Curry guides

How to Cook a Great Bhuna

The Bhuna is more about the cooking process or style rather than the dish

How to Cook a Great Bhuna

A bhuna is found in restaurants across the UK and is usually a dark, brown dry dish where the sauce clings effortlessly to meat or vegetables. The word Bhuna means 'to fry'and refers to the cooking style which originates in the Pakistan region where this would be known as is a Karahi.

A bhuna tends to be made with meat or vegetables that are cooked in their own juices resulting in a sauce that has a deep richness in flavour. The key aromatics come from the use of freshly toasted spices - I always use cumin, coriander, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds and mustard seeds. However, what is key about this dish is the 'fry or bhuna' element, so once the meat is tender the heat is turned to full whack and the dish is then fried and tossed to reduce the sauce right down. This process produces the fragrant, thick, rich sauce that clings to each and every morsel giving it the resulting well spiced, luxurious flavour a Bhuna is known for.

This tends to be served with bread rather than rice.

Buy Bhuna Curry Kit

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Comments

Comments (4)

  • mark harvey

    mark harvey

    24 April 2016 at 16:51 |
    Not sure what happened to my efforts on this one. Roasting the spices for me didn't get the blend I was looking for. Maybe roasting and then also frying them for a minute or so before adding the tomatoes. But for me the spices tasted too outside of the sauce and I didn't get the blend.

    reply

    • Hari Ghotra

      Hari Ghotra

      25 April 2016 at 08:31 |
      Hi Mark Ideally the spices should be totally emersed in the masala sauce. The idea of roasting them is to very gently bring their natural oils out so the aromatics are intensified and then the process of bhuna is all about reducing the sauce so that it is a dry dish and the masala clings to the meat and becomes really deep in flavour. Did you follow the recipes on this page http://www.harighotra.co.uk/lamb-bhuna-recipe ? I really love this dish so am eager to help here. Thanks Hari

      reply

  • mark harvey

    mark harvey

    25 April 2016 at 18:05 |
    Hi Hari,
    Yes I bought the spice pack on line and I did follow the recipe, I did roast the spices until browned and the aroma was coming off them and used a coffee bean blender. I added them at the correct point, and cooked the masala slowly before reducing but it kind of didn't quite taste right. I think it might be a personal thing, the kind of spices I add to the masala are things like cayenne pepper, turmeric, salt so I think I'm use to frying spices like the ones in the spice pack for a minute or 2 before adding the liquid (when the onions are done) I think it's a personal thing, but that Madras is an absolute belter and I love your site, and the videos are great too.
    I might watch the Bhuna one to see if I've done anything different.
    Kind Regards,
    Mark

    reply

    • Hari Ghotra

      Hari Ghotra

      30 April 2016 at 12:48 |
      Hi Mark Thanks so much for your feedback I really appreciated it as it helps me going forwards. I'm going to do that with the kit again just to double check. Thanks Hari

      reply

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