How do I make a curry from scratch?

Most curries share the same structure regardless of region. Learning the sequence, rather than a recipe, means you can cook a curry from what you have — and it explains why jar sauces taste flat by comparison.

What you'll need

• Onions
• Garlic and ginger
• Whole and ground spices
• Tinned tomatoes or coconut milk (optional)
• Fresh coriander (optional)

Step by step

1. Cook the onions properly — this takes 10-15 minutes.Not five. Soft and genuinely golden. This is the base of the whole dish and it is the step most often rushed.
2. Toast whole spices in the oil first.Cumin seeds, cardamom, cinnamon, mustard seeds. Thirty seconds until fragrant, before or alongside the onions depending on the dish.
3. Add garlic and ginger and cook briefly.A minute, no more. They burn quickly and burnt garlic makes the whole curry bitter.
4. Add ground spices and cook them in the fat for 30-60 seconds.Turmeric, coriander, cumin, chilli, garam masala. They need fat and heat. Added to liquid they stay dusty and muted.
5. Add the tomato or paste base and cook it out.Until the oil separates and the mixture darkens — several minutes. This is what makes a curry taste developed rather than raw.
6. Add the main ingredient and enough liquid to nearly cover.Meat, vegetables, pulses. Stock, water or coconut milk. Not so much that it becomes soup.
7. Simmer until tender, adjusting the consistency.Twenty minutes for vegetables or chicken, an hour or more for tough cuts. Uncovered to reduce, covered to keep it loose.
8. Finish with acid, fresh herbs and garam masala.Lemon or lime, coriander, and a pinch of garam masala off the heat. This final layer is what separates good from ordinary.

Tips

• Make a large batch of the onion, garlic, ginger and spice base and freeze it in portions. It turns an hour-long curry into a twenty-minute one.
• Adding a spoon of yoghurt or coconut milk at the end enriches and mellows without dominating. Add it off the heat so it does not split.
• Toasting and grinding your own whole spices makes a bigger difference here than in almost any other dish.

Common mistakes

• Rushing the onions — They are the foundation. Five minutes gives a thin raw-tasting curry that no amount of spice compensates for.
• Adding ground spices to liquid — They need fat and heat to release their aroma. In liquid they remain dusty and the curry tastes powdery.
• Not cooking out the tomato base — Raw tomato tastes acidic and thin. Cooking until the oil separates is the visual signal that the base is ready.

Questions people ask