Spice Up Your Life

Curry in its various forms features heavily in my diet, a number of studies have claimed that the reaction of pain receptors to the hotter ingredients in curries leads to the body's release of endorphins. By so doing, a natural high is achieved that causes subsequent cravings, often followed by a desire to move on to spicier food, hence the reference to curry addiction.

I certainly have an addiction to spicy food which is no bad thing given the myriad medicinal qualities and health benefits, and I do enjoy a sensory reaction to a variety of spices and flavours. Studies have also shown a correlation between preferences for spicy food and risk taking personalities, this speaks for itself I think, and I sure as hell aint no korma girl!

Low sensation seeking individuals tend to be wary of spices and spicy food, but our national advancement for anything slightly adventurous has always been slow! Fortunately we aren't all in the death grip of blandness, before curries became popular in Britain we didn't really know about international food, curry helped pave the way for other cuisines and we are now a bit more sophisticated.

Britain's number one restaurant dish has been for many years, chicken tikka masala, not even remotely authentic this sweet, creamy concoction has become the modern day equivalent of prawn cocktail, steak and chips and black forest gateau. However, recent statistics suggest that jalfrezi has become a favourite amongst us Brit's and this dish actually offers fresh chillies and an authentic smack of spice!

Largely we rely on curries to be restaurant or takeaway meals, many people don't have an abundance of spices in their cupboards and fear that it wouldn't be cost effective to do so. There is no right or wrong way to make curry, the best tip, as in all recipes, is to use your taste buds. A curry is a melange of various spices and herbs, you can make it hot or mild, whatever suits your palette, in most curry house kitchens you would normally find a large saucepan of curry sauce simmering on the stove, this is used as a base sauce for most of the various curries.

Basically a curry paste is made with dried spices and fresh herbs which are combined in a processor, it is then transformed into a sauce by adding liquid, normally a combination of vegetable or chicken stock and coconut milk. Some cooks are too purist to use shop bought curry paste but there are some good ones available in most supermarkets. I find combining a few different dried spices more economical and this also offers me the chance to experiment with flavour combinations.

Once a base sauce is made you can add hotter spices to suit individual taste, this sauce will keep for 1 week in a refrigerator or 2 months in a freezer. The sauce can be used with lentils, vegetables (a great way of using up odds and ends) meat, chicken or fish. You never know, you might find you'll want to go bungee jumping next!

Curry base sauce

Recipe
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
500g onions, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
400g can chopped tomatoes
Knob root ginger, peeled and finely sliced
500ml water

For the paste
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 tablespoon oil

Combine all the spices with the oil to make a paste
In a large pan gently fry onion, garlic and ginger for 10 minutes or until slightly coloured
Add paste, combine and cook gently for 5 minutes
Add tomatoes and water, simmer on a gentle heat for 30-40 minutes, adding more water if necessary
The sauce can be processed further if you want a smooth sauce

Now you have a base sauce you can add chillies to heat it up or coconut milk to make it milder, it really is a case of using your taste buds!

Lentils can be added to sauce

                                    Cook according to packet instructions and drain

                                   With a little added water blitz in a food processor

                                                          Add to base sauce

This makes for a nutritious, healthy meal on its own

Once the base sauce is made it can be added to other ingredients

                                            Butternut squash and sweet potato

       Mix with base sauce add extra veg, chillies, garlic, which ever flavours you like!

                                    You can cook this in the oven or on the stove

                                     Rice is nice but curry works well with chips!

' When baking follow instructions, when cooking follow your taste'

-proverb

Go on......spice up your life

Love Donna xxxxxxx