Curry Night Extras For The Wow Factor

It’s National Curry Week, so it’s the perfect excuse to enjoy an Indian-inspired feast with family or friends. Whether you’re going all out and making your own curry paste and marinating your meat overnight for peak flavour, or cheating a little and using sauce from a jar, these easy yet impressive add-ons are sure to give your curry night the wow factor.

A starter always impresses and if it matches the main you’re serving up perfectly, even better. Onion bhajis are everyone’s favourite curry house starter and they’re surprisingly simple to make for yourself at home.

Using onion – obviously – garam flour, vegetable oil and a few herbs and spices, This Muslim Girl Bakes has a brilliant recipe for crispy onion bhajis that will go down a treat with your guests or simply add an extra fancy touch to a midweek meal.

Samosas are another favourite curry accompaniment for Indian food lovers everywhere. Lots contain mince, but rustling up a vegetarian-friendly version like these mushroom ones cooked up by Diary of a Homemaker will make sure all your guests can get stuck in with these crispy spice-filled parcels of yum.

Some prefer it with rice, some with chips and some like their curry with ‘half and half’, so you’ll probably want to serve up both for your Indian feast. If you’ve got the time, have a go at some extra side dishes too, so your guests can try a bit of everything.

Bombay potatoes would be a good starting point, as they require just a few ingredients for a fantastic flavour. Tales from the Kitchen Shed has a great simple recipe for these, which will fill your home with a gorgeous aroma too. Alternatively, you could always pop all the ingredients into your ActiFry, to make it that little bit healthier.

Not everyone you’re cooking for will have the same spice tolerance and some will need to cool their palate down in between each mouthful of curry. Fruity and flavoursome mango chutney or refreshing cucumber raita are good options to dish up alongside the main course. The Cottage Smallholder’s recipe for mango chutney will help you get started; feel free to leave out some of the spices if you want a milder end result.

If you’ve served up something like a biryani to your dinner guests, mopping up sauce won’t be an issue, but if you’ve gone for something creamier and saucier, a naan, chapati or roti would most definitely be welcome for soaking up all of that lovely sauce.

Naan is traditionally much thicker than chapatis and rotis; although chapatis are technically a type of roti, they are typically cooked on a griddle, while rotis are baked in a tandoori oven.

You can make your own soft rotis at home using just a frying pan though, using Food Like Amma Used to Make It’s recipe. Use them to mop up curry or encourage your guests to ditch the cutlery and scoop up their food with the bread in the way that many South Asian families do for a slightly more authentic dining experience.

Whether you prefer korma or vindaloo, raita or mango chutney, chips or rice, cooking up a curry feast for your loved ones is the perfect way to celebrate National Curry Week.

For a real authentic taste of Indian cuisine why not give our Madras collection a try? Our Kadai and chapati pans are perfectly designed to help you get the most out of your food, so dig out the spices and get stuck in if you think you can handle the heat.