Simple Curry Sauce

Definition of Curry:

A dish where meat, vegetable etc is added to an Indian style sauce or gravy using spices and mainly served with rice typically from South Asia

Origin:

Word likely to have originated from the Tamil word ‘Kari‘ which means spiced sauce. It was likely to have been served as a thin soup-like spiced dressing.

After having researched the above (going back 17th Century) you can understand why to date: Indians do not see their culinary work as Curries but as Dishes. This sauce certainly varies from household to household and also different regions in India have their own unique twists.
Here is my version of a Curry Sauce.

In the above picture are the basic ingredients needed to make my take on homemade curry sauce. My version will make a thick sauce and cooking process takes around half an hour to make.

Ingredients:
1 Medium Onion peeled and minced
300g Passata
1tsp Tomato Puree
1tbsp Minced green chilli
2tbsp Crushed garlic
2tbsp Crushed ginger
1tsp Fine sea salt

1tbsp Coriander/Cumin powder
1tsp red chilli powder
1/2tsp Turmeric powder
2tbsp Light Cooking oil (I have used Sunflower oil)
* small amount of fresh coriander leaves (include chopped stalks too)
* Juice of half a lemon
Tempering Oil Ingredients:
Small stick of Cassia bark
Cloves
Dried Chilli
Fresh Bay Leaf

Method:

Dry roast in the pan ‘tempering spices’ except fresh Bay Leaf
Add Sunflower oil to the pan with the bayleaf, as soon as the spices start to pop add the minced onion, and stir well
Gently cook the onion, careful not to burn , add a little water every now and again this not only stops the onion mixture from burning but helps ‘brown’ them evenly and gently.

Once you are happy with the colour of the onion (Note:Lighter the colour of onions, lighter the colour of sauce. I cooked my minced onion too a golden brown stage to achieve the dark sauce) add the rest of the spices, lemon juice and coriander with a little water, again this helps stop the burning of spices.

Once the spices have infused to the onion mixture add Passata and a little Tomato puree

Allow to cook on a gentle heat for about 10-15 minutes and add approx 200ml of hot water.

Your curry sauce is now ready. This sauce can be kept in the fridge once cooled, in an air tight container for a couple of days.

You can either:

add your vegetables or meats to this mixture or
brown your seasoned meat first and add the sauce to the browned meat and cook until tender

This is my basic method and depending on how thick or thin; sweet or spicy; dark or light the consistency it is a matter of simply adding more of an ingredient and less of the another. Above all you can built to the sauce with other ingredients e.g spinach to give it a nuttier taste.