Indian Takeaway Recipes

During the two years we spent in Edinburgh we became completely addicted to Indian takeaway food. Indian takeaway is a very particular beast. It isn't traditional Indian food, but rather a British offshoot. And it isn't even the same as sit-down British Indian food. What it is, though, is really good. Many is the day I remember walking home from work past a few takeaway joints with the amazing, make-you-instantly-hungry smells of curry wafting out the door.

Here in the US we haven't found anything like it, so we've had to make it ourselves. This was no easy matter, initially, as it is surprisingly difficult to find recipes for this kind of food. Out of desperation, we ended up reverse-engineering a few of our favorites. I guess that makes them our version of the takeaway version of the British version of Indian food...

Our Indian Takeaway Recipes:

Curry Base Sauce This is the base that we use to make our other curries. You can make up a large batch of it and have it on hand so that a variety of great curries are easy to make.

Chicken Pathia A fantastic, fiery red chicken curry. Savory, twangy, spicy, and just generally awesome. This curry is easily the most popular recipe on our blog.

Prawn Pathia Almost the same recipe as our Chicken Pathia, but using shrimp instead of chicken and fish stock in the base.

Lamb Rogan Josh We think of this dish as sort of an Indian-style lamb stew. The lamb provides a deep, comforting flavor while the curry base adds complexity and some green chile gives it a nice, hot kick.

Chicken Dhansak This is a milder curry with chicken, lentils, split peas and pineapple. The way the lentils and split peas meld into the sauce adds a very nice texture.

Pulao Rice This is our easy version of the rice that generally accompanies a takeaway meal. We've made it a million times, and never get tired of it.

Saag A simple side dish of spiced, sautéed greens (usually spinach, but we use all kinds). We often like to add chick peas.

Vegetable Pakora with Tamarind Dipping Sauce These gram (chick pea) flour snacks always came with our takeaway curries. This is our attempt to reproduce them.