Indian, anyone?(Recipe)

One of my curries with Paneer

A good while back I assured my good blogpal Tom I would post a simple, authentic curry base recipe. This is your true base for pretty much all Punjabi cuisine. I hope you might take the time to try it out with whatever variation you wish, and let me know!

Punjabi Curry Base
You will need:
Vegetable oil
Cumin
White onion
Garlic
Ginger
Green chillies
Salt
Chopped or fresh tomatoes
Turmeric
Garam Masala

Heat some oil in a pan, about a couple of tablespoons.
Add a teaspoon of whole cumin seeds.
When they start to sizzle, which will be rather quickly, add a large diced onion.
Fry on a medium flame for a while until the onions are nicely browned.
Add a couple of cloves of minced garlic and around an inch of minced ginger and fresh chopped chilli to taste.
Fry for a short while until these have also browned.
Top tip! If you find that this is starting to stick to the bottom, add a small amount of salt, it will stop the sticking!
Now add a tin of chopped tomatoes, half a teaspoon of turmeric powder, and half a teaspoon of garam masala powder.
Allow the mixture to cook on a low heat for a while stirring occasionally, until the oil starts to rise to the top.

This is the base for pretty much all home made curries!

If you want a curry with a bit of a gravy then add whatever you are planning on cooking, like chicken or lamb, with potatoes and/or peas, and coat in the mixture then add water to the desired amount for a nice gravy. Then allow to cook! Lamb will take around an hour, chicken quicker, but check periodically to see when the meat and potatoes are cooked.
You could put a tin of kidney beans or chick peas and potato, with water for vegetarian alternative.
For a drier dish you could add mince and peas, no water needed and cook in the base.
Or add whatever veg you like! If using potato, add that first as it takes longer than most other veg, then add others once it’s partly cooked, like cauliflower, diced carrots and peas, aubergine, that sort of thing!

Once cooked, taste to see if you want to add any more salt.

Hopefully this would create a tasty, authentic homemade curry for you!

Enjoy!