The veg can be chopped any way you want as you’re going to whizz up the sauce once it’s cooked. This can take a while as it needs to fry slowly to fry off all the liquid.

2 large onions 

2-3 carrots grated (it’s a harder veg and so I’d grate it to fry)

2-3 peppers, preferably red, orange or yellow but it doesn’t really matter

2 cardamom pods

3 whole cloves

1 heaped tsp of both, whole, cumin and coriander

½ tsp ground ginger

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp chilli

½ tsp cayenne

1 tsp cinnamon

You can add more or less of these spices depending on how hot you like it and what your preferences may be

2 Chicken or veg stock cubes and some water

Add the whole spices to at least ½ a cup of oil on a med heat and temper the oil by letting it warm through until the spices start to pop. Add the veg now and fry really slowly on a med/low heat until all the liquid has gone from the pan and the veg is starting to brown. Now add the ground spices and cook for a few minutes more before adding about half a pint of water and the stock and simmering until the stock is absorbed. Whizz up the sauce once you’ve taken it off the heat and add more water if it’s too thick. It should be the consistency of a thick soup. This can be frozen in batches like this and you can add your main ingredients in when you make the complete dish.

The Complete dish:

You can add whatever veg or meat you want to this but I’d pre-cook the meat. You can tikka spice it or just fry plain chunks in a pan or you can add meat taken from a joint or whole chicken, for example. It’s a tomato based sauce but you can add cream, yogurt or coconut milk to this to make it even richer (I’d add these in at the end just before serving – yogurt especially will separate if you add it and then boil/fry it on a high heat.