Choice of meat and quantity: Buy diced meat or dice it yourself into bite size pieces. Pork, lamb, beef, chicken or even duck are all good. Goat is thought to be the best but Sue would not eat goat or duck so I don’t use these.
500g of meat makes more than enough curry for 4 people or two meals for 2 people.
Process and main ingredients: Peel and chop up fresh ginger and garlic – say 2 to 3 heap tablespoons of each but this is not critical. You might use a little more ginger than garlic. Put the chopped ginger and garlic in a large pot.
Chop up 2-3 onions depending on their size and put these into the pot.
Add some olive oil to pot (say 2 tablespoons) and cook the onions, etc for around 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
Add the curry paste. I use Patak vindaloo paste but there are less hot pastes like madras. How much paste depends on taste but, for a quite hot curry, I use half a jar per 500g of meat. Stir the curry paste in well while you continue to cook on a low flame for a few minutes. The aromas should be great.
Add the meat and continue to cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the meat is sealed.
Add one tin of chopped (or whole) tomatoes and the best part of a tin of water (use tomato tin). Stir this all in and allow to cook slowly (simmer really) with a lid on the pot. I usually add one or two additional chopped tomatoes but this is purely optional.
Other ingredients: No other ingredients are really necessary but I always add a few other veggies for taste and to fill out the curry. I add these shortly after the tomatoes. Per 500g of meat, I might add:
· One sliced and chopped capsicum (red, green or yellow);
· One large chopped carrot;
· One potato sliced into smallish pieces;
· Beans, peas or both;
· Some curry leaves (say a dozen)
Continue to cook on a low heat for 1-2 hours. Check occasionally and stir to ensure it does not burn. Add more water if necessary to ensure there is some liquid in the pot.
Serving: Serve with boiled rice, papadums and perhaps some mango chutney.
