Topic: red sauce

[Secret Santa]

Image of ingredients list here.

Eeek!

I didn't realise it had all those artificial sweeteners and preservatives in it. That's what I get for making an impulse buy. Does go really well on chips though.

[livo]

Interesting assuming ingredients listed in order of percentage. It's ketchup with mint, chilli, trace amounts of spice and a whole range of numbered food additives. I can see why it goes well on chips.

[Secret Santa]

From Dan Toombs' "The Curry Guy" book:

TAKEAWAY-STYLE PAKORA SAUCE
MAKES ABOUT 300ML (1¼ CUPS)
If it’s Indian takeaway-style pakora sauce you like, this is a good one. Usually this sweet-and-sour sauce is red from food colouring, and does look the part when bright red. The mango chutney and ketchup are already quite sweet but you might want to add a little sugar. The sour flavours come from the lemon and mint sauce. Just try it and adjust until you are happy with the flavour.
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp smooth mango chutney
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp mint sauce
200g (scant 1 cup) plain yoghurt
½ tsp roasted cumin seeds Spice Blends
½ tsp chilli powder, or to taste
1 tbsp sugar
Lemon juice, to taste
½ tsp red food colouring powder (optional)
Milk (optional)
Salt
Whisk all the ingredients together, except for the food colouring, milk and salt. Once the sauce is nicely combined, check for seasoning and add salt to taste. Add food colouring, if using. If the sauce is too thick, stir in a little milk until you are happy with the consistency.


I think this is probably close to what you've already tried so maybe not much use, and you'd need to leave the yoghurt and milk out. I imagine you could add a dollop of this to a standard curry and make it a chasni as well.

[livo]

Or perhaps Kasundi (Indian Tomato Sauce).

Kasundi (Indian tomato sauce)
1 ½ Tbsp Vegetable oil
1 Tbsp Ground turmeric
2 tsp Ground chilli
1 Tbsp Ground cumin
1 Tbsp Fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 Tbsp Garlic, finely chopped
2 Onions, finely chopped
130 ml Malt vinegar
1 kg Tomato, ripe, or use 2 x 400g cans of tomatoes
½ cup Brown sugar

To make the kasundi, heat the oil in a saucepan then add the turmeric, chilli, cumin, chilli, ginger and garlic. Stir over a gentle heat for 5 minutes.
Add the onion and the vinegar then the tomatoes and sugar.
Stir all together and simmer for 1¼ hours, stirring occasionally. Add salt to taste. Pour into sterilised jars or keep in the fridge.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/eatwell/recipes/samosas-with-indian-tomato-sauce/5KFXRDHIFUHROBHGV6HUSN72GA/

[Secret Santa]

I think that's half the problem livo. There are probably hundreds of variations of just this one type of sauce. But my point was that much of what's served nowadays is bought in rather than made fresh, hence my suggestion of the bottled sauce, even if it isn't Indian. In fact ligs would probably get closer to what it might be by perusing Indian wholesaler catalogues, some of which are online.

I was in a curry restaurant today, first time in several years, and they gave us the usual tray of sauces and chutneys with the poppadoms. There was a red sauce and god it was bland. Plenty of heat but not much else. The whole experience was just as bland but that's another story. Suffice to say I'll be sticking to home made curries from now on. The person I was with who eats out quite regularly assured me that it was fairly typical of today's curry restaurant fare. I almost literally winced.

[Peripatetic Phil]

A better scan of the label of the "Havana Club Kebab House Chilli" sauce.

[livo]

I wonder if ligs is trying any of the suggestions.  That Havana Club stuff ingredient list is a bit funky.  I detest artificial sweeteners, especially saccharin, but perhaps you can't taste it in this product.

[Secret Santa]

I detest artificial sweeteners, especially saccharin, but perhaps you can't taste it in this product.

Me too and no I had no idea from the taste of it that it had any type of sweetener. Only noticed when this ingredient list was posted.