How to make a great curry

Friday is almost always our curry night.  The great thing about curry is that you can use whatever meat you have to hand or make it vegetarian and it can take as long as you want it to, no flapping with having veg or rice ready at the same time.  In fact it just gets better the longer you leave it. Here's how.

A great curry deserves a smug face

Ingredients

200g meat cut in bite size bits unless using mince (chicken or turkey is awesome as is Lamb or beef)
1 TBSP butter
1 TBSP Olive Oil
2 heaped TBSP Garam Masala powder
1 heaped TBSP Tumeric
1 Medium to large Onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
700g tomato sauce or 6 medium tomatoes chopped up
1 TSP chilli oil (or powder/flakes depending on how spicy you like it)
Salt and pepper to taste and a stock cube to match the meat
If having rice, drop half a cup per person into a saucepan (double that if you fancy some egg fried rice the next day)
Naan bread (optional)

Instructions

Heat the chilli oil, butter and olive oil over a medium to high heat until the butter is melted.  Lob in the onion and garlic and cook until soft.  Add the meat and fry until brown, by this we mean flip it around the pan until you can't see any pink bits.  Add some seasoning, a bit of salt and pepper and a stock cube, one that matches the meat you are using would be good, a fish stock cube in a chicken curry would be fairly naff so lay off the wine until a few stages later.

Add the Garam Masala and turmeric and stir gently (it will seem quite dry).
Chuck in the tomato sauce or tomatoes and stir till mixed.
When bubbling, drop to a simmer and walk away for a while - have a glass of beer or wine - your choice or both...f*ck it.

Simmer for at least half an hour then have a taste and add seasoning as you wish.  If too dry add some boiling water.  The curry will reduce so watch your heat so as not to dry it out too much.  When the consistency is pretty much how you like it you have the choice of adding some cream, not too much and you don't have to it will be great anyway, or some more chilli flakes/powder to give it a bit more oomph especially if you have guests you don't really care for.  Always remember to put toilet roll in the fridge just in case.  Now is the time to sort out the veg or rice.  If having rice use basmati rice which is great with a curry.  Half a cup per person in a saucepan, cover with water and swill around vigorously then slop the milky looking water out without losing any rice, effing difficult if you failed to follow the drinking guidelines but fun anyway.  This is basically to clean the rice and remove some starch and it gives K something to do later when she attempts to scratch dried rice off the ceiling while you giggle like a naughty schoolboy and fake working hard at the cooking.  Leave the soggy looking rice in the saucepan, chuck in a slack handful of salt and get some water boiling, enough to cover the rice.  Cover the rice with the boiling water and keep at a low boil for 10 minutes ensuring it doesn't dry out, add more boiling water if it gets close to drying.  When done and tested, slop the rice into a sieve and fluff furiously with a fork till fluffy.  dump onto the plates and smother with the curry, and please.......enjoy the crap out of it, we always do.  Remember that the leftover curry makes a fine Curry Pizza and if you double the rice you can make a breath-taking egg fried rice. A curry is also great with some home made Naan bread.