Chip Shop Curry Gravy

Chip shop curry sauce is its own thing and it is not a curry. It came out of British chip shops from the sixties onward, mild and sweet and thick enough to hold its shape against a wall of chips. The texture matters more than anything: it should coat a chip and stay there, glossy rather than gluey. This version gets there with onion cooked to a pulp, a mild curry powder and cornflour rather than flour.

Ingredients

Makes about 600ml, enough for six portions of chips

• 2 tbsp vegetable or rapeseed oil
• 2 medium (about 300g / 10½oz) onions chopped small, they get blended later
• 1 eating apple peeled and grated, this is the sweetness
• 2 tbsp mild curry powder a supermarket mild, not a hot one
• 1 tsp ground turmeric for colour
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• 700ml (1¼ pints) hot vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp sultanas optional, blended in for body and sweetness
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 3 tbsp cornflour slaked in 4 tbsp cold water
• salt

Kit

• Medium saucepan
• Stick blender or sieve
• Small bowl for the slurry

Method

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium low heat and cook the onions with a pinch of salt for 15 minutes, stirring often. You want them completely soft and starting to turn gold, not browned. Chip shop sauce is pale gold, so hold back on the colour.

2. Add the grated apple and cook for another 3 minutes until it has slumped into the onions and there is no free liquid in the pan.

3. Tip in the curry powder, turmeric and ginger and stir constantly for 60 to 90 seconds. The pan will go dry and the spices will smell toasty rather than dusty. That is the moment to move on, any longer and they catch and turn bitter.

4. Pour in the stock, add the sultanas and sugar, and bring to a simmer. Cook uncovered for 12 to 15 minutes so the onions collapse completely and the flavour concentrates.

5. Blitz the lot smooth with a stick blender, or push it through a sieve if you want it properly silky. Chip shop sauce has no bits in it, so do not leave it chunky.

6. Return it to a gentle simmer. Stir the cornflour slurry again to make sure it has not settled, then pour it in in a steady stream while stirring. It thickens within about 30 seconds.

7. Simmer for 2 more minutes to cook the cornflour out, stirring the whole time. Judge the texture with a spoon: lift some out and it should fall in a slow sheet, and a spoonful sitting on a plate should hold a low mound rather than spread flat. If it is too thick, thin it with a splash of hot water. Season with salt at the end.

Tips worth knowing

• This is meant to be mild. If you want heat, add a pinch of chilli powder at the end rather than swapping to a hot curry powder, which brings a different flavour entirely.
• Make it the day before if you can. Chip shop curry sauce genuinely improves overnight as the spices settle down and lose their raw edge.
• Do not use plain flour here. Cornflour gives that particular glossy, slightly translucent chip shop look, while flour goes matte and floury.
• If it turns claggy on standing, whisk in hot water a tablespoon at a time rather than reboiling hard, which can break the cornflour down and thin it too far.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps 4 days in the fridge and freezes for 3 months. It sets almost solid when cold, which is normal. Reheat gently with a splash of water and stir until it loosens back to a pouring consistency.

Questions people ask