In Indian restaurant cooking, one of the techniques that enables restaurant cooks to prepare curries in 5-10 minutes is the use of a base curry gravy. This gravy is, in effect, a ‘mother sauce’ for the many different curry house sauces: tikka masala, vindaloo, rogan josh, paneer kadhai, chicken madras, etc. In this post, I describe one of the two base gravy recipes I’ve been using in most of my curry cooking during the last five years.
It is often said that there as many different recipes for curry gravy as there are curry cooks, but there are a few definite styles, often associated with where the particular chef is from: for example, there are distinct styles of gravy associated with Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi chefs in Indian restaurants. And the Balti restaurants in Birmingham, England have also developed a distinctive style of their own.
The recipe in this post is in the Bangladeshi style, as it includes ingredients such as cabbage, asafoetida, and ground fenugreek seeds.
Ingredients
2 lb 6 oz onions, thickly sliced
4 oz (about 2 cups) chopped cabbage
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/4 cup of diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup of diced green bell pepper
1/2 tbsp garlic puree
1/2 tbsp ginger puree
1 cup canned tomato puree or sauce
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/4 tsp asafoetida
1 1/4 tsp turmeric
1 1/4 tsp ground coriander
1 1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 1/4 tsp curry powder
1 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro (use both stems and leaves of the cilantro)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
Place all of the ingredients in a sauce pan just large enough to hold all of the ingredients. (I use a 2 1/2 quart sauce pan.) Cover with a lid. It’s ok if initially the lid doesn’t fit; the ingredients will cook down during cooking. Cook over a low heat until the vegetables have softened and released their liquid. I generally cook the gravy ingredients at least 2-3 hours at this stage.
Puree the mixture in a blender, until completely smooth. You will need to do so in batches. It is very important to spend time on this step, as it will affect the consistency of your curries. I typically blend the mixture for 3-5 minutes.
At this stage, you will have about 2 quarts (7-8 cups) of puree. Place the puree in a clean sauce pan, and add 2 quarts of water to the puree. (I use a 5 quart pan for this stage.) Simmer for an hour over medium-low heat.
Typically you will then have about 4 quarts of gravy when finished,enough to make at least a dozen restaurant-sized curry portions.
The Vegan Balti 