During lockdown I made a wonderful Sri Lankan Butterflied Roast Chicken from a recipe of Kit Perera.
He has said I can share the recipe so will make and photograph it today.
The recipe contains curry leaves of which I didn't have any so Kit kindly dropped some off
I have since been and bought these leaves repeatedly and can't wait for spring so I can plant my own.
Why these delicious leaves have taken so long to find their way into my kitchen I will never know. But now that they have, my onion bhaji, Sri Lankan fish curry etc... all taste a whole lot better.
Do you use them and/or grow this?
I love it when I find a new favourite ingredient but it also amuses me that I can spend so much time immersed in food yet have so much to keep learning.

Curry leaves are brilliant and I use lots in Sri Lankan and South East Asian cooking. We had a bush in Auckland that grew to around two metres tall and was very decorative, producing far more leaves than I could ever use. Here in the Waikato we have about six little plants In pots outdoors, and although they are not as vigorous as the Auckland bush they are so far surviving the frosts, and they produce enough to keep me going.

The seeds don't germinate readily and take a long time to get moving even when they do germinate, so plants are quite hard to find and often expensive.

Ahh great advice thanks Tpandav. I have 3 bunches of leaves in my freezer. I think they were around $2 each from a grocer in Sandringham. I will look out for a seedling in the spring.

Helen I brought a plant on trademe about 3 years ago. It came from Pukekohe. I am in the Wairarapa and have it in a big pot so I can protect it from frosts in the winter. It is growing well so far.

Great thanks Sue, yes I will keep an eye on trademe.

Edited to say that I have looked on trademe and found seeds and also seedlings. Yay I don't have to wait until spring after all.
Thanks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2020 04:52AM by helen.

Helen, if you haven't got one already, you also need a kaffir lime tree. The leaves lift Thai cooking to a new level. The leaves can be frozen, too.

Thanks Lorna yes I do have a magnificent kaffir lime tree, it is dropping fruit everywhere at the moment. I don't have as much use for the fruit as I do the leaves.
We also have a square metre coriander garden that is lush at present. I have lemongrass and Thai basil.
The curry tree is the one missing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2020 10:53PM by helen.

Sue thank you so much for your trademe suggestion. I went to pick up 4 seedlings from Peter in Glendene (Auckland) yesterday.
I certainly don't need 4 trees but bought them for friends while there.
Peter has an extraordinary garden with babaco, cherimoya, guavas, mulberries, apples, pears etc... He has maybe 4 glasshouses,
plus he grows plenty of vegetables.
6 hens are wandering about and he has about 9 Hungry Bins on the go, with a mass of plastic buckets with lids as part of his bokashi practice. Peter converts all of his neighbourhood food scraps along with the chook poo into beautiful garden matter.
It was quite an experience just to visit.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2020 03:08AM by helen.

Please you managed to get a tree(s).
It would have been a very interesting visit and a good contact to make.
Hope it grows well.