Any curry dish has to have a basis for a sauce. You don’t have the basis, a foundation or anything that gives the dish a definition and what it’s meant to be, you don’t have anything.

People who love Indian cooking but may be new to it, yet want to cook it and enjoy the cuisine should grasp the very principles first and then move on to more complex dishes.

Not that I want to preach to anyone! But hey, everyone loves Indian food and I get so many people asking me what they should be doing and how they should make a sauce or whatever it is, that I thought it would be a good idea to start from the bottom and go upwards in simple, easy-to-follow steps of cooking an Indian meal.

So folks, for my various upcoming blogs, I’m going to concentrate on various recipes – check out the ones below on how to make an onion masala and a tomato gravy – so that you can just follow them and cook yourself and your family and friends Indian cooking the authentic way!

Onion Masala

Method

1. Heat oil in a pan, add chopped onions and zeera, cook until brown and tender.
2. Add ginger and garlic paste and stir.
3. Add all the spices, tomatoes and tomato paste.
4. Cook for around 10 minutes until the oil separates. Remove from Pan and use as required in recipes.
5. Cook for 30 minutes and leave to cool.

Tomato Gravy

Method

1. Wash and clean tomatoes and cook over the fire with green chillies until tomatoes are soft. Puree the tomatoes and strain.
2. In another pan heat oil, add ginger garlic, all the remaining spices. Add tomato paste.
3. Add puree of tomatoes, add butter. Cook until the sauce is thick and oil starts to float on the top. Remove from fire and use as desired.