Bring authentic Indian and South East Asian flavours into your home with home-style curry paste
From as far back as I can remember, my family always made our own curry paste. Mind you, buying it from anywhere would have been totally out of the question back then. If the truth be known, it wasn’t even an option!
We followed curry paste recipes passed on by word of mouth within the immediate family, relatives and neighbours and you could say through a series of generations.
Very little was modified, all closely followed to a tee with perhaps just a gentle tweak here and there. Spices were bought fresh in bulk, mum would wash and dry them individually, handling them with the utmost care and respect.
Some would be mixed into special blends and then she would have them ground in specialist spice milling shops for storage. To these ground mixtures, she would add various fresh ingredients to make her bespoke masala and curry pastes from scratch.
I have childhood memories spent helping her grind the concoctions up using a granite stone grinder traditionally called ammikallu– in our humble outdoor kitchen.
I confess I didn’t enjoy it much – what a lot of work and effort went into it all. Of course when it came to meal times, our troubles were quickly forgotten as the smells wafting in had a way to make you quickly forget the pain.
So, every couple of days mum would follow some typical process – peeling onions, mincing garlic, dicing ginger and turmeric, chopping chillies, grating coconut, crushing pepper, coriander and more …And that’s where I stop!
If I go on, you’ll end up discovering the quietly spoken secrets to gluten free curry paste recipes that’s been handed down for generations! And we can’t have that, can we?
Today, though, few of us have the time to gather all the ingredients and perform what was in those days a daily ritual for many families like mine.
These days’ time is precious and scarce with much to do and accomplish in a single day or week.
Yes, no doubt there will be those special moments when preparing your own curry paste could even feel “therapeutic “and relaxing.
But generally, though, most people simply can’t afford the time. And that’s where I feel I come in to your homes or lives.
Because I do have the time. And the love and the passion.
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