Make this no-fuss sauce a day or two in advance of eating it to maximise the flavours of the spices. Add the remnants from a roast chicken, roast lamb or beef and heat through. Or, add some pieces of raw, chunky white fish or raw prawns and heat them gently in the sauce until cooked through. Eat the curry with some Oven Baked Basmati Rice and seasonal greens, some *Spiced Pear Chutney and some thick plain yogurt with some crumbled dried mint stirred through it and you have the makings of a delicious feast.
This curry sauce can be frozen for up to three months, if you have any leftover.
A note about spices
This recipe uses ground spices which you can buy ready done but, once the packet is open or sometimes even if not, those ground spices don’t retain their optimum flavours. So, buy whole spices whenever you can and grind as much as you need at any one time yourself in a spice or coffee grinder – there is no need to heat them up first either if you are going to cook them straight away as in this recipe.
For 6-8
8 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
A chunky piece of ginger root, about 7cm, finely grated – a Microplane or similar grater works well for this
6 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 tbsp ground fennel seeds
4 tsp ground cumin seeds
4 tsp ground coriander seeds
2 tbsp ground turmeric
Cinnamon stick
2x 400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tsp salt flakes
To finish
250mls organic double cream or full fat yogurt
A small bunch of fresh *coriander, finely chopped
Heat the oil in a sturdy pan over medium heat.
Add the crushed garlic and finely grated ginger root and stir for a minute or two.
Add the ground spices together with 2 tablespoons of cold water to help prevent the mixture sticking to the bottom of the pan and stir for a minute or two.
Stir in the canned tomatoes, salt and 100ml of cold water.
Add the cinnamon stick, raise the heat and bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Cover the pan with a lid and leave to simmer gently, stirring from time to time, for 1 hour.
Once this stage is done, remove the pan from the heat and leave for a day, covered in a cool place overnight. Also remove the cinnamon stick – you can reuse it if you wash it and let it dry before storing it in an airtight container.
When you are ready, stir the cream or yogurt into the curry sauce little by little and taste it as you go – you may need a little more salt as well if you like – it’s up to you. Set the pan over low heat, stir in the chicken, lamb, beef or fish and gently heat everything together. You can cook the rice and prepare all the other bits whilst this is happening.
Chop the coriander, finely and stir it into the curry just before eating.
*Fresh UK grown coriander, as well as many other herbs are not usually available in the winter months but www.infarm.com are a relatively new and interesting outfit that produces a wide variety of herbs in controlled conditions and they are worth a try.
