Curry recipes

This is hardly haute cuisine. Basically all you need to do is make the sauce by adding the can of tomatoes with the paprika, onion powder, sugar and butter into a hot pan and reduce until you have a thick sauce.

Achari is a type of curry from the Punjab which has this spice blend as its base. Whizz all the whole spices in an electric spice grinder if you’re lucky enough to have one. If not, do it the old fashioned way with a pestle and mortar.

Put the coconut 'cream' (see cook's tip below) into a wok or large pan and fry over a medium heat for 3-5 minutes stirring all the time. Add the curry paste and curry powder and fry for a couple of minutes.

Joint the chicken into 8 pieces – legs, thighs and cut each breast in half – and place in a non-metallic dish. Leave the skin on and the bone in. Keep the carcass for stock. If you don’t want to joint a chicken, you can just use pre-bought chicken pieces.

Heat a large frying pan and add a slash of oil. Brown the lamb mince over a high heat until it has a good colour. Add the onion, garlic, ginger, cardamoms and cloves. Reduce the heat then fry for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Heat some groundnut oil in a casserole pan and add the meat and half of the garam masala. Fry until well browned. Remove from the pan using a slotted spoon and set aside.

This is pretty simple, put all the ingredients into a liquidiser or a pestle and mortar to combine them. To make it easier add a little water. This will make around 4 - 5 tablespoons of paste

In a non-stick frying pan, heat the oil and fry the onion, garlic and cumin seeds over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden.

Heat oil in a large pan and add mustard seeds. When they start to pop, add the onion, garlic, ginger and cook, stirring, until the onion is soft.

Fry onion and garlic slowly until soft and honeyed. Stir in mustard seeds, coriander, turmeric, cardamom and chillies. Leave to cook for 2-3 mins, then add carrots and continue cooking over low heat for 4-5 mins.

First make the paste. Roast and ground the cumin, cloves and coriander, add a bit of grated nutmeg. Put this and the rest of the ingredients into a blender and blend to a smooth paste, if you need ot add a little water then do so.

Fry the onion and pepper gently in groundnut oil until soft and slightly coloured. Add the curry powder and fry off for a minute or two.

Heat 2 tbsp of groundnut oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add cinnamon and cardamom, followed by the mustard seeds and cook until they pop and crackle.

Grind whole spices (cardamom, cloves,peppercorns, cumin seeds) in pestle and mortar. Add ginger, garlic, salt and chillies and grind to a paste

Put the lamb into a heavy-based pan with the spice paste, onion, garlic, ginger, curry leaves, coconut, salt and enough water to just cover. bring to the boil then cover and simmer gently for 1 and a half hours or until the lamb is tender.