The 30-Minute Curry Every UK Home Cook Should Know

The 30-Minute Curry Every UK Home Cook Should Know

You do not need 14 spices to make a good curry. You need one well-balanced curry powder, an onion, garlic, ginger, and a tin of something.

This is the curry that pays back the price of a £2.99 jar of Costack Curry Powder in one dinner.

The recipe

Serves 4. Time: 30 minutes.

  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, grated
  • 2 tsp grated ginger (or Costack Ginger Pure Ground)
  • 2 tbsp Costack Curry Powder
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes
  • 1 tin coconut milk
  • 600g chicken thighs (or prawns or chickpeas)
  • Salt to taste
  • Coriander to finish

Method

  1. Onion in oil. 6 minutes on medium until golden. Patience here.
  2. Garlic + ginger. 1 minute.
  3. Curry powder. 30 seconds. Smell the difference. This is the bloom.
  4. Tomatoes in. Stir, scrape the pan, 3 minutes.
  5. Coconut milk. Stir. Add chicken (or chickpeas). Salt.
  6. Simmer 18-20 minutes. Lid off the last 5.
  7. Coriander on top. Done.

Make it 4 different curries

Same base, swap the protein:

  • Chicken: browning thighs first deepens the flavour
  • Prawns: added in the last 4 minutes only
  • Chickpeas + spinach: vegan, ready in 18 minutes
  • Lamb: mince version, brown first, then base

Costack Curry Powder is balanced for general curry use, not heat-forward. If you want fire, add 1 tsp Costack Cameroon Pepper with the curry powder.

Costack Mild Curry Powder - 12-spice mild curry mix in re-sealable sachet

Serving

  • Basmati rice cooked with cardamom and bay
  • Or naan from the supermarket warmed in foil
  • Mango chutney on the side
  • A spoon of yoghurt to cool

Why supermarket curries do not match this

Pre-made supermarket curry sauces are loaded with sugar and emulsifiers. They taste fine for the first bite. By the third bite they taste flat. Home-made with proper curry powder layers complexity that a jar cannot fake.

Related reads

Get Costack Curry Powder for £2.99 →

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