Ingredients

• 30g/1oz root ginger
• peeled
• 30g/1oz garlic cloves
• peeled
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 black cardamom
• 10 black peppercorns
• 3 cloves
• 4 green cardamom
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 bay leaf
• 500g/1lb 2oz onions
• chopped
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste (from above)
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp garam masala
• salt
• to taste
• 2 tbsp tomato purée

Directions

• First prepare the ginger garlic paste. Blend the ginger and garlic with a teaspoon of water in a blender. Store any you don’t use for this recipe in the fridge.
• To make the masala sauce
• heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the whole spices (black cardamom
• peppercorns
• cloves
• green cardamom
• cumin seeds
• cinnamon and bay leaf) and fry until they start to crackle
• then add the onions.
• Cook the onions gently and slowly until caramelised and very dark brown.
• Add a tablespoon of the ginger garlic paste and fry gently for 3-4 minutes. Taste to make sure the ginger and garlic are well cooked otherwise their flavour will be too strong.
• Add all the powdered spices and mix well.
• Add 100-150ml/3½-5fl oz water if the sauce is too thick.
• Finally add the tomato purée and cook until the oil comes to the surface of the sauce.