Chana Saag

A chick pea curry, one of our favorite side dishes.

Fry a chopped onion until golden. Add spices (curry paste, cumin, coriander) then a couple of chopped tomatoes and a drained can of chick peas. Cover and simmer on a very low heat for at least an hour. Stir occasionally - the tomatoes should provide enough liquid for the dish, but it can catch on the pan if you're not careful.

Once the tomatoes have mashed down, add a generous squirt of tomato ketchup for a bit of sweetness. Near the end, stir in a good handful of spinach leaves.

Chicken jalfrezi

This is a recipe from the "food" website. Never tried it before, but it's definitely one to do again. It uses many of the same ingredients that I use in my regular curry, but in a different order. Most of the spices went in near the end which, I think, brought out a fresher flavor than usual. My only departure from the published recipe was to add some ground almonds at the end to thicken up the sauce.

Fry a chopped onion and garlic until soft. Add the chicken, a pinch of turmeric, and a teaspoon each of salt and chili powder. Fry until browned. Add a good quantity of chopped tomatoes - almost as much by weight as the chicken, and cook covered until the chicken is cooked through. Uncover and continue cooking to reduce the sauce. 5 to 10 minutes before serving, add a teaspoon each of ground cumin and coriander, and 2 tablespoons each of grated ginger and chopped fresh coriander.

Balti

This recipe follows the general guidelines in my general curry recipe, which you can find here.

In this case, I use onion, garlic, and a generous spoonful of chopped ginger, then my usual range of spices (a small amount of curry paste, dried coriander, curry powder, turmeric, and a generous amount of cumin. Add the meat, either chicken or lamb, then a couple of chopped tomatoes.

The special ingredient is a portion of Balti paste. You can get Balti sauce in jars, but I find it worth looking for the more concentrated paste, which gives a much better flavor. Follow the directions on the jar for quantity.

Stir in the paste, then add a drained can of chick peas, and simmer for about an hour.

Towards the end of cooking, stir in a dash of cream.

Serve with rice and Naan.

Moroccan lamb

This lamb curry follows the general instructions for Whatever You Want Curry

The specifics for this variety are as follows:

Use lamb pieces for the meat. When adding spices, be especially generous with the cumin - a couple of table spoons. I find that lamb tends to tone down the spices so you can afford to be generous to avoid the dish ending up bland. Once the onions are soft, the spices are in and the lamb pieces are nicely browned, add a couple of large chopped tomatoes. These should provide plenty of liquid to cook the dish.

Cover and simmer on a very low heat for at least an hour.

Add a generous handful of green beans, and stir in a cup or so of cream. Continue cooking for another half an hour. Long and slow is the trick with this dish.

A few minutes before serving, thicken the sauce with ground almonds.

Serve with couscous.

Dhal

Place red lentils in a pan and cover well with cold water. Bring to the boil, skim of any scum, then stir in turmeric and a knob of butter. Cover and cook gently.

Dry fry a spoonful of cumin seeds until toasted, and set aside. 

With a knob of butter, fry onion, garlic, green chillies, ginger, and chopped tomatoes. When cooked, mix in the toasted cumin seeds, garam masala and ground coriander.

Stir the lentils. They should have the consistency of porridge. Add more water if necessary, then mix in the aromatic veggies.

Curry

My wife and I are both curry fanatics. Here is a versatile curry recipe posted on my main blog a while ago. With variations in meat, spices, and liquids it yields a multitude of flavors.

Whatever you want curry