www.sausagemaking.org

First of all, this recipe is designed to produce curries like the ones you get from a takeaway the ones I go to, anyway). It doesn't aspire to becoming a candidate for WeightWatchers recipe of the year. It contains a lot of oil because takeaways always do.

Seriously, don't cut back on the oil. The oil is essential in bringing out the correct flavours of the ingredients and giving the right texture. Right at the end when you have your curry ready to eat you can skim off excess oil then and the flavour won't be affected.

The quantities I have given here will make about 5L of gravy and you need about 500mls (half a litre) for each curry you make. When you've tried it a few times you'll be able to modify things to suit yourself. You can easily half the size of this recipe, but I haven't tested further size reductions, so be careful it is designed for use in a large kitchen, after all.

There are three stages to making the curries, and each can be carried out over successive days or weeks as it suits you:

----------

Making the Gravy takes about 2-3 hours, and produces enough to make about 10 curries, each serving up to 4 people

100g peeled fresh Ginger
100g peeled fresh Garlic
approx 3L Water
8 medium Cooking Onions (about 2kg unpeeled)
15g Salt
400g tin Tomatoes
150g Oil
15g Paprika
15g Turmeric
15g Tomato puree

1. Peel the garlic and ginger and chop them coarsely. Place in a blender with 500mls of water and blend until very smooth. It MUST be smooth to get the right textures at the end. Sieve it if you like, but you/ll lose some material if you do that.

2. Peel and coarsely chop the onions. Put them in a LARGE saucepan with 2.5L of water, the garlic/ginger puree, and the salt. Bring to the boil, cover, and then simmer for about � hour to 1 hour. Still covered, let them cool down a bit (hand-hot at least). Note that they go an interesting green-blue colour, but don't worry about that!

3. While the onions are cooking, put the tomatoes into the blender and blend until very smooth. Again, sieve if necessary, but make sure they are VERY smooth. Put to one side until the onions have cooled.

4. Once the onions are cooked and cooled, blend them in portions in the blender until they too are very smooth. Again, smoothness is important.

5. Put the blended tomatoes in a LARGE pan along with the oil, paprika, turmeric, and tomato puree. Cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes, being careful not to let them stick (though with this amount of oil sticking is unlikely).

6. Add the onion/garlic/ginger puree to the tomatoes and return to the boil. Simmer and cook for 30 minutes. You might get scum towards the end just skim it off as necessary. The gravy will be a lovely deep golden colour.

7. You can use it straight away. However, most of it is surplus, so let it cool and then divide into 500ml portions (this recipe produces about 8-10 such portions, and each one will make one curry to serve up to 4 people (or 2 if you're me!).

8. Freeze it as required.

Preparing the chicken takes about 30 minutes, and produces enough prepared chicken for two curries

--------------

60g Oil
40g Curry Gravy made previously
10g Turmeric
1kg Chicken breast

1. Cut the breasts into suitable pieces to taste (I find 2.5-3cm chunks best).

2. Put the oil, turmeric, and gravy into a pan or wok and cook briskly until the colour begins to darken. Keep stirring so it doesn't catch.

3. Add the chicken pieces and stir well to coat them all. Then cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is done. It will be nice and tender after about 20-30 minutes.

4. This produces enough chicken for two curries each using ONE portion of the curry gravy prepared above.

5. I've only used chicken so far, but I'm told that you can prepare lamb the same way.

Making a curry takes about 15 minutes.

------------

50g Oil
1 portion Curry Gravy
1g Chilli powder (to taste)
5g Salt
500g Chicken prepared previously (half the amount prepared)
5g Garam Masala
5g Ground Cumin
5g Ground Methi (dried Methi/Fenugreek leaf ground in a pestle)
Bunch Fresh Coriander

NOTE: By now the quantities used are much smaller, but I have found that there is quite a lot of leeway. Using 5g=1 teaspoon you can measure and vary the quantities given here to suit. It seems to be difficult to go too far (I've made this about 6 times now, and although you get small differences in taste it is not different to what you get from a takeaway.

1. Heat the oil in a pan or wok and add the gravy. Return to the boil.

2. Add the chilli and salt, then add the chicken. Heat through thoroughly for at least 5 minutes, stirring all the time to prevent catching.

3. Stir in the Garam Masala, Cumin, and Methi and cook for 5 minutes, again stirring all the time.

4. Add a handful of chopped fresh Coriander to taste and cook for a few more minutes.
And thats it! Garnish with chopped Coriander as required.
The recipe here is for what would usually be called a Chicken Methi from my local takeaway. And it tastes near-as-dammit exactly the same as I've eaten in at least three local restaurants in my area.

You can pour off any surplus oil at this stage it's up to you.

One thing: the flavour improves on standing. In fact, it microwaves up nicely (do it covered on a medium setting) and I'd say it tastes better like that than it does immediately after cooking. Try it both ways.

I haven't attempted any variations, but I'm reliably informed that every type of curry uses the same gravy base, but with other things added as necessary. For example, to make a Vindaloo or Madras, you just leave out the Methi and add more Chilli to taste. And a Korma is the same recipe but without the chilli, but with cream, a little extra cumin, and chopped nuts to taste.