, your sauce will look horrible, and won’t have a smooth creamy texture.
  5. Return the pan to a medium-low heat and add the cooked chicken, cook for 10+ minutes, serve and be merry.

“Eating too much curry can put you in a spice induced korma”

A Korma is a dish that actually originated in India, as opposed to something like a chicken tikka.

The English name ‘Korma’ come from the Urdu for qormā, which means “braise” referring to how its traditionally cooked.

If you’re not a huge fan of a korma, try this recipe, it changed my mind!

More recipes soon

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