Scott’s Curry gravy base

Hi, its Scott here and this week I want to share a secret in the restaurant industry and it’s a recipe for a base gravy for curries.

A base gravy is used as a starting point for all the curries on the menus of most of our favourite restaurants and take away.

most curries require long slow cooking, and the base gravy allows restaurants to give the flavour of long slow cooking in the final curries but with them been cooked to order in minutes and its this base gravy that gives it that authentic takeaway taste.

I learnt this secret years ago when on my days of from my own kitchen I would work in my local Indian restaurant.

Remember this is just a base gravy and not a final curry and we will use this as a starting point for curries that I will share in the coming weeks.

It’s a fantastic way to preserve our produce and is great for the freezer and will allow you to make authentic tasting curries in minutes.

This recipe will make enough gravy to make about 6 different curries that will serve two to four people each time.

And so, to the recipe

Ingredients:

• 1.5kg Red or white onions roughly chopped
• 1kg fresh tomatoes
• 200g red and green peppers roughly chopped
• 150g carrots roughly chopped
• 100g cabbage roughly chopped
• 60g garlic paste
• 60g ginger paste
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 cardamon pods
• 10g ground coriander
• 10g ground cumin
• 15g paprika
• 15g turmeric
• 35g curry powder
• 50g tomato puree
• 150ml veg oil
• 2.5 litre water

Method:

Start by adding the oil to a big sauce pan then add the onions and cook on a medium heat until the onions just start to soften you don’t want to colour them then add the spices, ginger and garlic followed by the carrots, peppers and cabbage give this a stir around then add the tomatoes and tomato puree followed by the water.

Bring to the boil then cover the pan with a lid and cook and a medium to low heat for about 40 minuets then remove the lid and turn up the heat slightly and cook for another 20 minuets to reduce the gravy after the 20 minuets blitz the gravy with a stick blender or in a food processor to create a smooth sauce you want to end up with a consistency of a tomato sauce if it’s a little thick you can thin it down with a splash of water.

Allow to cool then split the mixture into about 6 portions and freeze.

And that’s the gravy done. I will follow this up in the next couple of weeks with some curry recipes where you can use the gravy.

Hope you enjoy.