I had a couple of days holiday this week so decided to do a wee bit curry prep. I got six chicken breasts from local butcher, marinated for 36 hours, then tikka'd them yesterday. Turned out very nice (more tandoori than tikka, but you know what I mean).

Anyway, was thinking this morning what I could make. I usually cook for three, but Mrs G didn't fancy curry tonight, so it was just me and my stepson (I promised Mrs G a Korma tomorrow)

I'd been thinking about Punjabi Masala for a while (I think it was SL's recipe I saved) so decided to give it a go. So this morning I went into the freezer to get the base sauce out. I usually freeze them in foil containers (holds about 400-450ml). There was only one in there, and, as I like it saucy, I wanted a wee bit more. But I spied a plastic tub - a bit bigger than foiled one - which had base sauce in. I thought "must have run out of tubs and put some in that". So took both out of the freezer to defrost.

Later, having made rotis then egg-fried them, it was time to get thing together for the curry. The chicken tikka had been in the fridge so took half out and cut into bite-sized pieces (always like to cook them larger to retain moisture) and put them in the oven at a very low temperature to soften and heat them up before adding to curry.

Also decided to put base in a pot to heat up prior to adding to curry. I thought I would use the big plastic tub for tonight and the smaller one would do tomorrow. So I cracked open the plastic tub and put it in the pot - still mostly frozen. Turned the gas on low to melt it for 5 or 10 minutes and had a fag and messed around.

Went back to give it a stir and half a smell - hmmmmm, that doesn't smell very Indian. Stick your nose in a bit further.....nope......that is definitely some kind of soup, probably lentil 

So here, for all to see is the base on the left and the soup on the right 



There are still lumps in the soup as I terminated the de-frosting process in disgust.

Anyway - despite that - the curry was lovely. I'm really happy with my chicken process now - nice and tender and tasty



And the final dish



Lovely - but please label your freezer contents

hehehehe

very nearly done the same. took out 2 tubs of base...on defrosting I quickly learned one of them was lentil bloody soup, which tasted rather good after being in the freezer for 3 months

Your chicken looks great!

And you're not alone with the labelling thing either. It wouldn't be the first time I've pulled out a bag of frozen dal only to find out it was stewed apples from last year's crop!

Nice to know I'm not alone - was annoyed it took me so long to realise what it was lol

Nice post Garp I once put some frozen tubs of lentil soup in the freezer and got them mixed up with tubs of base. It was a lottery as to whether I was going to have curry or soup for tea  ;D.

That "final dish" photograph does look rather tasty, Garp :  well done !
** Phil.

Thanks Phil - and not digitally enhanced

Hey Garp

I did just the same once but with parsnip soup. I lazily mixed the base and the soup together and was surprised when my two friends didn't even notice!! I think they were just being polite. The finished madras' I made were shockingly good to be honest.

The curry and tikka in your photos look lovely: which tikka marinade did you use?

Regards
Mick

Hi Mick, I used a yogurt-free method.

Cut into pieces about twice as large as required. Pierced the shiny side rubbed salt and lemon juice all over and leave for half an hour. Then added Tandoori Masala (Rajah) and made sure it was well rubbed in.

Thanks for that Garp. Just thought it looked like my recipe