10 recipes that use sugar, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Chocolate sauce, takes 9 minutes. It is most often cooked with onion, ripe tomatoes and basil.
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A big batch of spicy pizza sauce with fresh oregano, thyme and basil, plus ginger, garlic and green chilli for an Indian-style kick. The tomatoes are cooked down, strained and simmered until thick, so the sauce won't make the base soggy. Freeze it in portions for quick pizzas, or use 2 tsp dried herbs in place of fresh.
Marinating the chicken in spiced yoghurt keeps it tender, and a few minutes under a hot grill gives it the smoky char of a tandoor. The sauce is rich but not heavy, finished with a little cream and dried fenugreek leaves.
Roasting the tomatoes with onion and garlic concentrates their sweetness and gives the soup a gentle smokiness you can't get from a tin. Lovely with a grilled cheese sandwich.
Proper masala chai is simmered, not steeped: whole spices and fresh ginger are boiled with black tea, then milk is added and brought to a rolling boil to make it rich and creamy.
A thick, glossy chocolate sauce made from store-cupboard cocoa and milk, ready in under 10 minutes. Pour it hot over vanilla ice cream, or let it cool and spread it on cakes and puddings.
Proper pouring custard made the easy way with custard powder. It's thick, smooth and lightly sweet, just right with apple pie, crumbles, fruit salad and trifle. Serve it warm, or chill it for trifles.
A punchy sweet-and-hot chilli sauce blended in minutes, with no cooking. Serve it with spring rolls, samosas, bhajias and nacho chips, or stir a spoonful into noodles. It keeps for up to 2 weeks in a clean jar in the fridge.
Sugar syrup (chashni) is the base of many Indian sweets, and recipes ask for it at different stages. A light syrup is for soaking sweets and sweetening drinks. One-thread and two-thread syrups are boiled longer so the sweet sets. You can make it with milk instead of water for some sweets.
A home-made stand-in for golden syrup, from sugar caramelised until amber and boiled with water to a two-thread syrup. Use it in any recipe that needs golden syrup, such as flapjacks, biscuits and treacle tarts.
A proper home-made ketchup: fresh tomato puree boiled down with sugar and a muslin bag of whole spices, then sharpened with vinegar. It's thick, glossy and gently spiced. It keeps for a long time in the fridge and is great in pasta dishes.
