Some food memories stay with you. Mine starts with a Vesta curry.

I was sixteen. My mum — a lovely woman, not a particularly good cook — had discovered Vesta curries and served one up with quiet pride. For anyone who wasn't there: Vesta was a Batchelors product, enormously popular in the 1960s and 70s, sold in a packet containing sachets of freeze-dried powder and vegetables, boil-in-the-bag rice, and crispy noodles. The beef version came with rice and sultanas. It was convenience food dressed up as exotic adventure — not hot, not particularly spicy, but a revelation to a sixteen-year-old whose home cooking ran to meat pie, mince with carrots and onion, and mashed potatoes. It was delicious, satisfying, and devoid of any spice. That Vesta curry was still the most exotic thing I had ever eaten. I was hooked.

What followed was a proper education. The Taj Mahal in Streatham opened with a green mulligatawny soup I have never forgotten. A curry house on Stafford Road in Wallington served a beef madras that was everything a madras should be: deep, dark, and completely dreamy. And there was a place in South Wimbledon, operating out of a two-up, two-down terraced house, where I watched the pilau rice arrive at the table next to mine — fragrant with cloves, topped with slices of boiled egg, cucumber and tomato — and thought it was the most appealing thing I had ever seen. These weren't BIR curry houses grinding out the same formula. They were individual, authentic, and each tasted entirely like themselves.

Years later, thirty-two days on Indian trains finished the job. Delhi's butcher shops made me a temporary vegetarian from day one — I lived mostly on aloo gobi for a month, eating it everywhere, until the best version of all arrived without ceremony in a small beach hut in Goa: ghee-creamy potatoes, fresh tomatoes cooked down, and spices present but restrained. Simple food in the right place at the right moment. There was a wobble in Lucknow over a kebab, but we won't dwell on that. And somewhere in Delhi, Chandni Chowk — the spice market that assaults every sense simultaneously — made me understand that Indian cooking isn't one thing. It's hundreds of things.

These days the spice collection at Casa Adora takes up an embarrassing amount of shelf space. I grind my own blends, make my own pastes, keep fermented garlic ginger paste in the fridge as a matter of routine, and cook curry recipes on a five-ring gas hob in rural Andalucía – Indian and beyond. The Vesta curry started something that shows no sign of stopping.

For a more irreverent take on the nation's love of curry, Curry: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics is worth a read.

This is the complete collection — every curry, base, spice blend, side, chutney and curry-adjacent recipe on The Flexible Chef. Indian at its heart, with excursions into Thai, Japanese, Caribbean, African and beyond.

These curry recipes have been collected, tested and cooked over the best part of fifty years. Some are quick weeknight dishes; some take the better part of a day. All of them are worth making. Browse the curry recipes below by category — or start at the base gravy and work outwards.

THE CURRY COLLECTION

Every curry recipe on The Flexible Chef. Mostly Indian — from a simple weeknight chicken curry to a slow-cooked Rajasthani goat rib — with excursions into Thai, Japanese, Caribbean and African territory. Recipes marked (BIR style) use a base curry gravy for that authentic British Indian restaurant flavour.

A BIG and Healthy Curry: Don't Eat it Raw · Aubergine Curry with Base Gravy (BIR style) · Ottolenghi Aubergine Curry — My Casa Adora Version · Bangla Egg Curry: Dimer Kosha · Authentic Dark Chicken Bhuna · Butternut Squash and Vegetable Curry · Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry with Base Gravy (BIR style) · Chicken Curry with Potato & Peas · Chicken Garam Masala Curry · Chickpea Khichdi with Fresh Red Chillies and Ginger · Dahi Wala Chicken Curry · Easy Indian Chicken Curry with Garam Masala · Old Delhi-Style Butter Chicken · Easy Prawn and Mango Red Thai Curry · Evelyn's Zafrani Gosht Curry · Feed a Man 'til He's Full and He Still Want Beef (Beef Rendang) · George's Chicken Curry · Jamaican Goat Curry · Jeera Chicken with Aloo Dum · Katsu Curry Sauce · Keralan One-Pot Chicken with Vegetables · Lightly Spiced Chicken Curry with Mint and Baked Beans · Mauritian Goat Curry · Palak Daal: Lentil & Spinach Curry · Pork Massaman Curry · Rajasthani Goat Rib Curry · Chana Masala · Chicken Drumsticks Sambar · Chicken and Coconut Curry with Fresh Coconut · Aloo Gobi – Spiced Cauliflower and Potato · Thirty Years with Madhur Jaffrey's Chicken with Garlic and Ginger ·

CURRY BASES & FOUNDATIONS

There are two ways to approach a curry from scratch. The first is to build each dish individually — layering spices, aromatics and sauce from the ground up. The second is the BIR method: make a large batch of base curry gravy, then use it as the foundation for multiple curries throughout the week. Restaurant kitchens have used this approach for decades. It's efficient, consistent, and produces that particular depth of flavour that's difficult to achieve any other way. The Dishoom onion and tomato masala sits in a category of its own — not a base gravy but an essential building block that transforms almost any Indian curry it goes into.

Another Base Gravy for BIR Style Curry Recipes · Dishoom Onion and Tomato Masala · Restaurant-Style Base Curry Gravy · How to Make Homemade Ghee

SPICE BLENDS & PASTES

The Casa Adora spice collection has been growing since 2012. A dedicated Wahl coffee grinder — endorsed by James Martin and used for nothing but spices — has been grinding blends in this kitchen for as long as the blog has existed. It gets cleaned periodically by running basmati rice through it. Every blend and paste here has been made, tested and used in actual cooking — not assembled for the sake of completeness.

Chaat Masala · Ethiopian Berberé Spice Blend · Fermented Garlic Ginger Paste · Goan Xacuti Curry Paste · Harissa Paste · Homemade Aromatic Garam Masala · Homemade Biryani Masala · Homemade Indian Five Spice · Homemade Kitchen King Masala · Homemade Tandoori Masala · Homemade Thai Lemongrass Curry Paste · Homemade Thai Massaman Curry Paste · Prawn Pathia Curry · Homemade Tikka Masala Curry Paste · Homemade Xawaash Somali Spice Mix · Naam Prik Pao Thai Chilli Sauce · Preserved Lemons · Malgapodi/Gun Powder

SIDES & ACCOMPANIMENTS

A curry without the right accompaniments is only half the meal. Rice, bread, spiced potatoes — these aren't afterthoughts. They're part of the same conversation.

Bombay Potatoes · Chickpea Flatbread · Indian Kulcha Bread · Keema Peas, Carrots and Potatoes · Spiced Fried Onion Rice · Vegetable Pilau · Vegetable Pilau Rice — A Taj Mahal Recreation

CHUTNEYS & PICKLES

No curry table is complete without something sharp, sweet or fermented alongside it. The mango chutney collection alone could fill a shelf — from the Nearly Patak's version to a fabulous pineapple and mango that earns its place every time.

Green Tomato Chutney · Hot and Sweet Plum & Raisin Chutney · Nearly Patak's Mango Chutney · Pineapple and Mango Chutney · Spicy Carrot & Apple Chutney · Spicy Roasted Tomato Chutney · Sweet & Sour Tomato Chutney · Sweet Potato & Pear Chutney · Nearly Nigel's Dark & Sticky Fig and Grape Chutney

CURRY-ADJACENT

Not every spiced dish is a curry. This section covers the wider world that surrounds a proper curry — tandoori dishes, spiced mince, fermented chilli sauces, Bombay Duck, and the travel post that started more curry cooking than any recipe ever did.

Bombay Duck — Crispy Pescadilla · Chicken Crown with Ethiopian Berberé · Kashmiri Kabargah — Fried Lamb Ribs · Spiced Beef Mince with Couscous · Spicy Tuna with Tamarind & Kashmiri Chillies · Tropical Sunset Habanero Sauce · Verde Fresco Green Chilli Sauce · What 32 Days on Indian Trains Did to My Appetite · Tandoori Lamb Chops on a Sizzler Plate· Pre-Match Tandoori Chicken Wings · Meat Free Sunday Lunch ·

The fermented chilli sauces in this section — Tropical Sunset Habanero Sauce and Verde Fresco Green Chilli Sauce — are part of my Fermentation Hub, where you'll find the full fermentation collection.

This curry recipes collection grows with every dish cooked, every spice blend ground, and every market visit in rural Andalucía. If you're looking for Indian curry recipes, BIR curry recipes to make at home, or just want to know what to do with a jar of curry paste and half a cauliflower – you're in the right place. Good curry doesn't need a restaurant. It needs time, the right spices, and a willingness to experiment.

Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures — The Flexible Chef