Vocal Voices

You may remember last week I made their 'good basic curry sauce', half of their recipe, which made 4x2 portion bags for the freezer. I left 2 bags unblended, the other two smooth.

Today I used one (smooth) lot to make chicken tikka masala, which we never buy as it's always too rich, too sweet, much too yucky-gucky.
I did bother to do the chicken properly, ie marinate it in a mix of tandoori/tikka mix with yoghurt, then grill it to char it nicely, but other than that it was just add that to the heated sauce, then stir in a couple of spoons of cream, 1/2 tsp sugar,and a splash of water.
Big success

I must find this recipe out and make a batch to freeze.

The sauces are a great idea and time saver. I do two, one with tomatoes and one without. They are from Madhur Jaffrey's book from way back. I also make my own 'Patak's' curry paste.

Having said that one of the best curries I ever had was the Hairy Bikers' Vindaloo. Damn! Now I am sooo hungry.

I still use Madhur for all sorts of recipes, but have to say each one of the Bikers' curries so far has been really good

Also discovered from the Takeaway Secret that you can cook the chicken as above then freeze that as well - or lamb, but we hardly ever have lamb as it's so expensive.

Di, I am too tight to buy the books so I use this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/chefs/hairy_bikers

12,000 recipes from just about all the BBC chefs. HBs have 540 and James Martin over 1,500!!!

I use the website all the time as well
The Bikers curry book was a birthday present from Bb

Is the basic curry sauce in the Curry Book Di?

I don't have that one - would you mind posting the recoipe?

Debih I don't know the HBs' sauce, but here are a couple of make ahead basic curry sauces to try.

Tomato version: Rogan Josh, Madras, Vindaloo types.

Veg oil
1 large or 2 medium onions finely chopped
4 cloves of chopped garlic
3cm cube of ginger, crushed
1 dsp basic curry paste
1 tin of tomatoes, blitzed or 1/3 tube of tomato purée + cup of water
250ml veg stock

Heat oil in a pan and sauté the onions till translucent, add the garlic and ginger and cook for one more minute. Add the basic curry paste and continue cooking and stirring until the onions are coated then add the tomatoes and after a stir, the veg stock. Keep cooking slowly to reduce the liquid down to a thick consistency.

No tomato version: Korma, Makhani, Karahi types

Veg oil
2 large or 4 medium onions
4 cloves of chopped garlic
3cm cube of ginger, crushed
1 dsp basic curry paste
250ml veg stock

Finely chop three quarters of the onions and slice the rest into half rings. Heat oil in a hot pan and fry the half rings till they caramelise and go slightly crisp. Remove these onions and set aside.Turn down the heat and sauté the remaining onions till translucent, add the garlic and ginger and cook for one more minute. Remove these from the pan and blitz (you might need a little stock to help the blitzing process). Put the blitzed onion back in the pan and add the basic curry paste and continue cooking and stirring until well mixed then add the veg stock. Keep cooking slowly to reduce the liquid as required. Once all cooking is done stir in the crispy half rings.

There is no salt in these sauces except for that in the curry paste as you will add that as you make whatever curry.

Debih I'll do it tomorrow

Pah, I've done it already.