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Indian curries from jars and packets: curry paste, mixes and ready-made meals

Pan met Indiase kipcurry in oranjerode saus, een lepel currypasta op de rand en potjes pasta en garam masala ernaast.

In an Indian home kitchen, a curry usually starts with whole spices in hot oil or ghee, and every family has its own order and proportions. Yet many kitchen cupboards, there and certainly here, contain jars of curry paste and masala sachets for those evenings when you need to be quick, or for a festive biryani that you only make a few times a year. In our shop in Amsterdam, Patak's and Mother's Recipe pastes, Shan sachets and Gits ready-made curry sit side by side. Here you can read what is in each jar, how to cook a curry with it that tastes like more than the jar, and when it is better to season yourself. If you want to get to know the kitchen in breadth first, start with Indian cuisine 101.

Curry paste or seasoning yourself: which do you choose?

Patak's Tikka Masala, an onion and a can of tomatoes: you don't need much more for a pan of curry on a weekday evening, and that is exactly what a paste is good for. The ground spices are already in oil, often with garlic, ginger or tamarinde added. Seasoning yourself is especially worthwhile for dishes that rely on a handful of spices, such as dal tadka or jeera rice, where it is all about cumin seeds crackling in hot ghee, and that takes hardly any more time than unscrewing a jar.

Grab a jar or sachet

When you need to be quick, when you rarely make a dish and don't have the spices at home, or when you want a biryani or tikka without twenty ingredients.

Season yourself

For dal, vegetables and rice, for dishes you make often, and when you want to determine exactly how spicy, salty or sour it will be.

Which Patak's curry paste do you choose?

Patak's Korma is the mildest of the range, and from there it goes up to the Extra Hot. Patak's is a British brand, and the names on the jars follow the map of the British curry houses: korma, tikka masala, madras, vindaloo. See them as flavor directions, not fixed recipes. The dashes on the maps below are our own estimation, always taste carefully.

With the tikka paste you marinate chicken in yoghurt for the grill or oven, with tikka masala you make the tomato-based cream sauce that the chicken can then go into. Rogan josh comes from Kashmir and is a lamb dish, and vindaloo goes back to a dish from Goa with vinegar and garlic. By the way, Patak's Garam Masala is also a paste and not a powder.

View all Indian curries and curry pastes →

What do you make with Mother's Recipe curry paste?

Mother's Recipe Madras Curry Paste is a spicy sauce of tomato and onion with ground red chili and cumin, and according to the label, a madras is supposed to be drier than most curries. Mother's Recipe comes from India, and you can simply see their jars and pickles in the supermarket there. The vindaloo paste is made on the basis of garlic and vinegar, and with the tandoori marinade you mix yoghurt, lime juice and a spoon of oil, after which you let the chicken marinate for half an hour. Chicken thigh fillet stays juicier than chicken fillet.

In addition to the pastes, Mother's Recipe also makes pickles and chutneys, such as the samosa chutney made from tamarindo, dates and roasted cumin and a tamarindo-date chutney. What you eat it with, you can read about in Pickles, chutney and papad.

Which Shan mix do you use for biryani and karahi?

Shan Special Bombay Biryani Mix is the easiest way to make biryani, with all the spices for the meat in one packet. Shan comes from Pakistan, just like National, whose mango pickle in oil we have. TRS and Patak's, and from Pakistan Shan and National, are the brands that Indian and Pakistani families in Europe have been cooking with for generations.

Biryani mixes

Shan Sindhi Biryani Mix is named after Sindh in southern Pakistan, and we also have the Special Bombay and the Malay Chicken Biryani. In our recipe for chicken biryani with bone-in chicken thighs, you can replace the ground spices for the chicken with a packet of Shan; then add less salt, as there is already salt in the mix. Pair it with a good basmati.

Karahi, haleem and more

Shan Karahi Spice Mix is named after the karahi, the deep round pan in which meat is cooked and dried with tomato, ginger and green chili over high heat. For a quick pan of chicken, there is Shan Chicken Masala, and the Shahi Haleem Mix also contains the grains and lentils for haleem, a thick stew that simmers gently for hours. If you prefer to taste carefully, start with part of the packet.

Smaller packets of curry paste are available from Asian Home Gourmet from Singapore, from butter chicken and korma to rogan josh and vindaloo, with a recipe for four people on the packet.

View all Pakistani mixes from Shan →

What are Gits ready-made curries?

Gits Rajma Masala is rajma, red kidney beans in a spicy sauce of tomato and onion, completely ready to heat up; follow the packaging for that. Gits comes from India, where you can find the brand in the supermarket. With basmati and some yoghurt on the side, you eat it in a few minutes. If you want to make rajma yourself, look at our rajma recipe and Dal and lentils.

How do you use an Indian curry paste?

You always fry an Indian curry paste first in oil or ghee, because raw it tastes floury and sharp. The order is the same with almost every pot.

Onion first

Tooba Ginger Garlic Paste only goes in after the onion is soft and golden brown, and that takes a good eight to ten minutes on medium heat. That fried onion gives the sauce its sweet base, so do not rush here.

Fry the paste

Stir the paste through the onion for one to two minutes, until it starts to smell and the oil separates at the edges. If it sticks to the bottom, add a splash of water, because burnt spices make the whole pan bitter.

Add meat or vegetables

Chicken thigh fillet stays juicy and is cooked in twenty minutes, while lamb shoulder or sukadelap for a rogan josh or madras can simmer gently for an hour and a half. Potato, cauliflower, chickpeas and spinach can also be used.

Tomato, yoghurt or coconut milk

Canned tomatoes are the base for tikka masala and madras. Yogurt goes well with korma and rogan josh, but stir it in slowly, spoon by spoon, over low heat, otherwise it will curdle. Coconut milk makes a sauce creamier and rounder (see Coconut Milk 101). With a Thai curry, you often fry the paste in the coconut cream itself; with these pastes, coconut is optional.

Finishing Touches

Let the curry simmer until the sauce coats the meat, then taste for salt, because most pastes already contain salt. A pinch of garam masala, fresh coriander and a squeeze of lemon at the end turn a jarred curry into a curry that tastes like home.

When is it better to season an Indian curry yourself?

TRS Cumin Seeds, turmeric and garam masala are essential as soon as you cook Indian food more often. Dal, vegetables such as aloo gobi and rice such as jeera rice only need a few spices, freshly toasted in oil. You can read how that works in Indian Spices 101.

You can also do both: fry a few green cardamom pods, a bay leaf and some cumin seeds in the oil before adding the onion, and then continue with the paste. If you know masala mainly from roti with chicken, you already know how one good mix can carry a pan; the Hindustani-Surinamese masala is quite a different blend.

View all Indian herbs and spices →

Currypasta's voor in de pan

Not sure which jar to start with? Take a mild and a spicy one, for example Patak's Korma and Mother's Recipe madras, and add a packet of Shan Special Bombay Biryani for the weekend. With basmati, ginger-garlic paste and onions at home, you can cook three very different meals with them.

Recipes for Indian curries

With these recipes you can cook a creamy curry, a festive biryani and a dry vegetable curry, with or without a jar.

Mixen en kant-en-klaar

Read more about Indian cuisine

All Indian curries and curry pastes

From mild to hot: pastes from Patak's and Mother's Recipe, curry pastes from Asian Home Gourmet and ready-made from Gits.

Shop Indian curries

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between curry paste and curry powder?

Curry paste is a mixture of ground spices in oil, often with garlic, ginger or tamarinde, that you fry in the pan. Curry powder is a dry powder that you also bake briefly, but there you add your own onion, garlic and ginger for a full sauce.

Where does Patak's come from?

Patak's is a British brand. If you are looking for a brand from India, look at Mother's Recipe for pastes, pickles and chutneys, or at Gits for ready-made.

What is the difference between korma, tikka masala and vindaloo?

Korma is mild and creamy, tikka masala is a tomato cream sauce and vindaloo is hot and a little sour due to vinegar. Madras is in between in terms of heat.

How do you make a curry from a jar less spicy?

Use less paste and top up with tomato, or make the sauce softer with yogurt, cream or coconut milk. A scoop of yogurt or raita at the table also helps.

Do you still need to salt Shan biryani mix?

Taste first, because the mixes from Shan already contain salt. Those who want the taste a bit milder use part of the packet at the beginning.

How long can you keep an opened jar of curry paste?

Follow the label. Usually you keep an opened jar closed in the refrigerator and use it within the term stated on the jar.

Can you also use curry paste vegetariantly?

Yes, the paste itself determines the taste, not the meat. Potato, cauliflower, chickpeas, spinach and lentils all work, and for vegetarianism do read the label of the jar.

What rice do you eat with an Indian curry?

Basmati is the standard choice, simply boiled or as jeera rice with cumin seeds. For biryani you also take basmati, preferably a packet with long grains.

A jar of curry paste isn't cheating, it's simply a good start, especially if you give the onion enough time, fry the paste briefly, and taste and adjust at the end. If you cook Indian food more often, you'll naturally find yourself seasoning more and more yourself, and only reaching for the jar on evenings when you're short on time or for that one weekend biryani. If you're standing in front of the shelf of jars and packets at the toko in Amsterdam and aren't sure what to choose, feel free to ask us, and you can read the whole story about the kitchen in Indian cuisine 101.