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.
You can add your main ingredient of choice to this BIR pathia sauce.
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 can use a stainless steel or aluminium pan, you will get authentic results.
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
Dig it!
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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