Apples and early fall is a wonderful combination. Cooked apples into spicy apple curry with apple butter consistency have been one of my all-time favorites. As soon as we hit early October we go into the nearest farm on a day or day long apple picking and come home with two bags full of apples. Then comes cooking up all kinds of goodies with them. Applesauce, apple butter for later use and apple pies and bread for the freezer. Today it’s spicy apple curry because I have lots of green apples to be used. This curried sauce is cooked until apples reach almost apple butter consistency. But what’s more lovely is, cooking apples in nutmeg and cloves fill the whole house with wonderful aroma of sweet fall spices. Even though it takes a bit to make, this curry freezes wonderfully and last in the fridge up to two weeks.
Apple curry is vegan, Low calorie and so flavorful. It is perfect on its own as a dipping sauce, or in sandwiches or in a rice bowl meal as a flavoring.
Making the base gravy for spicy apple curry
for my seasoning base gravy, I am using is the same I seasonings I used while preparing the red curry seasoning base with few tweaks to it. I am not going to use any tomatoes or Malabar tamarind in this recipe because I want the sweet and sourness of green apples and aroma to show through in the curry.
However, I am going to prepare a seasoning base gravy from scratch today. Once seasoning base gravy is prepared, it can go into freezer to flavor up any spicy vegetable curry you are going to make in future.
For one cup of base gravy, we are going to need,
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons whole coriander
- 3 tablespoon cumin
- 1 tsp Black cumin
- 6 red chilies
- tablespoon of black pepper
- 2 tablespoons of Salt
- ½ teaspoon of mustard
- Half a teaspoon of nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons of Spanish paprika
- 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 6 cloves
- 3 cardamom pods
- 6 cloves of garlic
- One inch piece of ginger
- 2 tablespoons of dry rice
- 2 tablespoons of grated coconut
- Handful of Curry leaves
- Two green chilies
- 2-inch piece of lemongrass
- 2 whole red onions
- 2 inch stick of cinnamon
preparation
- Dry roast coriander seeds, Cumin seeds, Black Cumin seeds and red chilies.
- Dry roast rice and scraped coconut separately.
- Crush black paper and mustard seeds with pinch salt in a motor and pastel.
- Puree roasted seasonings in a high-speed blender with half a cup of water and salt.
- In the same blender, add ginger garlic and crushed black pepper and mustard nutmeg and puree everything into a smooth paste.
- Heat a frying pan on medium high an caramelize onions until golden brown on the edges. Do not add salt while caramelizing because we already have salt in the seasoning blend.
- Add cardamom, Cloves, Green chili, Curry leaves, Lemongrass and Cinnamon fry for few minutes until fragrant.
- Add pureed seasoning paste and cook another 5 minutes on low until seasonings are blended and fragrant.
- Let the base gravy cool enough to handle, before making the curry.
Making the apple curry
Cooking time: 3 hours Servings: 10 to 12 Servings
Ingredients
- 8 green apples and two red apples
- One half cup of Base Gravy
- One and half cup of water
- 2 Tablespoon of Brown Sugar
- Teaspoon of tamarind paste
Preparation
- Wash, core, and slice apples.
- Place the apples in a Clay Dutch oven, spread the cooled off base gravy over the apples and coat well.
- Add cup of water or just enough to cover the apples
- Place the Clay braiser inside your oven. I am using Eurita clay cooking pot by Reston Lloyd today. Start cooking with the cool oven every time you are using a clay cooking pot that are made to use in ovens.
- Preheat two 350 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for three hours turning every half an hour, until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back side of the spoon.
- Add a teaspoon of tamarind paste and 2 tablespoons of sugar and mix to combine.
Post apple curry notes
I know I have been silent past few weeks, but this article and recipe was well rewarding write up for all the missed time dealing with whole house becoming sick and recovering. at the end of all we all got to enjoy beautiful colors of leaves changing ,getting ready for winter. I ended up buying lots of books that I wanted to get for a long time. Some of them cook books from my favorite Sri Lankan chefs. I also got two clay curry cooking pots that I wanted for as long as I can remember. This spicy apple curry was the first one to be cooked in the new clay cooking pot and it turned out to be way better than expected.
This spicy apple curry is long time coming, back in home we often cook June plum the same way. June plums are much sour than apples, although it is yummy, I have to say I like the green apples version so much better. Anyway ,if you would like to read more about how to make June plum curry please read below.
If you would like to read on how to make apple butter, I found this recipe from a fellow blogger. I would call my spicy apple curry is less sweet, spicy and tangy version of sauce.
