You can add the main ingredient/s of your choice to this pathia sauce.
Pathia sauce is one of the most popular curry house style curries at Indian restaurants. It's sweet, sour and delicious.
In my cookbook 'The Curry Guy', I featured a pathia sauce recipe which served four. Here I would like to give it to you as a curry house portion which serves 1 - 2 people.
Although I used chicken in the sauce, feel free to use the main ingredient of your choice or just make the sauce to serve at a later date with whatever you want in it.
Lamb, paneer and prawns are all popular options.
Working ahead...
You can make this pathia sauce up to two days ahead of time.
If you do this, the flavours will develop and your pathia curry will be even better. You can also freeze the sauce.
Pre-cooked ingredients
When cooking British Indian restaurant (BIR) style curries, pre-cooked ingredients like chicken, lamb and prawns are added. The reason for this is simple. You want the meat to be tender and ready to serve.
Marinating and then cooking meat and seafood also adds flavour to the curry.
The Base Sauce
To make curry house style curries like this pathia sauce, a base sauce or gravy is used. This base sauce speeds up cooking and also gives the curry its famous texture and flavour.
My 'go to' recipe is right here.
Yes, you do need to make this sauce if you want to get BIR cooking right but it's so convenient to have on hand. Once you're prepped your base sauce, you can literally make a pathia sauce in minutes.
If you like this BIR pathia sauce recipe, you might like to try some of these curry house favourites too...
Tikka masala sauce
Korma sauce
Pasanda sauce
Chasni sauce
Chilli garlic sauce
Ceylon sauce
Jalfrezi sauce
Keema sauce
Bhuna sauce
Methi sauce
Madras sauce
Vindaloo sauce
Phaal sauce
Pathia Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp rapeseed (canola) oil
- 1/2 medium onion - finely chopped
- 1 tbsp garlic and ginger paste
- 1 tbsp mixed powder
- 1/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 70ml (1/4 cup) tomato puree
- 300ml (1 1/4 cups) base sauce
- 1 tbsp mango chutney
- 1/2 tsp tamarind concentrate
- 1/2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
- Coriander (Cilantro) to garnish\
- Salt to taste
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
Instructions
- Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a frying pan. When hot, stir in the chopped onion and fry for about three minutes until soft and translucent.
- Stir in the garlic and ginger paste and fry for a further 30 seconds and then add mango chutney and tamarind, followed by the mixed powder, chilli powder and sugar.
- Give this all a good stir and then add the tomato puree. Bring this all to a simmer and then add half of the base sauce. Bring to a simmer, only stirring if the sauce is sticking to the pan.
- Around the edges, the sauce will begin to caramelise to the sides. Scrape this into the sauce.
- Now is a good time to add the main ingredient of your choice. Or you could just carry on and make the sauce so that you can add the main ingredient later.
- Add the remaining base sauce and bring to a simmer. Continue simmering for a few minutes until you are happy with the consistency.
- Add the dried fenugreek leaves (methi) by rubbing the leaves between your fingers. Garnish with the coriander (cilantro) and add salt to taste. Give it all a good squeeze of lemon to finish.
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Kabal michhiana says
How you make base sauce, what is base sauce? Didn’t understand understand that but . Kabal
Dan Toombs says
Base sauce is the foundation of a lot of my curry recipes. Here is the recipe
https://greatcurryrecipes.net/2019/10/08/instant-curry-house-base-sauce/
Amy Hunter says
Would this work without the tamarind concentrate? It’s the only recipe I’ve seen to use it so don’t want to fork out on an extra ingredient to just sit in the cupboard and go to waste!
Dan Toombs says
Hi Amy
Yes just miss out the tamarind. It is a souring agent so add some extra lemon or lime juice to compensate.
Thanks
Dan
Fozzy says
Hi Dan, I received one of your books from Santa and I am planning on trying this recipe. If I wanted to add some heat what would you suggest? I usually like a curry with plenty of chillis in but want to give the sweet and sour of this Pathia a go. Thanks in advance. Also just wanted to say thanks for getting me addicted to your Hariyali Chicken kebab recipe!
Dan Toombs says
Hi
Just add some finely chopped green chillies until the heat you desire is reached.
Thanks
Dan
Tim says
I’ve made this Pathia a few times now this year, (it’s outstanding by the way!) for a bit more heat I just added extra Kashmiri chilli powder, maybe two tbsps instead of half, basically. It wasn’t red hot but satisfied my thirst for chilli whilst keeping the family happy.
Dan Toombs says
Great to hear, thanks for letting me know.
Dan
Tracey says
Hi
Which of your books has a pathia recipe as I am looking to buy one
Dan Toombs says
That recipe is in The Curry Guy Bible
Thanks
Dan
Karl says
Very nice - had a couple of mangos that just wouldn't ripen, so threw them into this with a bit of bok choi. Well balanced flavours and an easy one to put together
Dan Toombs says
That's great. Thanks very much.
Dan
Trev says
Hi Dan,
I've made quite a few of your recipes over the years and they have been fantastic! I noticed that this recipe is similar to the original posted quite a few years back, but states it only serves 1-2 portions as opposed to 4, is this a conscious decision or just a little glitch?
many thanks,
Trev
Dan Toombs says
Thanks for your e-mail. I purposely made a section on my blog recipes for just 2 people as there seemed to be a demand for this. The recipes in my cook books are generally for 4 people.
Dan
Christian says
This is the first one of the curries that I've tried after making a big batch of the base sauce. I really wasn't sure if the results would be what I was looking for (but really hoping they would be as I had 22 portions of frozen base sauce!).
But wow - this pathia is AMAZING! It's genuinely better than 90% of the takeaway pathias I've had over the years. I've now made it 4 times to tweak and perfect it (to my liking) which has involved adding a tablespoon of tamarind (love the stuff) and a bit of extra lemon. Every time I make it I can't help saying, 'My God that's good'.
Now that I've found a local Indian Supermarket I'll be trying the Ceylon next - thank you very much! I'm going to get one of your books soon...!
Dan Toombs says
So good to hear and your tweaks sound great.
Thanks
Dan
Gary says
hey Dan
when your recipe calls for . 1tbsp of garlic and ginger paste
is that 1tbsp of each garlic and ginger or combined 1/2 tbsp each = 1tbsp
Dan Toombs says
Yes, 1 tbsp of combined garlic and ginger paste.
Thanks very much.
Dan
Dave says
Hi Dan, these BIR curry sauces, how do I go about upscaling? Is it best to cook two curries or can you do a double amount but only 1.5 x the spices instead of double ? If its for two people I usually want to make enough for four, freeze two….
Dan Toombs says
You can more or less upscale accordingly but be a bit careful with any hot spices. Maybe add those gradually to taste.
Thanks very much.
Dan
Sue says
How do I make this for 4 people, do I double the recipe,
Dan Toombs says
yes, just scale up accordingly but be a bit careful with any hot spices, maybe add those to taste.
Thanks
Dan