As i said in my last post, Pen and I are moving soon and will then be able to grow plants. We were given a ‘Curry Leaf’ tree from some Sri Lankan friends the other day. If you haven’t had curry leaves before, they are a fantastic herb. They are used in South Indian, Sri Lankan and Malaysian cooking and have a fresh, peppery, fragrant flavour that really improves your curries. The thing is, they are incredibly easy to grow, but not that cheap to buy, and a little difficult to find. The thing is, the plant grows like bamboo – it has runner roots which means, if planted in the ground, it has the potential to become a weed you can never get rid of. But it also means it is incredibly easy to cultivate – you just need to find someone with a curry leaf tree. (no i don’t have any spares at the moment, ask me in a year i might then)
The thing i use curry leaves most often in is Dhal. Dhal is a lentil dish that people literally live off in India. Despite the fact that it looks like a cross between vomit and the contents of a newborn’s nappy, it actually tastes great, and is dirt cheap. I also serve this with some home made naan – all you do is use my pizza dough recipe, but add 1 teaspoon Nigella Seeds into the dough and then barbecue it.
Here’s my Dhal recipe:
Yellow Dhal
Lentils
1 cup red lentils
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 4cm piece of ginger, grated
1 tomato, chopped
1 can coconut milk
2 bird’s eye chillis, chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 cumin seeds, ground
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, ground
1 teaspoon salt
Final Seasoning
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
15-20 curry leaves
Handful chopped coriander leaves
Fry the onion, garlic, ginger and chillis in a little oil until onions are soft. Add lentils, tomato, and coconut milk, salt and water to cover. Cook for 30-45 minutes, topping up with water to keep at a ‘thick soup’ consistency. For the final seasoning, heat some oil in a small saucepan over low heat. Add mustard seeds, cover until the seeds start to pop. Add cumin seeds and curry leaves and fry for a minute or two. Add seasoning to lentils. Serve in bowls, top with coriander leaves. Can be served with naan bread or rice.
Mmmm, dahl. So is it easy to find curry leaf tree’s around?
Hey Sam,
I’ve found it surprisingly difficult to find curry leaf trees commercially. A lot of nurseries will have plants labelled as ‘curry plant’ or something like that, but really they sell ‘Australian Curry’ which looks kinda like a grey colour rosemary bush and tastes very different. You really need to find someone from South India, Sri Lanka, Fiji, or Malaysia. In all likelyhood, they will have a tree and lots of offshoots.
You can also buy the leaves fairly easily and then freeze them. Buy them either from the fruit shop or indian spice centre. In fact, you may be able to track a tree down by asking the person at the indian spice centre if they can get one for you. They will probably dig one up from their garden and sell it to you for about $3.
As i said, hopefully mine will produce a few shoots next spring/summer, and i’m planning on giving away some more chilli seedlings at that time too, so watch the blog, i’ll probably post with some plants i need to get rid of.
Thanks for the comment!
Nick
We have a curry leaf tree too! It’s fantastic and fragrant and great for vegetable curries. I’ve heard you can also try and plant the seeds to grow them, but I’ve never tried. Great looking recipe.