Korma Chameleon

One of the Chairman's recipes again.

No.1 Son has an addiction to the curry sauce the Fox and Hounds at Acton Turville puts with their take-away chips. I was therefore tasked with reproducing it, as shop bought jars of korma sauce don't pass muster. Here's the result, which is a more than passable facsimile, if I say so myself:

Ingredients:

• 1 jar of Tesco korma paste (you can't get away with that, unless you want to spend a few days with a mortar and pestle and sourcing herbs and spices from your local Asian supermarket, only to find you'll never use them again). Make sure it's the paste, not the jars of sauce,
• 1 medium onion, sliced (I used a large onion and No.1 Son pronounced it as having too much onion - the ingrate - the pinnacle of his culinary achievement is pouring boiling water on Pot Noodles),
• Small handful of desiccated coconut (could have sworn it was spelled dessicated, but apparently not),
• Small handful of ground almonds (careful with these two ingredients - too much and it can become too gritty),
• Tin of coconut milk,
• 300 ml double cream (or even slightly less, but that's the carton size you get these days),
• White wine vinegar to taste (about 3 or 4 tbps).

Finely slice and sweat off the onion in a little oil until soft - do not brown (I prefer rapeseed oil, but that's because I'm middle class and up my own arse). Add the korma paste and mix in. Add the coconut milk and cream and bring to the boil. Add desiccated coconut and ground almonds - turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes to reduce slightly and thicken

Pour into a suitable jar or bowl to cool. Once cooled off a bit, add the white wine vinegar to taste - I found this the be the crucial adjustment to get the same taste as the korma sauce at the Fox and Hounds. The hint of sourness adds that little something and replicates the taste I was after.

I froze the result in a silicone muffin mould and then placed the 12 or so resulting 'cakes' in a plastic bag so they could be defrosted and used individually.

Of course, this won't stop No.1 Son asking for Fox and Hounds curry sauce with his whitebait and chips take-away the next time Hay and I go there for a Friday night meal.