What's the best bottled Indian sauce?

[Anonymous]

The family is very fond of Indian food but I don't know much about it. Is there a particular brand of bottled Indian sauces that is quite good? In particular, we like vindaloo and tikka masala.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The family is very fond of Indian food but I don't know much about it. Is there a particular brand of bottled Indian sauces that is quite good? In particular, we like vindaloo and tikka masala.

Non. They're all nasty.

[Anonymous]

They are all vile, especially Patak's.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I appreciate the feedback, even if it's negative. I'm going to google some recipes instead. At least then I can control the salt content which really bothers me when I buy sauce in bottles.

[Anonymous]

You can't work with Indian sauce because the essential characteristic of Indian cooking is that you dry fry spices. There are some okay spice mixtures or packets you can buy at Asian grocery stores.

[Anonymous]

All right people are going a leeeetle overboard here, haha. OP, I'm Indian and while I can tell you that cooking Indian food from a jar will not turn out well, all is not lost!

Ok crap the toddler is crying. I'll be right back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All right people are going a leeeetle overboard here, haha. OP, I'm Indian and while I can tell you that cooking Indian food from a jar will not turn out well, all is not lost!

Ok crap the toddler is crying. I'll be right back.

I agree some of the spice packets are tolerable. Have not had a good liquid sauce, except the tamarind chutneys if you count those.

[Anonymous]

The trader joes are decent. It's certainly not as good as a restaurant or home cooking but if you are a casual cook they are easy and pretty good

[Anonymous]

Patak's Vindaloo paste is awesome however you need to know how to use it properly. Most people do not fry the onions long enough or burn it when frying. I highly recommend it.

I use a whole lot of tamarind, coconut, mint and coriander chutneys - usually of "Deep" brand.

[Anonymous]

So called Tikka Masala Sauce at Costco is horrible.

[Anonymous]

related.... what is worse, bottled sauce or frozen Indian meals?

[Anonymous]

I like Sharwoods brand.. If I don't make myself.

[Anonymous]

Op, I am an Indian. You don't need sauce.
If you have little ginger, garlic, paprika, salt, curry powder (or garam masala), it is easy.

For chicken curry of 2 lbs chicken:
1. Chop a medium -large onion, jalapeno
2. Heat spoon of oil and add cumin seeds, chopped onion and jalapeno.
2. Grate ginger and mince garlic while above is frying. Add them when onions are almost cooked.
3. Cut 2-3 tomatoes and add them to the above fried mixture and fry till the oil leaves.
4. Add cut chicken pieces and brown them.
5. Add paprika, salt and garam masala. Add little water.
6. Let it cook over medium flame. Garnish with cilantro. Adjust spices and if it is spicy add a spoon of yogurt or splash of half and half and cook them.

Serve with rice or roti.

[Anonymous]

Ok it's 20:06 here and I'm back after sedating the wild toddler. OP you can literally make a homemade chicken curry in like 10 minutes. Just need to do some grocery shopping first. I assume you have cooking oil, salt, garlic cloves, onions and chicken in the house (chicken breast is what I like to cook with - easiest to chop into cubes). Then you can save time by buying some readymade tomato puree instead of buying fresh tomatoes and adding the chopping of that into your prep time.

Then you need some Indian-specific ingredients: get some cumin, some turmeric, green chillies, and the all-important garam masala. Masala is the spice mix that makes an Indian curry what it is. Every region and every damn family in fact has its own take on what the masala mix should be. You can buy masala powder at any specialty South Asian store, whether Pakistani or Indian or whatever. There's no "correct" masala for chicken curry, it's all up to what you and your family decide you like best. You might as well buy one or two and experiment.

A well-known Indian brand that sells masala mixes is Aachi, you can find them pretty much at any South Asian store or on the Internet. But there's tons of other sellers of garam masala mix: http://www.igourmet.com/shoppe/Trudy-Ann%27s-Garam-Masala---All-Organic-Ingredients.asp

Ok I think those were all the ingredients you really need for a basic curry. You CAN add double cream later if you want to make it a creamy, buttery curry, but all the ingredients I've listed are the basic essentials. And your cooking oil can just be regular vegetable oil - don't use olive oil.

Chop the onion (and tomatoes, if you decided to not use puree), green chillies and 2 garlic cloves up really, really small and remove the chilli seeds. (2 green chillies should be good, and make that 1 onion & 1 tomato). Then chop up the chicken breast and shove it all in the frying pan. Keep stirring over medium heat till it turns brown. Then add masala, turmeric, salt, cumin and maybe cilantro if you want and keep stirring. Then add the cream if you want to make it creamy. All of this shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to cook.

Then cook up some rice (basmati rice is always good) and enjoy!

[Anonymous]

Oh, another PP above me had a much more neatly organized and detailed plan! You could go with that one OP