Curry of Courgette

Today has been an interesting day. I set out to make curry for the freezer in order to use up excess garden produce. Took the car in for a service and MOT test at 8am and came home with a Vauxhall Corsa GTXI courtesy car. Cranky racing seats and 2 large doors which will not open sufficiently when the car is in the garage. Rosie and I went to Hanley to do some shopping and get a haircut - only hours to wait for the haircut so we went home unshorn.
After lunch I started to prep the vegetables for the curry.
The bulk of the ingredients were courgette, carrot, cauliflower, potato, onion, chick peas and mushroom. I was using the small potatoes from the "Heligan Salad Blue" and "Burgundy" varieties which have a distinct blue and burgundy flesh. I have been growing rare potatoes for years now.
Curry paste is easy, but differing tastes are hard to cater for. A good curry paste is basically Curry leaves, Cumin, Turmeric and Coriander. The seeds should be lightly toasted and then ground into a fine powder. Additional ingredients enhance the flavour and heat of the curry. For my mild curry, I added black pepper and allspice. For my hot curry I added Mustard, Cayenne and Chilli, with a few crushed garlic cloves.
The main bind in making a curry is preparing all of the vegetables. For two batches of curry I spent an hour pealing, chopping and grinding. It uses every bowl and pan in the house, or so it seems when you have to do the washing up.
Fry the onion and curry paste (mix all of the powders with water to stop them dusting first) and add the veg in turn. Top up with stock and add a flour paste to thicken the stock. 30 minutes later, we have a curry.
A phone call from the garage and the MOT equipment had failed. The test would be late in the day and I should be able to collect my car by 5.30pm. Glad to get rid of that awful Corsa with its strange switches and lack of air conditioning.
Another phone call told me that the front brake pads needed replacing and the specialist pads would have to be collected from Shrewsbury tomorrow - will I keep the Corsa over the weekend - AArgh!
Curry in foil trays - mark mild or hot - in freezer - excess crop dealt with - relax......