As we are creatures of routine
Thursday night is often ‘curry night’ for us, but not of the takeaway kind.
France doesn’t really do curry and in our little bit of rural France there
isn’t really much choice in takeaways at all. I have developed my own mixes of
spices and other ingredients over the years to make my own delicious curries,
much healthier and cheaper than high street curries and I even have my own naan
bread recipe too.
 |
| Ready for the freezer |
) on TV last night I just have to share
their brilliant top tip for curry paste. I regularly make up large batches of
walnut pesto using wild garlic, basil, rocket or parsley and freeze it in ice
cube trays so it is always ready to use. Si and Dave made a huge batch of curry
paste in a food processor and froze it in…you guessed it – ice cube trays – I
seriously can’t believe I didn’t think of this myself!
Here is what went into my batch
of curry paste today, some will be used tonight with lots of sliced onions
sautéed with 2 tsp of cumin seeds, mushrooms, diced carrots, peppers and a tin
of lentils, and the rest is safely tucked up in the freezer.
1 sliced chilli (I kept the seeds
in, but you can scrape them out)
1 whole bulb of garlic
Fresh ginger, finely sliced – I
used a 50g piece (or about twice the size of my thumb)
1 bunch of fresh coriander (I
substituted this for parsley which is growing in the garden at the moment and
the coriander isn’t)
2 tsp of cinnamon
8 tsp of ground cumin
8 tsp of turmeric
8 tsp of ground coriander (omit
if using fresh coriander)
2 tbsp of tomato purée
Water added when mixed to make a
wet paste consistency
 |
| Courgette curry, one of our favourites |
For a creamy curry I add a small
carton of coconut milk just before serving or top tip for a healthier option, mix 1
tbsp of desiccated coconut, 1 tbsp ground almonds, 125g natural yoghurt and 3
tbsp of water and add this instead of the coconut milk.
Another curry top tip is to add
an extra whole chilli but remove before serving and slice with a pair of
scissors. This peps up the heat for Ade and I when added to our plates, without
making it too hot a curry for Ed.
in a competition on 
, or enjoy reading Juliette Sobanet books you should enjoy this
one.
, so I was determined not to use it.
, frozen on
trays and bagged up to be turned into Fat Free Cherry Cakes all year round. You
could of course use any fruit of your choice, if we have them I also use halved
plums or peaches and sliced apples, pears or quince, all are delicious.
, by Peter Robert
Scott is an historic novel set in a
village in western France. The setting is the Marais Poitevin region, a
reclaimed marshland area with a picturesque canal network that we know well. My
main interest to begin with was the familiar location, but I soon found the
information on the effect that the Second World War had in this area to be
fascinating. Being in the west of France we are not in an area that was
directly affected by the ‘battles’ of war, but that doesn’t mean the area was
untouched by the troubles and it was interesting to learn more about the day to
day life and Occupation in the war years. 
