Fancy a curry? Here are two recipes to kick off a curry night: PANEER JALFREZI, and SAAG ALOO.Â
These two Northern Indian dishes take about the same time to cook, and both sauces benefit from being made well in advance. A day before you plan to eat is ideal, but if 24 hours of flavour melding is not an option for you, they work just fine made on the night.Â
When throwing a curry night, I recommend aiming to have a range of textures and flavours: some drier curries, and some saucier, and choosing one or two different spices in each dish. We ate them with my EGG CURRY recipe (minus the prawns) featured here and with a lemony dahl.
This recipe is very quick once you’ve made the sauce. The key thing is to use a non stick pan when frying your paneer and to not skimp on the fenugreek - a revelation!
Ingredients
For the sauce
80g ghee or sunflower oil
4 garlic cloves, crushedÂ
2 tbsp coriander seeds, coarsely pounded
6 red chillies, coarsely pounded in a mortar
2 onions, finely chopped
5cm piece fresh root ginger, finely chopped or crushed
3 green chillies, finely chopped
5 fresh ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground garam masala
2 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves, crumbled
For the stir-fry
1 tbs ghee or corn oil
½ tsp crushed dried chillies
2 red or yellow peppers, deseeded and cut into stripsÂ
1 red onion, sliced 1cm thick
600g paneer, cut into 3cm batons
A handful of fresh coriander leaves, chopped
½ tsp dried fenugreek leaves, crumbled
Juice of
1 lemon
Method
First make your sauce. Heat the oil or ghee in a pan, add the garlic and let it cook until it begins to just turn brown on the outside edges. Now add the coriander seeds and red chillies. When they release their aromas, add the onions and the teaspoons of salt, and cook until they start changing to light golden. Stir in the ginger, green chillies and tomatoes. Leave on a low heat and cook until the sauce thickens. When it is ready you should see the fat from the oil start to separate out. Add the garam masala and stir. You can set it aside at this stage for 1-2 days if needed.
When the rest of your curry night dishes are ready, you can start the paneer. Heat the ghee or oil in a wok or smiliar. Add the onion, pepper strips and crushed chillis. Stir and sauté on a high heat for one minute, then add the paneer and stir for another two minutes, until some sides are nicely goldened. Add the sauce and mix well. Once everything is heated through, check the seasoning. Finish with the fresh coriander, crumbled fenugreek leaves and lemon juice.
                  SAAG ALOO
You can make the sauce smooth by blending it before you add the potatoes, or leave as is. You can take or leave the potatoes, as you like.Â
Ingredients
4 potatoes
1 tbsp oil
2 onions, chopped
1 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 bags fresh spinach or 300g frozen spinach
2 medium fresh tomatoes, pureéd in blender
1 tsp chopped ginger
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp salt or to your taste
½ cup yoghurt
2 tbsp of gram or corn flour
½ tomato thinly sliced
¼ cup water
1 tsp amchoor mango powder
A handful of fresh coriander, chopped
Method
First boil your potatoes in their skins (cut them into smaller chunks if some are larger, so that they are all an even size). Boiling them in their skins means they don’t go fluffy and break apart in the curry. When they are cooked, peel and cut into your preferred size.
Next, heat the oil up in a large pot. Add the cumin seeds and the onions and salt. Fry for a couple of minutes until the onions turn translucent, then add the garlic and ginger followed by the powdered spices. Cook until the raw aroma disappears and all starts to turn golden, and then add the puréed tomatoes. Roughly chop the spinach, and add to the pot, stirring well. Turn the heat down and allow to simmer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, stir the flour into the yoghurt, so that it is fully incorporated - this stops the yoghurt from curdling in the sauce when it comes into contact with the heat and acidity of the tomatoes. Add the yoghurt mix to the sauce, stirring gently. To finish, add water if the sauce has become dry, followed by the amchoor and garnish with the fresh coriander.
