Tomato Gravy Two Times Two Times......

Pin It Now! When V asked me to make something spicy this Sunday I realized that it had been a while since we had some spicy curries. His resolution to eat healthy foods required a break :-)
On other such occasions I would pull out packet of readymade curry pastes put in some coconut milk and slide in chiken pieces. But I did not have any of these at hand today. Also V recently removed coconut milk from his diet realizing it being high in cholesterol.
I came up with the following recipe for the gravy. It turned out that I made 2-3 times the paste required for my curry. But I found this paste to be very versatile and I could easily use it for another curry next day.

Tomato Gravy Paste
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1/2 finely chopped onion
2 medium sized tomatoes finely chopped
8-10 cashews
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp coconut fresh/dry
1 tbsp coriander powder
3 cloves of garlic
1 inch ginger
1 tbsp paprika/kashmiri red chilli powder
Handful of cilantro.
1 tbsp oil

Fry all the ingredient in hot oil for 5-6 minutes. The mixture should become as dry as possible. Make into a paste when cooled. Keep aside.

Once this paste was ready the curry was really simple.

Chicken Curry ( My style)
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2-3 tbsp curry paste (recipe above)
5-6 curry leaves
1-2 dried red chillies
8-10 pieces of chicken pieces( marinated in salt, turmeric and chilli powder)
1-2 tbsp chilli powder (more/less depending on spice level)
salt to taste
2-3 tbsp oil

1. Heat oil in pan.Splutter the curry leaves and dried red chillies. Add the chilli powder.
2. Add the chicken pieces and fry for a minute.
3. Now add the curry paste and fry for 3-4 minutes till the oil separates. At this point if the paste is too thick then it will take longer for the oil to separate.
4.Then add water to adjust the consistency.
5.Add salt to taste. Adjust spice level.

At this point I always allow my curries to boil and then taste them. Mine felt a tad spicy for V so added some lemon juice and 1/2 tbsp sugar. Garnish with some extra cilantro.
I served it with some in-store baked tortillas. Gone are my days of fresh rotis aka phulkas.Ahh......... With a little one around one has to settle for some outside help...

Next is another recipe using the paste made in this recipe.