Everyone has a curry they fall back on. This is ours, and it’s built for actual weeknights: one pan, one spoonful of Roosma Basaar, and about half an hour. No jar of paste hiding in the fridge door, no row of spice tins to measure from. The blend does the thinking, the pan does the work, and dinner smells like somebody’s mum is visiting.
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp oil (or ghee for extra richness)
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp garlic purée
- 1 tbsp ginger purée
- 450g protein: chicken, lamb, or tofu
- 1 tbsp Roosma Basaar spice blend
- Salt to taste
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 250ml water
- Fresh coriander to garnish
One tablespoon of Basaar is doing the job of a full spice rack here. Inside it: chilli, turmeric, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, mustard, and the warm ones, cinnamon, cloves, black cardamom, star anise. Buy those separately and you’d spend twenty quid and use each one twice. That’s the whole point of the blend.
Method
- Heat the oil in a medium pan over a medium heat.
- Add the onion and cook to a deep golden brown, stirring regularly. Don’t rush this one. Pale onions make a pale curry, and the browning is where half the flavour comes from.
- Add the garlic and ginger purée and let them sizzle for 2-3 minutes.
- Add your protein and stir until sealed on all sides.
- Add the Basaar spice blend, salt, chopped tomatoes, and water. Increase the heat and cover.
- Simmer until the oil rises to the surface and the sauce turns glossy. Not a mistake. That is the finish line. More on this below.
- Garnish with fresh coriander and serve with rice or naan.
The sign your curry is actually done
Most recipes tell you to simmer for a set number of minutes. Ask anyone who grew up around a curry pot and they’ll tell you to watch the pan instead. When the sauce has cooked down properly, the oil separates and rises to the top in little pools, and the whole thing turns from watery to that restaurant-style gloss. That is the bhuna, the moment the spices have properly cooked out and married the tomatoes. If the oil hasn’t risen, the curry isn’t done, whatever the clock says. Give it five more minutes and watch it transform. Once you’ve seen it happen you’ll never cook a curry by timer again.
Slow cooker chicken curry
Works beautifully, with two adjustments. First, still do the pan work: brown the onions and seal the chicken before anything goes in the pot. A slow cooker can’t brown anything, and if you skip this the curry tastes boiled. Second, halve the water. Nothing evaporates under a lid, so 125ml is plenty. Low for 6 hours or high for 3-4. If the sauce is looking thin at the end, lid off, high, and give it twenty minutes.
Breast or thighs?
Thighs, if you’re asking us. They’ve got more fat, which means more flavour, and they stay juicy however long the pot simmers. Breast works and cooks faster, but it wants watching, because it goes from done to dry in about five minutes. If breast is what’s in the fridge, cut it chunky and add it a little later.
Why did my curry go wrong?
Watery sauce: it just needed longer. Keep simmering, lid off, until the oil rises. The water is meant to cook back out.
Tastes flat: almost always the onions. If they went in and out in three minutes, the base never built. Next time take them to a deep gold, and be braver with the salt, curry needs more than you think.
Chicken like cardboard: overcooked breast. Switch to thighs, or add breast pieces later in the simmer.
Oil pooling on top: not a fault. Read the section above, that’s the curry telling you it’s ready. Stir it back through or spoon a little off, your call.
Serving and storage
Rice or naan, obviously, and a spoon of yogurt or raita on the side if you’ve got it. A squeeze of lemon right at the end sharpens everything up.
Seasoned curry cooks know it is better tomorrow. Overnight in the fridge, the spices settle in and the whole curry deepens. Make it a day ahead for guests and take the credit. Keeps 3 days in the fridge, freezes for 3 months, and reheats gently on the hob with a splash of water.