Thursday 9 April 2015

DELICIOUS CURRY SAUCE

Curry is a big favourite in this house. Homemade, takeout or indeed when eating out, it is always a consideration. As a result of our love of curry I am always looking for new recipes to try. My curry cookbook library has grown considerably recently. I love reading about the food, it's origins and how every region in India has it's own specialities.



Last week I found a scrap ripped from a magazine, I don't know when, but from the look of it some time ago. It was just headed Curry Sauce. It went on to say it could be used with fish, chicken or vegetables. I read further and found what was a simple, but looked like a great sauce recipe. Time to try it out and see if it had been worth keeping this bit of scrap for so long. The truth would be in the cooking.
Fortunately I had all the ingredients needed in the fridge or cupboard and I took some fish from the freezer. Dinner was sorted,  or so I hoped.

I set about cooking the sauce and I was delighted with the result. I did it early in the day thinking the flavours would be better if they were left for a while. Fish, when defrosted was sadly a bit wet and limp. No problem I'd salt it and put it into the fridge for a hour to firm it up. A useful tip I heard on TV once.

Time to put it all together. Rinsed the salt from the fish, slipped it into the sauce to cook. Put on the rice and turned oven on to heat up naan bread, also from the freezer.

The result was a very appetising looking dish, the reality was the sauce had indeed come up to expectation but I hadn't rinsed the fish properly and it was inedible. Just way too salty. I hate when this happens as I hate to waste food. So fish was removed from the sauce, more rice was added to the plate chopped bananas were put as a side, retro early curry days, and we mopped up the sauce with the rice and bread. I guess you can't always get it right.

However I do stand by the sauce, and I will make it again. The recipe has made it into my food recipe journal and the scrap of paper is now in the bin.


RECIPE

50g shallots,
3-4 garlic cloves
3cm piece of fresh ginger
1 med hot red chilli
Roughly chop then whizz in a blender with 2 tomatoes until smooth.

1tsp chilli powder,
 1/2 tsp of S&P,
1tsp turmeric powder.
 Add these to the above paste and blend again.

2tsp oil or ghee, 1 tsp black mustard seeds, tin of coconut milk, 200mls stock.

Heat oil add seed and wait until they start to pop. Add the paste mixture and fry until you can smell the spices. 2-3 minutes. Add coconut milk and stock heat through. To finish add chopped coriander to the mixture.
You can now add your fish,veg or chicken and let it cook through.

I hope you enjoy the sauce but have more luck with the fish! 

3 comments:

Snowy said...

That sauce sounds good; we love curry too so will try it. What a shame about the fish. I love chopped banana with my curry, especially if it's a hot one.

Phil in the Kitchen said...

I'm definitely always ready for a curry sauce and this does sound like a good one. I've recently been trying to sort out some of my recipes on scraps of paper (not very successfully) and there's usually a good reason why they were torn out in the first place.

thecelticcookinshanghai said...

I keep promising myself I'll cook recipes I like immediately, never seems to happen. Hate when I keep it for a long time then it turns out to be no good. I'll gt through all these scars one day!!!!