Authentic Karahi Curry (With Base Sauce)

John-louvolite's Note:

Ok this take a little bit more effort than something out of a jar, but I garneted the flavour is amazing. This is a tried & tested recipe that I cook for family and friends on a regular basis, I have spent years learning how to make the best curries and this is my favourite. Nothing out of a jar just fresh ingredients, this is honestly better that what you get from most Indian restaurants.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 0 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 500 g chicken
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 large onions
• 8 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon ginger
• 500 ml hot water (Aprox Amount)
• 2 teaspoons curry powder (any good one will do)
• 1 ½ teaspoons paprika
• 1 ½ teaspoons turmeric
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon flour , I use Grama flour but any will do
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• ½ teaspoon ground fenugreek (optional)
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 (8 ounce) can chopped tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 200 ml orange juice
• 4 -8 tablespoons ghee (optional)
• 2 tablespoons of chopped coriander

Directions:

1. Cook Chicken, or other meat.
2. You can grill, fry or oven cook meat in any way you like. I often fry in oil adding a little turmeric and garlic. Once cooked set the pre-cooked meat aside.
3. Base Sauce.
4. Chop onions, ginger and Garlic roughly and fry in oil until cooked, add hot water, just enought to cover onions and garlic, you may not need all 500ml. Then simmer for 20 minutes.
5. After 20 minutes take off heat let cool then blend with either a hand blender or in traditional blender, then set aside.
6. Spice Mix.
7. While the base sauce is cooling this is a good time to prepare you spice mix, just put all the spices in one bowl and mix together.
8. The Curry.
9. Heat oil to medium heat, and fry garlic and ginger for about 2 – 3 minutes, towards the end of the 3 minutes turn the heat down to very low.
10. Once the oil, garlic and ginger have cooked and cooled a little add the spice mix a spoon at a time, you want to make a paste when the oil blends with the spices, so you may not need all the spice mix or you may need to add more oil.
11. Once you have a runny oily paste turn the heat up very slightly, be very careful because if the spices burn the whole dish will be ruined. The trick is not to fry the spices just heat them sufficiently enough to bring out all the aromas and flavours, this should take only a few minutes.
12. Then add the tomatoes, curry base, orange, salt, bay leaf, cinnamon, chicken stock cube and pre cooked chicken stirring the dish well.
13. Let simmer for at least 20 mins but can be left for hours.
14. 5 mins before you are ready to serve add the coriander and Ghee then dish up, I would recommend to serve with chapattis or basmati rice.

Reviews

[jvat]

This is the Karahi recipe I've been searching for, for years! Wonderful flavour and very definitely worth the effort. Like the other reviewer said, not too hot, but perfect if you like spicy flavour without the gagging for water effect. Also, Karahi is supposed to be a milder flavour and my kids (4 & 6) love it. I've simplified repeats by basically making up a batch of the spices, so I can create the base much more easily and use this in my slow cooker for about 6 hours... just throw everything in at the same time. The amazing flavours just improve. I've also added both spinach and cauliflower on different occasions to improve the overall vege content. First time I've actually liked cauliflower! I want to try the base sauce with lentils and also with prawns.Many thanks, wish you'd post more recipes!

[Chef #1566199]

Good, a little complicated and not very hot though. I added some dried red chill peppers and fresh green chili peppers, and then it was perfect!