What’s a good curry without a good base to give it that depth and intense flavour? There are so many different bases or sauces to make a killer curry! You will find that in most curries tomatoes, spices and chilli are regular additions.
Tomatoes when cooked with the right spices can give you the most delicious-tasting basis for the much-loved curries. There are numerous combinations of spices you could bring together to create a sensational base sauce for a curry.
Here is my humble offering of a delectable curry sauce that will make your dishes taste heaps better. Makhani simply means buttery (of butter too). It’s hard not to drool as I am typing this. As the name suggests, it’s all the good stuff – creamy, buttery, and bloody yummy! If you have been making curries out of the readymade sauces, try this and you will never go back those artificial-tasting stuff!
I use this sauce to make paneer, mixed vegetables, chickpea curries and have even made an Indianised take on a pasta bake! The creamy, buttery sauce renders the dishes a whole new dimension.
Ingredients:
Ingredients
- Ripe Tomatoes – 150g
- Onion – 60g
- Ginger garlic paste – 1 tspn
- Butter – 4 tblspns
- Heavy cream – 4 tblspns.
- Turmeric powder – ¼ tspn
- Chilli powder – 1 tspn
- Kashmiri chilli powder (optional) – 2 tspn
- Tandoori masala – 1 ½ heaped tspns
- Salt – As required
Directions
- Blend the tomatoes and onion into a puree and keep aside.
- Heat butter in a pan on medium flame.
- Add ginger-garlic paste, sauté for a few seconds.
- Pour the puree into the pan.
- Add the dry spices and salt.
- Give it all a good mix.
- Turn the flame to high and let the sauce simmer for 5 to 7 minutes.
- Keep stirring it periodically to make sure the sauce doesn’t burn.
- Once done, add the cream and mix to combine with the sauce.
- Simmer for another 2 minutes.
- Optionally, add more butter at this stage if you like. Butter makes it all better, no? *wink*
- If you like the sauce thicker, allow it to simmer till the desired thickness is achieved.
- If you prefer a runnier sauce, add more water and simmer for a few minutes.
- Remove the cooked sauce and transfer it into a fridge-safe container and let it cool before you refrigerate it.
- The sauce stays fresh for up to 5 days in the fridge.
Tips:
- The ingredients have been measured to keep in mind my ketogenic macros. Adjust quantities of the ingredients to suit your dietary needs.
- No tandoori masala? Replace it with garam masala or other Indian spice powders.
- This sauce tastes best with butter but can do just as well with ghee.
- If you’re vegan/lactose intolerant, use coconut oil in pace of butter and coconut cream/coconut milk in place of cream.
- Add or omit spices to suit your preference.
- Use required quantities of sauce to make curries. Add more water or cream to thin or thicken the curry, as required.
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