While cruising a few other frugal blogs, I saw this recipe for making your own Indian curry paste, which caught my eye. I especially liked how she suggested freezing it in portions suitable to your family size. I made this tonight and am freezing it 10 portions. She said the original was suitable for a making 4 meals for 4-5 people, so 16-20 portions. I am always happy to have ONE leftover meal so figured on the high end. She has recipe links that have some yummy sounding recipes for 2 (using 2 of her portions, 1 of mine I think, if I figured this right).
This was great timing as I just could not resist the large bag of onions at Costco the other day, then worried about using them up.
To convert her curry base to U.S. measurements, this is what I came up with, which is unproven at this point. I shall report back!
Make Your Own Indian Curry Paste
Ingredients
- 2 Tbs oil this is 1 tsp more than she called for but I went for easy measuring
- 2 pounds onions diced
- 1.5 ” piece of ginger peeled (with the back of a spoon) and grated
- 6 cloves garlic peeled and crushed
- 3-4 green chilies diced
- 2 Tbs water
- 4 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1 15- oz can diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup plus of water like 1/8 cup more
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a pan and cook the diced onions over medium heat until very dark brown, stirring often. As she says in her comments, you are not after the mild onion flavor here. You want them BROWNed but not burned.
- Meanwhile, put the ginger, garlic, chilies and water in a blender and process until smooth.
- Once the onions are browned, add the ginger, garlic and chili mix and cook 3 minutes.
- Add the cumin, turmeric, garam masala and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring.
- Pop the can of tomatoes into the same blender and whir until blended. Dump this into the pan along with the salt, chopped cilantro and 1 cup (plus) water. Stir and simmer 15 minutes over low heat.
- Take off the heat and let cool before freezing. This makes enough for 4 meals for 4-5 people so freeze according to your family size.
- See http://mortgagefreeinthree.com/2012/05/curry-in-a-hurry/ for recipes on how to use.
[…] other night I used some of the frozen curry base I made a little while ago and translated the UK recipe plus made a few changes, as I used canned […]