From Scratch: Rogan Josh Curry Paste

I tend to make a lot of things from scratch instead of buying them. Usually things made from scratch taste better and they are better for you because they are made with real ingredients instead of processed ingredients. The downside is that making things from scratch can take a long time - and people who are busy or have families don't have time to add that extra step to their meal prep. Good news! Curry paste is not one of those things that takes significantly longer to make! This added approximately 10-15 minutes to my prep time and in my opinion it was totally worth it.

 



 

I put off trying to make my own curry paste for a long time because I was intimidated by toasting the spices and I don't have a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. Then I came across Jamie Oliver's recipe which says you can grind the toasted spices in your food processor! I was all over that. A spice grinder or mortar and pestle are ideal - they will give the finest grind for your spices, but in my opinion my food processor worked just fine! Let it run for a while until most of the big pieces are blended and you're good to go!

Rogan Josh Paste
Recipe minimally adapted from Jamie's Food Revolution

Ingredients:

• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
• thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled
• 3 oz roasted bell peppers
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 fresh jalapeno
• 1 small bunch cilantro
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp black peppercorns

Method:

1. Put frying pan on medium high heat and add the cumin seeds, coriander seeds and black peppercorns to a dry pan. Lightly toast them for a few minutes until golden brown and smelling delicious. Remove the pan from the heat.
2. Add toasted spices to a pestle and mortar and grind until fine (or put in food processor and whiz  to a powder.
3. Add ground toasted spices to food processor, add remaining ingredients and whiz until you have a smooth paste. Use in curry recipe as you would use a store bought paste.

While it sounds like a long list of ingredients - I had just about everything in my pantry already! I just needed to buy the fresh ingredients like the jalapeno and the cilantro. All in all, its a pretty cost effective way to make curry paste. I highly recommend this recipe!

I used this curry paste in Jamie Oliver's Lamb Rogan Josh recipe (I used beef instead of lamb) and my huby thought it was the best Rogan Josh I've ever made. It was definitely as authentic tasting as takeout from our favorite Indian restaurant.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy cooking my friends!