What does a Vegetable Korma cost?

[Jessiebean]

I bought takeaway curry last night on accountof being dead on my feet and realising that our business is too big for the two of us to handle by ourselves at Christmas- Pizza and Chips would always have been cheaper but I was trying to be a little nutritious and I found myself wondering how people can afford to eat so many takeaway Curries in the UK...are they cheap or are some people just very very bad with money?(or is the takeaway curry eating Poms myth just blown way out of proportion?) I bought a Vegetable korma (comes with rice), two plain Naan and two puppadums for AUD$19.90...I am very curious about curry prices around the world!

[Millymollymandy]

Here in France they have always been about double what they cost in England. Sadly.

[contadina]

Not a hope in hell of getting a take away curry in southern Italy, although I've introduced many locals to curry delights. I always ensure I get a good curry when I'm back in blighty and have included a link to the menu of one of my fave south London curry houses http://www.sreekrishna.co.uk/5294/index.html . A curry meat main is around £7.50 here, you can get cheaper curries elsewhere (around £4 or £5 per dish) but these are generally not the best - too much ghee and artificial colouring.

[Millymollymandy]

Just worked out your price is €15.26 (£13.06) which is probably a bit more than you'd pay here in France, but I'm talking restaurant prices because we don't have takeaways or deliveries (although I suppose you could get a takeaway from the restaurant). When I first moved to France we were paying approx £10 for a main meal curry when they were only costing about £4 or 5 in England. It's the same here at Chinese restaurants so to have a selection of different dishes it costs a small fortune! So we go to the all you can eat lunchtime buffet place for about €12 pp.

[crowsashes]

a main curry here is about £8 for a king prawn one or beef with boiled rice (fried rice is £1 extra on top of that) chicken/pork/mushroom are slightly less

naan i buy from the co-op next door while i wait for the curry because its cheaper lol!

for myself and the LO it costs about £12-15 depending on what we eat. usually its chinese as he loves noodles and even then its still alot for 1 1/2 people

[Green Aura]

Blimey!!!!

It's along time since I've had a takeaway curry but I'm certain we fed 3 of us with poppadoms and trimmings three mains, rice and naan or chappatis for less than £25. And that usually got us a free bottle of something fizzy or ice cream to boot!

And our local takeaway had won curry house of the year (although that was in the late nineties ).

[Milims]

Takeaways are a very occasional treat and usually only happen once a year Despite the fact that there is a fishing port, albeit a very small one, very close to us, the cost of fish and chips is astronomical! By proportion the cost of a fish supper one night for a family of 4 costs us almost 1/3 of our weekly grocery bill!

[Graye]

Our local Indian restaurants in Whitby are all astronomical in price and I don't think they are particularly good either, a bit greasy.

I've just checked online with my favourite Midlands one where we always end up when I go to visit my mother, grandma, son et al and their Vegetable Korma is £4.95 with boiled rice at £1.60. This is a really "posh" out of town restaurant which also does takeaways. The standard is very high so I would say that was a really good price. The last time we in ate there (son's birthday) we had a meal for 5, two drinks each, poppadoms with sauces, naans but no rice and it came to under £70.

My daughter is a total balti freak and has me sending out spices to her now she lives in Georgia. Fortunately for her there are now three very reasonable curry houses in the city so perhaps Indian food is finally catching on in the States. She can't get a balti there (bit of a "Brummie" thing I believe) but she certainly makes a mean one herself!

[crowsashes]

yes balti is a brummie thing LOL it the one thing i LOVE when i go back to my hometown... its just not often enough!

[Uller]

Not sure about a veggie korma, but our local does veggie thali which has several dishes - aubergine curry, chickpea masala, rice, aloo gobi and a couple of other bits - for £12. Easily enough for people.

We have found it a bit greasy recently though so have started getting takeaway from M%S - main course each, share rice and share a pack of Indian snacks for £12. It's a lot of food and really a bit piggy, but yummy!

[Milims]

We have found it a bit greasy recently though so have started getting takeaway from M%S - main course each, share rice and share a pack of Indian snacks for £12. It's a lot of food and really a bit piggy, but yummy!

Apparently this place http://www.mumtaz.co.uk/ makes curry for M&S. I've been - it was really good - but I wasn't paying!

[Millymollymandy]

I often go for the veggie or meat thali when we go for a curry cos then I get a selection of dishes plus dhal, rice and a roti, as well as a lassi to drink. It used to be about €10-12 (veggie one cheaper obviously) when we moved here 6 years ago but it's about €14 or €16 now. Mind you that's not a bad price I guess.

[Jessiebean]

I love Balti too, but I don't think there is anywhere in Tassie to have one- there wasa restaurant in Canberra (where I grew) called the Brum Balti- it was a birmingham themed Kashmiri restaurant with "authentic Birmingham decor" and laminated copies of albums by recording artists from Birmingham used as place mats (part of the excitement of going there was the warm beer and finding who you got as a placemat- "Joan Armitrading AGAIN!")
I might just have to try to make a decent korma myself and freeze(does curry freeze ok?) as it looks like I can't move anywhere to get a cheaper curry. I have found out atht simmer sauces are dreadful so will have to knuckle down and do it proper like.The korma would have cost £7.80 by itself here at present (wow the £ is really down at the moment- I hope you guys are doing alright- might be time for me to pick up a Burberry trenchcoat though- if I don't buy any more curries I might be able to afford one)
ETA. note to self- don't buy a winter coat on the other side of the world when they are in the middle of the worst cold snap in who knows how long!

[Alice Abbott]

Yes, curry freezes beautifully. My sister made 18 portions of goose curry for me last week (Mom slightly over estimated the size of goose needed to feed 6 adults and two children on Christmas Day). If you freeze it into individual portions it's really easy to deal with.

Curry isn't really a taste Americans take to easily but I've loved it since the first one I had when I first arrived in the UK. We don't have any Indian restaurants near here in France (and not really any money to visit one) but I doubt the prices would compare with all the wonderful ones in Bristol anyway. I bought all my spices in a back street Asian grocery shop before we left the UK, small packs at about 50p per bag. They are in a big box and so far are keeping beautifully so if you could get some spices and a decent recipe book you could easily make your own.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Our nearest curry house is about 25 miles away and is rubbish. To be fair they cater to the French market which believes that curry comes in three types only: red, yellow & brown.

This is my utility curry recipe:

* A teaspoon of mustard seeds
* A tablespoon of coriander seeds
* One large onion, chopped finely
* Five green cardamom pods
* A generous lump of root ginger (say two-three inches)
* Three cloves garlic
* One hot chilli (more or less to taste)
* Three chicken breasts, diced (or joints, or lean diced lamb or shelled prawns or assorted vegetables– enough for 4)
* One tin of chopped tomatoes
* One tin of brown lentils
* Juice of one lemon
* Oil

1. Take a large pan (a wok is ideal), heat some oil to smoking and throw in the mustard and coriander seeds. Cook until they crackle, then turn the heat down and add the chopped onion.
2. Cook the onion slowly until golden. In the meantime, purée the ginger, garlic and chilli together with just enough oil to make a smooth paste.
3. Once the onions are cooked, raise the heat and add the meat to the pan with the cardamom pods. Crack the pods with the blade of a knife before including them.
4. One the meat is browned, coat it with the ginger paste, then add the tomatoes and the lentils with their liquid.
5. Simmer gently until most of the liquid is gone, then finish with the lemon juice.