I've always been a huge fan of British Indian Restaurant (BIR) food and have tried to replicate the dishes at home for years with little success. About two years ago, I came across a chef called Julian Voigt and his channel on youtube. Having subscribed to his e-book, I've been producing restaurant quality BIR curries ever since.

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Our friends and family have also followed in my foot steps but the problem for them is having to buy many different spices in order to achieve the BIR results but only using these spices infequently. This inevitably results in lots of out of date spices filling the kitchen cupboards. 

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So, the pressure has been on to produce a ready made curry mixed powder and after extensive testing and cooking, DA MALAT has launched CURRY BASE GRAVY.

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Curry Base Gravy is an essential ingredient of British Indian Restaurant cooking together with CURRY MIXED POWDER and is used in most curry dishes.

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* To make the base gravy place 300ml water in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Mix 1 tsp CURRY BASE GRAVY into the water. Put 1 x tsp cornflour into a jug with a little cold water and mix well. Stir the cornflour solution into the saucepan containing the base gravy and simmer for 5 minutes, stiring from time to time.

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Chicken Tikka Masala (3 - 4 servings)

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Ingredients (chicken breast marinade)

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650g chicken breast fillets cut into 2cm cubes

400g pot natural yoghurt

1 x tbsp DA MALAT TANDOORI MASALA BARBECUE SPICE MIX

1 x Tbsp DA MALAT Curry Mixed Powder

1 x Tbsp Patak's Tandoori Marinade

1 x tsp mint sauce

Juice of half a lemon

Few drops of red food colouring (optional)

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Empty the pot of natural yoghurt into a bowl and mix in the Tandoori Masala Barbecue Spice Mix and food colouring. Add the chicken and mix well. Cover with food wrap (Cling Film) and refrigerate (preferably over night)

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Ingredients (main curry sauce)

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600ml base gravy (see above *)

1 x Tbsp DA MALAT CURRY MIXED POWDER

1 x Tbsp tomato puree

2 x medium onions, sliced

Marinade left over from the chicken

40g coconut flour (not desiccated coconut as it's too coarse)

30g ground almonds

1 x Tbsp Patak's Tandoori Marinade

1 x Tbsp methi leaves

1 x Tbsp ginger/ garlic paste

1 x tsp DA MALAT Garam Masala

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Method

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Mix all of the ingredients for the marinade in a large bowl and soil in two. save half for the curry sauce and add the chicken to the other half in the large bowl. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours but preferably overnight.

Take the marinated chicken from the refrigerator and leave to stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Fry the chicken in a large frying pan using a little vegetable oil (not olive oil) then set to one side. Add the DA MALAT Curry Mixed Powder to the frying pan and fry gently for a couple of minutes. Add the sliced onions and fry for a few minutes then add the methi leaves and cook for a minute. Add the tomato puree and garlic/ ginger paste. 

 

Add a little of the base gravy to prevent the onions from burning then add the Patak's Tandoori Marinade. Add the base gravy a little at a time and simmer gently for a few minutes. put the remainder of the marinade in and Sprinkle in the coconut flour and ground almond and mix well. Just before serving, add the Garam Masala.

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Serve with Basmati Rice and a wedge of lemon.

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