Grow Your Own Curries
Michael Burford
Posts: 6
Now I am a huge fan of cooking indian food and over the years have managed to accumulate every spice under the sun. I thought I'd try my luck with some of the whole seeds I had in the cupboard whilst sowing the usual stuff this spring.
Firstly the fenugreek - it has been hugely successful and anyone looking to grow this herb should get sowing. Every seed I planted has germinated ferociously and I now have many well established plants and healthy looking plants which are already smelling great about 6 weeks after planting.
Cumin - Again all seeds have germinated and have produced fine seedlings with wispy, thread-like leaves. They're very delicate but look healthy and as it will be the seeds I harvest, the jury will remain out until then. Again, 6 weeks after planting.
Black Mustard - Again, all seeds have germinated but had the tendency to bolt and head very erratically in all directions. I lost some due to their delicacy but this was always the risk when sowing seed not bred for sowing with. however, the remaining eight plants are looking good and will find a home in the brassica bed in a few weeks' time alongside the broccoli and cabbages. Six weeks too.
Kashmiri & Green Finger Chillies were also sown in the same way six weeks ago. I find these chillies particularly difficult to find fresh so had a go with seeds from a pack of dried chillies I ordered on-line (spicesofindia.co.uk). Only 3 have germinated out of the 15 I planted but the plants are looking very strong. I planted seeds from fresh green finger chillies - everyone of these has germinated and look great.
I'm now hardening all of the above off in the greenhouse before their final resting place.
The Chick Peas and Brown Lentils were planted in indoor containers last night. You can buy these as seeds from seedsofitaly.com but the price was unpalatable considering how many I have in the cupboard. I know, I'm more likely to have success when buying from a reputable supplier but you don't know unless you try, and there's always next year.
I'll continue to post the progress on here and look forward to hearing from anyone else looking to grow curry ingredients!
Posts
That's totally awesome Michael! Going to have to give this a try too!! Can't wait to see progress pics
What a brilliant idea! I've tried chillies, and coriander grows like a weed, but this takes it to a whole new level (to use an abhorrent modern expression).
Curries all round!
Excellent post, and I might have a go too.
I use Fenugreek occasionally in my own curries but never really know how much of it to use. I use the dried leaf variety! How much of it do you chuck in your curries and what curries in particular do you use it in?
Im growing numerous amounts of different chilli at the moment. Not much of it gets used in curries though as my fiancé doesn't tolerate it!
Torg22 - fenugreek is quite a unique flavour and tends to appear relatively infrequently among typical Indian restaurant dishes. There is often a dish called 'methi', which is the hindi word for fenugreek and has the distinctive flavour.
To be honest, I wouldn't bother using dried fenugreek leaves as most of the flavour has gone, same goes for dried coriander leaf and dried curry leaves. It's worth finding a local asian grocery store and buying fresh. Alternatively, visit spicesofindia.co.uk - they send deliveries of their fresh ingredients every Tuesday.
This recipe book is my bible, and will explain to you how much fenugreek to use and in what type of curries. You can buy a used copy on Amazon for £0.01 + postage!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Curry-Fragrant-Thailand-Malaysia-Indonesia/dp/1405315725?ie=UTF8&ref_=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top
Also in terms of pictures... in order - Fenugreek, Cumin, Black Mustard, Kashmiri and Green Finger Chillies.
Hi,
Thanks Michael. Will keep what you have said in mind. Not sure if I can afford the book though
Im going to try making Prawn Saag tonight. As per usual I will use a mix of all different recipes I find off of the internet along with my own input. God knows what it turns out like.
Oh my word lol.
We took that book to the charity shop only last weekend!! How strange.
Not that is wasn't any good, I just never got around to using it. Doh
What an interesting thread. I also make curries from first principles and had never thought of sowing the seeds from my packets. Think I will give it a go
I grow lots of coriander every year and harvest all parts - leaf, root and seed. I believe it is also fairly easy to grow ginger and lemon grass from supermarket bought tubers and stems.
Ha Torg that is odd! Another great book is Rick Stein's India - if you haven't seen the series you should find it, it's fantastic.
Topbird - it's funny you say that as I actually have given the ginger planting a go and to good effect! (see picture). You just need to find a ginger root with 'eyes' (this is a sign that the root is about to send off a shoot) from the supermarket, pop it in a wide pot of compost (ginger grows horizontally as a rhizome) and then watch it grow. The root swells as the stems develop and you can uncover the root, cut off a piece and then it heals itself and continues growing! You can also grow turmeric root and galangal in the same way.
I used this thread http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2014/11/how-to-grow-ginger-indoors/
I also have some lemongrass seed and have grown some successfully over the years, just needs to be kept indoors/in a greenhouse.
Coriander is always worth growing, it just annoys me how quickly it runs to seed! Still as you say at least the seed can be used in curries too. It sounds like your more of a thai curry fan than Indian?