base gravy

This is how they make the base gravy in fine Indian hotels.

Indian curry gravy - hotel style

vegetable oil

onions

lbs fresh tomatoes (chopped (or substitute plain canned tomatoes))

green cardamom (pods)

black peppercorns

cloves

tej patta (Indian bay leaf (optional))

cinnamon stick (or cassia bark)

garlic ginger paste

turmeric

tbsp kashmiri chili powder

cumin powder

coriander powder

tbsp kosher salt

green chilies (seeded)

cilantro

water

You need a lot of chopped onions for this. Do yourself a favour and use a food processor if you have one. Peel and half the onions. Cut each half into six pieces. Fill your food processor about 2/3 full and pulse around 5-8 times. You should have diced onions. Repeat until you have chopped all the onions.

As long as your food processor is out use it to chop the tomatoes (if using fresh). Easy.

Heat the oil in a pot large enough to hold all the ingredients.

Add the oil and heat over medium heat.

Once the oil starts to shimmer add the cardamom, black peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon and optional Indian bay leaf.

Let the spices bubble for about 20 seconds and then add the onions.

This takes some time and attention. Cook the onions over medium heat. Stir every minute of so. You want them brown. Nice and brown. Not tan. Brown. Think French onion soup. This is going to take you around 30-40 minutes and maybe more. But you are doing it once. For 8 restaurant portions of curry. So it&#039;s under 5 minutes a curry. Totally worth it.

While the onions cook do the rest of your prep. Make sure the tomatoes are chopped. Cut your green chilies in half and seed them (use a spoon).

Add the turmeric, cumin, coriander and kashmiri chili powder in a bowl. Add about a 1/2 cup of water and stir to make a slurry. You may need to add a bit more water. Doesn&#039;t matter.

Once the onions are this nice creamy brown mess add the garlic ginger paste. Stir to combine and continue to cook for about two minutes.

Add the powdered spice slurry and the salt.  Cook another 3 minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes, green chilies and cilantro. Simmer until the tomatoes are broken down. This takes about 10 minutes. The oil may have separated at this point. If it did, do NOT remove it. It&#039;s pure flavour.

Add a cup of water. Puree the hotel style curry gravy, whole spices and all. Yes. Whole spices get pureed. Use a blender. If it&#039;s too thick to puree add a bit more water.

You should now have about 8 cups of magic curry gravy to use in all sorts of curries.

Indian restaurants need to cook curries to order in a matter of minutes and this is how they do it


Curry Base (Indian Base Gravy)

Vegetable Oil: 140 milliliters

Brown/White Onion: 700 grams

Green Pepper: 1

Carrot: 1

Garlic Paste: 1 tbsp

Ginger (Grated): 1 tbsp

All Purpose Seasoning: 1 tbsp

Coriander Powder: 1 tbsp

Cumin Powder: 1 tbsp

Turmeric Powder: 1 tbsp

tbsp

Garam Masala Powder: 1 tbsp

Tomato Paste: 3 tbsp

Tinned Tomatoes: 300 grams

Water: 3 litres

This is a fantastic idea, im heading down to my local Indian supply shop this morning. Cant wait to make this and freeze it to make on the go.. thanks Josh!

Made this after trying your Korma from scratch. My sister only eats Korma and is really fussy needless to say she loved it made with your base gravy even more and ended up taking all the leftovers home. Going to try your other recipies now. thanks Maddie

Love this recipe. Well worth the time it takes to make.

Really easy to make, just roughly chopped everything up and followed the instructions. Made a huge difference to the Indian recipes I've been trying so far so will continue to experiment.

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