For Love Of Curry.

Learning as we cook along...

Bob and I both like a good curry and in the past there was a prefix of Lamb, Beef, Chicken or Prawn dangling in front of it. Growing up in Natal one can't help but fall in love with spicy curries, chillie bites and samoosas. Even now, writing about them makes my mouth water.

Now our curries carry a different prefix and postcode...Lentil, Chickpea and Bean and let me tell you, they are up there in the tasted department if not better tasting than meaty ones. Over the years, kind family and friends have blessed us with gifts of curry powders. Yes, plain old curry powders back in South Africa are exotic ware here. Already made up curry mixes bought locally lack the oompf to cause tears, choking and tongues going numb.

Our stash of South African curry mixes ran out a while ago so Bob and I went shopping for the individual spices for it. We had tried one ready made mix but it tended to remind more of a tepid stew. Bob got industrious and looked up all the spices needed and made up a batch. It tasted so nice that we can be forgiven to have used it up within two weeks. Yip, curries are our new staple. The other day we needed to replenish the spices and went to town.

Buying them separate proves jolly expensive and on a hunch I asked Bob to wait until we had a look at the Oriental Shop in Oberwart, one that my parents had discovered the week before. A real Asian shop where the aromas wafting about makes one want to start cooking right away. Some of the spices are in bulk, the dried beans too but of course for us the find of the decade were ready made curry mixes from India, imported for the Brits, who like a spicy curry just like the South Africans do. The prices were so reasonable that we bought an array of spices and mixtures.

So far we've tried the hot curry masala and have loved it. It took Bob back to his childhood when he was at his uncle's Friday nights curry cookout and I also wafted in memories of walking about the spice emporiums and restaurants back in Durban. For the love of curry, I hope that we won't tire of it too soon...

Biggi