Six Word Saturday - Curry

Searching for Curry recipe's is dangerous

As part of my quest to expand the recipe journal I got from my baby bro and sister for my birthday, I'm undertaking to try more new meals. To start myself off, I'm simply going to make dishes that I know I like but that I'd otherwise reach for a jar to make. As Ben is a great lover of curry, and curry is one of those things that I always imagined tasted so much better when made from scratch, mixing the spices etc myself, and having been inspired by Saturday Cooks this morning, I have decided that next Saturday we shall dine upon a feast of Curry with a side of Naan bread and Bombay Potatoes (as I cannot stomach rice.).

The Naan bread and potatoes are not really an issue. I used to bake my own bread on a relatively frequent basis, and while Naan's have a slightly different recipe (in that it includes yoghurt and seasoning) the basic concept is the same...flour, yeast, knead it all up, leave it to rise, stick it in the oven. The potatoes, again, not so much a problem...prepare potatoes, spice and fry.

But trying to find a recipe for curry?

Curry is not one dish, it is almost a food group...it's like saying oh, I need a recipe for soup. There are hundreds of variations, some are hot, some are chilled, some are clear and some are thick and brothy. I expected no less for curry, and in my hunt for a nice recipe to try I've found some amazingly delicious sounding dishes. However, the recipe's seem to lie at either end of two extremes...either they are so simple I may as well just get my stuff from a jar, or they contain a million and one ingredients that I'd probably have to go to one of the international food stores to pick half of it up, which wouldn't be a problem except I'm looking to put these recipe's into my journal, and I want to know that wherever I go I will always be able to have access to these ingredients...so whilst Liverpool is great for its range of exotic food stores thanks to its wonderful multicultural community, if I were to want to cook this for my parents when I next visit, I would really struggle to get half of the ingredients required. Plus, you know, I'm on a tight budget and can't really afford to go running around Liverpool looking for these exotic items, and last time I looked, neither Asda nor my local green grocers weren't stocking Lemon Grass.

I've found a recipe that looks promising, however. It's called a "Lamb Curry" which in itself is a bit worrying...I mean, what kind of curry it is I couldn't tell you (it's obviously not a Korma, but that's all I know!) and the list of spices is pretty easy to come about at our local Asda. The only "exotic" thing I might struggle with is that it also contains Garam Masala, which I understand is actually a spice mix, and the exact contents of said mix apparently differs from cook to cook and dish to dish so where to start really! However, I shall endeavour to find a recipe for a good all rounder.

Either way, I expect that next Friday my spice rack is going to get much more interesting! I shall, of course, let you know how it goes!