Curry base

India is known for curries! Nothing can be more satisfying than a hot sumptuous curry with flatbread or rice. Anytime I am expecting a guest on a meal or for a long visit at my place, the first thing I do is make a curry base. It stays fresh for a week in refrigerator or can be frozen for a longer time.
So presenting my own version of curry base which had been a long kept secret :)

Ingredients

1 large red onion
3 medium tomatoes
1 small capsicum (green pepper, Shimla mirch)
4-5 thai green chillies
4 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoon cumin
1 inch ginger
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 tablespoon garam masala
2 tablespoon oil
salt to taste

Method

1. Chop all the vegetables roughly (the beauty of this recipe is that you don't have to worry about finesse in chopping the veggies)
2. Heat oil in a pan on a medium flame, add cumin and let it splutter.
3. Now add green chillies, sauté for half a minute.
4. Then add following vegetables in the same order and saute each for a minute- onions, garlic, capsicum, tomatoes, ginger.
5. Now add all the spices and keep stirring the mixture on a medium flame.
6. You should see the mixture coming together and leaving oil.
7. Now let the mixture cool down completely and blend it to a coarse paste.
8. Store in a dry airtight container and refrigerate.

Notes: Depending on which curry you are making use the amount of curry base.
I usually use 2 tablespoons of this base for making following curries for 4 people- palak paneer, shahi kaju paneer, capsicum mushroom masala, garbanzo bean curry(chole), red bean curry (rajma).


The base should look like this before blending after step 6, not a pretty picture but wait till it shows its magic in curries :)