Legend has it that creator of currywurst was the housewife Herta Heuwer from the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. In 1949, she mixed together Worcestershire sauce, spices and ketchup, blended this with cooked tomatoes and onions and made a warm spicy sauce to cover deep fried sliced Knackwurst (Knockwurst). By trial and error Herta had created a recipe for the first currywurst.
Currywurst is widely considered to be the ultimate German street food. The lovers of this dish are ardent about what should and should not go into the perfect currywurst sauce. There are recipes out there that use orange juice, apple sauce, apricot jam, plum juice and even cola! Some people say there definitely should be fried onions in the recipe, others say definitely not. Others say that ketchup is the best base, while others basically state that’s an offense to the dish. The one thing everyone can agree on is that there is no “official” currywurst recipe. So here is one.
Ingredients:
Bratwurst/Knackwurst
2 large red or yellow onions chopped very finely
2 400-g cans of tomatoes with juice
250 ml ketchup
1 tablespoon mustard
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon paprika powder
2 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon oil
Directions:
Warm oil over medium heat.
Put onions in pan and cook over medium heat until soft, 8 to 10 minutes.
Add curry powder, paprika powder, chili powder and continue to cook while stirring, for one to two minutes.
Add tomatoes and juice to pan and crush thoroughly, stir thoroughly.
While stirring add ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, mustard, salt and pepper to taste.
Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to simmer, adding all the spices (paprika, curry, chili) and stirring until thickened.
Puree mixture in blender and strain through a sieve. Makes at least 500 ml of sauce.
Serve warm over sliced sausages with crusty bread or fries as a side. Sprinkle with some curry right before serving.
