Mmmm...Spicy ;)

I'm a big fan of Pataks curry pastes, easy, relatively cheap and very nommy. I really wanted to have a go at making my own paste though, partly because I have a lot of chillies to use up (still) and partly because well, it's just the kind of thing I like to do ;)

After talking to an old school friend of mine via facebook, she sent me a copy of a recipe given to her by another school friend for a Ghurka curry using paste.

After a bit of tweaking to suit our palate, here is my first attempt at a curry paste.

For the paste

2 large onions
6 chillies - I used peri peri ones as they needed using up
8 cloves of garlic
30 g dried ginger or 75g fresh chopped
20 g turmeric
20g cumin
40 g garam masala
50 ml olive oil


Roughly chop the onions and place into blender, add all other dry ingredients and give it a quick blend. Then add some oil and blend finely into a paste.

Ladle into warm clean jar, add 5mm of olive oil on top to help preserve it. Lid on securely and place in fridge, this should keep for 3-4 weeks.

For the curry. -

This is a double batch, should make about 2.5 - 3 litres of curry. 2 x average family serving 4

1 large onion
500g diced beef
400g mushrooms
1 tin tomatoes
1 tbsp olive oil.

Place oil in large saucepan and put on medium heat. Add 4-6 tbps of curry paste depending on level of heat required. Cook paste through gently until it starts to darken and seperate from the oil.

Chop 1 large onion into half, then slice.

Add onions and stir through until nicely covered in spicey oil.

Add diced beef, stir well and leave to cook through for 5 minutes or so.

Add roughly sliced mushrooms.

Add tomatoes ( I popped mine in the blender first to pick up the spices stuck at the bottom)

Add 1 litre of boiling water, you can pop a stock cube or two in if you like at this point. I don't think it really needs it.

Roughly chop a handful of fresh coriander and stir in.

If you like your sauce quite thick, use a little cornflour paste.

Leave to cook for at least 30 mins, I tend to make things a few hours in advance and let them simmer away on the hob.

Nom with basmati rice.


Credit to Karena and Richard for the original recipe. :)

Chutneys, Relish and Bread ...Oh My!

Om Nom Harvest Time

We found a hidden blackberry bramble in some laurel bushes, only a handful of fruit on it so far as it's well hidden away from the light.

We're going to train some of the runners out to get more of a harvest next year or look into possible relocating the whole plant. May be a bit of nightmare due to the nature of the bramble though. However this awakened a craving for blackberry and apple crumble in all of us.

So...

Blackberry and Apple Crumble


The Blackberries were picked by my sister while walking her dog down the canal paths and a bag of cooking apples were given on freecycle.

Cook apples and blackberries with a little sugar into a goo, make crumble topping, combine and cook. Nom

Due to the success of the banana method of ripening tomatoes, we had a sudden glut of them. What to do, what to do....cook them!

*giggles*

Tomato Chilli and Onion Sweet Relish

Very more-ish, we've gone through a jar already...just to test it before we leave it to mature for 2 months ;)

Chilli Chutney

This stuff has a bit of a kick to it...like a kick in the face with some chilli DM's..hehe


And a load of home made (from scratch, no machines here) bread to eat it all with.

In Garden news, the chillies are ripening nicely

Our pet ladybird (she has a damaged wing and can't fly) is doing a wonderful job of eating all the aphids :)


The hops are erm...hopping :)

We've just ordered a cheap dehydrator to help store all the harvest, and we have another batch of tomatoes ripening up with the banana method. We've amalgamated all the remaining tomatoes into one box now.

We've noticed that we have to keep the tomatoes well away from the end of the bananas to prevent mould though

A batch of chutney or relish to store up for christmas presents will be made with this lot

We're having some caterpillar trouble on the Purple Sprouting though, not sure the little plants will make it through :(