This is a bit long-winded, but worth it. The recipe was entrusted by the Punjabi chef at a Balti restaurant in the Black Country township of Lye to a bachelor architect friend of mine who ate there two or three times a week. It will keep up to four days in the fridge or you can freeze it partially-made.
The recipe, I must stress, is only for the basic sauce and makes enough for eight main dish portions. Indian restaurants make much more - up to three days' supply at one go - and then add different curry spices into the basic sauce, depending on what the customer orders. Whatever special spices you add for your choice of curry dish, they must first be cooked in oil or ghee before you add them to the cooked meat and, maybe, vegetables of your choice. The basic sauce is then poured on, mixed together and everything is cooked a little longer for chicken or fish and rather longer for lamb. Instead of preparing your own curry spices, you can of course use your favourite curry paste - not to be confused with those jars of (usually mediocre) cook-in sauces.
Ingredients
2 lb (960g) cooking onions
2oz (50g) green ginger
2 oz (50g) garlic
2 .75 pints (1.570 litres) water
1 teaspoon salt
1 x 8oz (225g) tin tomatoes
cup of vegetable oil
tbs tomato puree
tbs turmeric
desert spoon paprika
tsp black pepper
STAGE 1
Peel and rinse the onions, ginger and garlic. Slice the onions and roughly chop the ginger and garlic.
Put the chopped ginger and garlic into a blender with about half a pint (275ml) of the water and blend until smooth.
Take a large saucepan and put into it the onions, the blended garlic and ginger and the rest of the water.
Add the salt and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat to very low and simmer, with the lid on, for 40-45 minutes.
Leave to cool.
STAGE 2
Once cooled, pour about half of the boiled onion mixture into a blender and blend until perfectly smooth. Absolute smoothness is essential. To be certain, blend for at least two minutes. Pour the blended onion mixture into a clean pan or bowl and repeat with the other half of the boiled onions.
(If you wish to freeze the sauce, or are making, say double the quantities and wish to freeze a proportion of it, then it is best to freeze it at this stage before going on to Stage 3 on the day you cook and serve).
STAGE 3
Open the can of tomatoes, pour into the rinsed blender jug and blend. Again, it is important that the tomatoes are perfectly smooth. Keep blending them for a full two minutes.
Into a clean saucepan, put the oil, tomato puree, turmeric and paprika.
Add the blended tomatoes and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and cook for 10 minutes.
Now add the onion mixture to the saucepan and bring to the boil again. Turn down the heat to keep the sauce at a simmer. You will notice at this stage that a froth rises to the surface. This needs to be skimmed off.
Keep simmering and skimming for 20-25 minutes, stirring now and again to prevent the sauce from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan.
Use immediately or cool and refrigerate for up to four days. Remember, this is the basic sauce. You add the relevant spice mixture to make the sauce into your favourite Madras, Vindaloo, Balti or whatever.
Last time I used the basic sauce recipe was when I cooked for our Indian parish priest and his visiting cousin from Mumbai. I gently sweated some sliced onions and set them aside. I then cut some lamb shoulder into smallish chunks, fried the pieces in oil until light brown and then added a quarter of a jar of Balti curry paste and the onions and fried them all together in a heat-proof casserole dish for a few more minutes. I then added the basic sauce, brought it up to a gentle boil on the hob and put it in a moderate oven for an hour. When I asked was everything OK compared with what they would eat at home and would they be constructively honest, the cousin said: "I can only give your lentil side dish 6 out of 10, but I give your curry 11 out of 10!).