Good basic curry sauce recipe anyone? that I can freeze and add meat/chicken to at later date.:)

Here is one I use for chicken or vegetables.

One large chopped onion
One red and one green chilli (if you want it hotter, just use red chillis) finely chopped
A thumb sized piece of fresh ginger chopped finely
Two large cloves of garlic
A small cooking apple, grated
Juice of half a small lemon

2 teaspoons of turmeric
Half a teaspoon of cumin seeds ground
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Seeds from 6 or 7 cardamom pods, ground
Quarter teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon mustard seeds (optional)
1 teaspoon Garam masala
Three quarters of a pint of good chicken stock or vegetable stock
One tablespoonful of tomato purée.

Heat a tablespoonful of oil in a large pan and fry the onion, finely chopped chillis, garlic and ginger on a low heat . Add the cooking apple and cook until apple and onion are softened but not coloured. In a separate small pan, dry fry the spices for a minute or so to release the oils but be careful not to burn them. Add the spices and the tomato purée, and a little of the stock to the onion mixture to make a paste and cook for a few minutes. Add lemon juice to taste and half a teaspoon of salt (optional). Gradually add more of the stock until the sauce is the consistency you want, but you can always add ground almonds or creamed coconut to thicken it. Creamed coconut will also dissipate any excessive heat.
To this sauce I will add chicken pieces which have been browned, and the garam masala, then cook for a further half an hour until the chicken is cooked. It is also a good base for vegetable curry.

Thanks,Greyduster. That looks a really useful recipe,and not too much faff!

Sorry, I was on the way out when I wrote this down - should have said, only dry fry the cardamom seeds, the cumin seeds and the mustard seeds, and then grind them afterwards.

This is a recipe for curry powder that an Indian lady gave me when we lived in Manchester:
Mix 2 teasp each of ground coriander and ground cummin, 1tsp turmeric, half tsp chilli powder. a little vinegar to make a paste (optional.)
To use, heat some oil fry chopped onions until soft, add curry powder and a few cardomum pods. Fry gently.
Then add a variety of other things as Greyduster suggests. I like tomato purée, a sharp apple, etc.
At the end of cooking creamed coconut. You buy this in a block.
When I stayed with son in India the food there was very lightly spiced. I think they cook the veg chicken fish etc with just a light sprinkling of spices, no chilli.

I make my curries using double cream and they freeze just fine, just re-heat slowly over the hob, and don't bung in the microwave.

I make my curries using double cream and they freeze well, just re-heat gently on the hob, don't bung it in the microwave and it will be fine

I make mine by chopping a medium onion, fry it off. Add chopped garlic. Once they are soft add one and half/two (depend on your taste) desert spoons of medium curry powder, cook that off and add one tin of tomatoes and half a tin of creamed coconut milk (I use Lidls and put other half in a pot and freeze for next time). I usually add a stock cube, chicken or beef depending on what I'm using for curry.
Let it all cook down and thicken. Season if needed.
If I'm going to make it for evening meal I brown chicken/lamb and remove before I cook the onion etc so that I have the juices from that in the pan, and then add the meat back in with the tomato/coconut. Add peppers and mushrooms near the end of cooking so that they don't go too soft.
Very quick and simple, no messing about, and things are always in the cupboard.

When we were stationed in Singapore in the sixties we had a local Indian grocer who would mix you up a spice blend if you told him what meat or veg you were using. He was always spot on! My son tells me there is a place in York where you can get the same thing; fresh ground spices tailored to your ingredients. I have Pat Chapman's curry bible, but to my shame I have yet to cook anything out of it! Very interesting reading though!

I like curries made with coconut milk or creamed coconut. They freeze well.

"Singapore in the sixties" - that's when we were there, *Greyduster. '66 to '68.
There were so many varieties of curry.
Someone told me that the very spicy ones were to hide the taste of meat that was starting to go 'off'.
As above, I loved the food in S. India, mostly vegetarian as they wouldn't eat cow's meat - a holy animal.

I love curried lamb. To my mind it is the best meat to use in a curry, but DH won't touch it ☹️. DS is not keen either.

A swim and a curry lunch at the Brittania Club (unless you were an officer of course!). Good times.

going to write the recopies down..thanks to all..(thumbs up icon we need)

I like coconut milk in a curry too, as I prefer them a bit milder.
Sometimes I stir in plain yogurt at the last minute.

Adding mango to a chicken curry is lovely too.

And cashew nuts!

Thanks - very useful

mmmmm...........yum!

My SIL is Anglo-Indian and she has stopped using her own mix of spices in favour of a Pakak's Jalfrezi Paste not sauce so I use this and its lovely. We like it a bit spicy and no cream or cocoanut (DH high cholesterol).

Singapore, too, 1969 -71. Just loved the curries there and have been trying to recreate them for the last 40 odd years! Nothing like curry lunch in the mess on Sundays, a treat to be looked forward to all week. I was a teacher at the infant school on the Naval Base.

I was always told that a Singapore curry is a bit different to the Indian curries in that it has elements of Chinese spices in it, like star anise and cassia bark. They used to serve a very good one at a small hotel on the coast we stayed in while we were looking for a house.

It may not suit bikergran but I love Jamie Oliver's vindaloo recipe. It is very like vindaloo that I have eaten in Goa and does not blow your head off.

Talking of curries can any one advise about the turmeric tablets you can get for arthritis my h wants to try them, but suffers with stomach ulcer. Can't find anything on line about that problem.

Just a tip. If you are using fresh ginger or chillies often it is useful to have them ready to use. I grate a large whole piece of ginger & freeze it in ice cube trays so I Just have to pop one or 2 into mix. I freeze chillies whole & grate them into mix. You can just use as much of it as you need & put the rest back. I grow chillies so I have loads of different ones ready to use in freezer.
Saves a lot of faffing about.

I'm currently on Slimming World Food Optimising plan so really watching oil, cream content etc and SW do a amazing Curry Cookbook ... great if you don't want to pile on calories. Have tried out a lot of the recipes and they are seriously good... I'm a brummie and well used to a good curry ! Goood luck x