BASIC CURRY SAUCE

Basic Curry Sauce image

This is a very versatile Indian curry sauce that can be served as a main course with meats and/or vegetables or as a sauce for dipping or to spice up veggie side dishes. It's great over baked potatoes.

Provided by Lom

Categories Side Dish Sauces and Condiments Recipes Sauce Recipes

Time 45m

Yield 32

Number Of Ingredients 16

Ingredients

2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 tablespoon margarine
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons ground coriander
2 tablespoons ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tomatoes
2 serrano chile peppers, seeded
½ cup fresh cilantro
½ cup yogurt, whisked until smooth
3 cups water

Steps:

Heat oil and margarine in a small skillet or wok over medium high heat. Add onion and saute until very brown, 10 to 15 minutes. (Note: This is an important step; if onion is not cooked well, sauce will taste funny.)
Add ginger and garlic to onion and saute for an additional 2 minutes. Process onion/ginger/garlic mixture in food processor until smooth. Do not rinse food processor.
Place onion mixture in a large saucepan. Stir in the cinnamon, black pepper, coriander, cumin, turmeric and cayenne pepper and cook over low heat until mixture is thick and has the consistency of a paste.
Puree tomatoes, chile peppers and cilantro in food processor until smooth. Add to onion mixture and stir well over low heat, cooking off moisture from tomatoes and cilantro. Add yogurt a little bit at a time, stirring constantly to avoid curdling.
Blend the whole mixture in food processor to puree it (for a very smooth sauce). Return to saucepan, add water and increase heat to high; bring sauce to a rolling boil. Cover saucepan and boil for 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer until desired consistency is reached.
To serve with meat, cook the meat first separately, then simmer for 5 to 10 minutes in the sauce before serving over rice or with bread. To serve with vegetables, steam raw veggies first 4 to 5 minutes, then simmer for 5 to 10 minutes in the sauce before serving.

Nutrition Facts : Calories 24.8 calories, Carbohydrate 2.4 g, Cholesterol 0.2 mg, Fat 1.6 g, Fiber 0.5 g, Protein 0.6 g, SaturatedFat 0.3 g, Sodium 43 mg, Sugar 0.6 g