Whoever decided National Curry Week was a thing, thank you. The admiration for this delicious dish has spread worldwide, and now we have a whole week dedicated to eating copious quantities of the stuff.
In order to help you enjoy National Curry Week properly, we've scoured the Internet to find the best of the best of curry photos and recipes out there. There's been plenty of umming and ahhing, drooling and stomach rumbling at this end but, eventually, we managed it - we present you with what we consider to be the best 12 curry recipes on the web... enjoy!
1. Pumpkin Coconut Curry
This Pumpkin Coconut Curry is perfect for this time of year. With Halloween at the end of the month, why not kill two birds with one stone: carve up a pumpkin and use the innards to cook up an Indian supper to celebrate National Curry Week properly.
Lazy Cat Kitchen's stunning recipe takes just 15 minutes to prep, so it's an ideal curry dish for you busy bees out there. It may be vegetarian, but don't let that put you meat-eaters off. The range of textures - from the soft pumpkin to the crunchy cashews -make this a veggie-powered texture and taste sensation, not to mention all those added vitamins and minerals.
It's medium on the spice scale, but this is easily alterable with the addition or reduction of chilis. A definite bonus for this dish is how pretty it looks. While it's rare to have a bad-tasting curry, it's not always the most 'photogenic' of food. With its vibrant oranges and warm yellows, this Pumpkin Coconut Curry is sure to deliver on appearance as well as taste.
2. Bengali-Style Fish Stew
Step away from your classic Kormas and Biriyani and treat your tastebuds to something new. This Bengali-Style Fish Stew may not be something you've tasted before but, once you have, there'll be no going back.
While we may not be accustomed to eating fish in a curry, it's definitely worth a go. The delicate, flaky texture can offer a lighter take to some of the heavier Indian dishes we're familiar with.
This Saveur recipe requires salmon, trout or catfish to make, depending on what you can source. It's a tomato-based dish, strongly flavoured with toasted fenugreek, nigella, cumin, black mustard, and fennel seeds and a strong chilli kick - mild curry eaters beware.
3. Dhaba-Style Chicken Curry
If you're a hardcore curry lover and want to make a standout dish this week, make it My Food Story's Dhaba-style chicken curry. 'Dhaba' refers to the roadside restaurants found all across India, and their food is loved by all for its unique flavour.
This recipe requires a little more prep and love than the rest, including grinding your own spice mix, but it's definitely worth going the extra mile. The best thing about this dish is how economical it is to make. Requiring a massive 1kg of unspecified 'chicken', nothing goes to waste, and you'll find the parts of your chicken you normally turn your nose at are the bits you'll end up fighting over.
4. Simple Coconut Quinoa & Lentil Curry With Lime Mango
Eat the rainbow comes to mind with this colourful concoction of incredible ingredients. Half Baked Harvest is well known for healthy, hearty food, and she's gone above and beyond with this delectable dish.
Warming, delicious and highly nutritious, this isn't a National Curry Week meal that's going to leave you feeling sluggish, that's for sure. Numerous 'superfoods' including coconut oil, kale and quinoa are thrown together, cooked, and served up in an impressive 35 minutes flat. What's more, most of the ingredients are store cupboard staples, so whether you're short on time or supplies, there are no excuses not to knock this one up.
5. Peshawari Kadhai Gosht Curry
Meat lovers unite, there's not a single vegetable in sight in this traditional Pakistan dish. Made at almost every Indian festive meal, it's one of the most authentic ways you'll find to celebrate National Curry Week.
Made with just eight ingredients, Whisk Affair's Peshawari Kadhai Gosht is probably one of the simplest curry you've ever attempted to make, but you'd never guess by taste. It centres around melt-in-the-mouth, fall-off-the-bone mutton and is a really wholesome, filling dish.
It's normally pretty hot, with a hefty 6 green chillis recommended, but if you're not ready to brave the heat, feel free to alter this amount to cater to desired taste.
6. Baingan Ka Salan (Baby Eggplant In Coconut Cashew Gravy)
Sorry folks, back to the vegetables! Despite veggie dishes being a rare choice in most Indian restaurants, in the home they are a popular choice, and this Baingan Ka Salan is a classic.
If you didn't know Playful Kitchen's curry was meatless, the soft, fleshy texture of the eggplant may just have fooled you! The cashews in the curry 'gravy' add a silky smooth, creamy texture, and the whole thing comes together to result in a highly indulgent dish that you'd never guess was vegetarian.
If you're still not convinced, how about this: this incredible looking dish takes just 10 minutes to prep - surely it's worth a try.
7. Chicken Cashew Curry
Just. Look. At. That. Sauce - thick, chunky, meaty, just the photo of this dish is enough to make anyone fall in love with curry!
Well good news, you can outshine your local Indian this week and cook up a storm at home with The Parsley Thief's recipe. Adjustable to suit your tastes by opting for a more of less spicy curry powder and using a whole chicken, it's a versatile dish with and is relatively cheap to make.
This Chicken Cashew Curry is easy take on the classic 'English' curry we all know and love - British enough for the kids and Indian enough to convince the adults, it's the perfect mid-week dinner to satisfy the whole family.
8. Dhal soup & Prawn Skewers
If you're more into your fish than your meat, these seafood skewers could be the perfect curry dish for you.
The Kitchen Alchemist serves her prawn kebabs with a side of lentil curry, a clever idea enabling the exquisite taste and meaty texture of fresh king prawns to shine through.
It's a more decadent dish than some of the others, and perfect for a dinner party or sophisticated lunch. Best of all, besides the tiger prawns, it calls mainly for store cupboard ingredients, so you'll be able to surprise this week's guests with a National Curry Week special so flawlessly, they'll think you've had it planned for months.
9. Creamy Coconut Vegetarian Korma
Well, I guess I had to throw one of the Nation's favourites in there somewhere, didn't I? This one's for all you creamy curry lovers - a classic, irresistibly indulgent Korma that will blow your local Indian's out of the water.
So I may have fibbed slightly, this one isn't a complete classic - it's slightly healthier than your average, but it's not something that will affect the taste, I promise. The Endless Meal is a pro at making all our favourite dishes more nutritious, and this one is no exception. Plus, the lack of high-calorie meat means you can help yourself to an extra helping on naan without feeling guilty.
10. Saag Gosht Curry
What a way to finish! This is a truly extraordinary dish, combining two classic curry ingredients, mutton and Saag (spinach).
Despite the hefty helping of spinach, the mutton in this dish takes centre stage, and will appeal to any meat lover - with a bit of luck, they won't even notice the healthy spinach addition! Bonus, it's packed with iron - who said curry wasn't healthy?
Cubes N Juliennes swears by this curry as a failsafe way to keep both her veggie-loving self and meat-loving husband happy at dinner time - why not see how it goes down in your house this National Curry Week?
I'm all curried out! Let me know which one takes your fancy in the comments below. Happy National Curry Week everyone!
Hi Stephanie, some interesting recipes there, I'll give some of them a try, although, over the years (quite a few of them actually!!), I have evolved my own blend(s) which I and most of my friends like. A couple of tips that I use: 1. Make up a batch of curry sauce, omitting the hot spices (chilli and ginger ) for those who don't like or can't tolerate such spices, then decant some of it, in proportion to guests' preferences, then add the chillies and ginger to the remainder, that way those with an aversion or a sensitivity to hot spices do not lose out on the flavour combination of the other spices. 2. Choose your variety of chilli according to how hot you want your dish, for example Naga, Scorpion, Habanero or Scotch Bonnet if you want a REALLY hot curry (or chilli con carne for that matter), obviously milder chillies for milder tastes and note that if you de-seed chillies and use only the flesh the heat will be less still. 3. Nobody likes the surprise of biting into a whole cardamom pod, especially the larger black cardamoms, so split the pods and de-seed them, fry the seeds only but dont discard the pods yet, put them into a saucepan with about a quarter to a half pint of water, bring it to the boil and simmer for 2 - 3 minutes then strain the liquid off into your curry sauce, then you can discard the pods! That way, you maximise the flavour without having to deal with the somewhat "woody" pods. 4. Use fresh ingredients where possible, fresh garlic, fresh chillies, fresh peeled and sliced ginger, fresh peeled and sliced turmeric root (haldi), whole cumin seeds and whole fenugreek seeds for example - and fresh coriander leaves if you're using them. If you can't get the fresh spices then powdered spices are fine but you will lose out a little on the flavour or, at least, it will be somewhat different. Personally, I don't use pre-mixed curry powders, it's a control thing maybe but as with all food and drink, it's a matter of taste! Oh, and one exception to the "fresh" ingredient rule is that curries are a great way to use leftover cooked meat which should be added late in the cooking process, though yoou must make sure it is thoroughly cooked through.
Forgot to say, if you're splitting your sauce, you'll need to cook the meat or vegetables in the seperate sauces - perhaps a bit obvious but I thought I'd mention it,
Hi Donatello. I also like to make up my own recipes - it's often much easier than buying a whole load of new ingredients you won't use! Thanks a lot for sharing your tips. They are, as insightful as ever :) I particularly like the idea of making a neutral batch of curry sauce and then adding spice according to guests' tastes - how novel of you. I am actually very lazy with regards to buying fresh herbs and spices. As I live alone, it's hard to use them up! I agree they do add a much more complex, authentic flavour though. Thanks again for your continuous support. We always look forward to reading your comments and hearing what you have to say :)
You're too kind Stephanie, likewise I enjoy your blogs and although they don't always provoke a contribution from me, I have learned several useful tips from you and your fellow contributors - every day is a school day!! Keep up the good work.