Its official!

First washing line of the year! Spring is officially on its way! *happydance* This also means i'm getting a cleaning bug. The sun starts to shine and suddenly my cozy winter home seems very stifling, must declutter!

We have chicken risotto tonight. This is actually the remnants of last weeks rubber chicken (I froze the leftovers), the last of the dark meat and stock. Will post my haphazard recipe later.

Tomorrows tea is going to be a chicken and chickpea curry. I was going to do potatoe and chickpea but decided we really do have enough meat stocked in the freezer to splash out 2 whole chicken breast fillets on a curry to keep the carnivore husband happy. Chicken breasts are premium meat. I get them when I can afford them on offer, I pay around £1 per fillet. Im defrosting 2 for this curry and bulking it out with chickpeas, which go very nicely in curry. Canned is almost twice the price of dried! I always keep a couple of cans on standby because they are instant. But since i'm defrosting the meat, Ive got two handfuls of dried soaking overnight.

See that wine kit in the background, well get to that later.

Added to this the mango chutney, popadoms, cucumber and mint yogurt I will be making, Naan breads, no-one is going to miss less meat. Or even the absence of it if you wish! 

This is the first time i've made this recipe for a curry paste. I have been buying the Pataks curry paste's, but I have a lot of onions from the special offer at Lidl a few weeks ago (34p kilo!). It is just a base, add to it your own spices, yogurt, coconut, tomatoes etc. Anything you fancy. This is enough for 4 meals to feed 4 people. Keep a stock in your freezer to pull out and defrost for a quick meal when your too tired to do anything elaborate.

So you will need:

1kg onions

ginger (I dont have any fresh so im using a paste)

About 6 cloves garlic

2-4 green chilli's

carton of passata

4 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp garam masala

1/2 cup chopped coriander

1 tsp salt

Start by chopping the onions and frying them well. And I mean really well! They should look something like this, sticky and caramelised.

A this point i turned around to see grace had bitten off half a chilli! Didnt take long before she realised it was probably a bad idea and she should have listened to mummy when I told her to spit it out!

So, after spending half an hour cuddling a severly drooling toddler:

Blend the chilli's, garlic and ginger with a couple of tablespoons water

Add to the onions and cook for 2 mins.

Then the spices and cook for a further 2 mins. On the subject of spices, if you can get to an asian/indian store they sell them in big bags like this: 

These were 99p for 400g! as opposed to the £1.25 for 15g of Schwartz spices you get at tesco, you do the maths! Its a big trek into the middle of the city to get to the shop for me, but I only have to go once a year to stock up.

Anyhow, if the spices start sticking to the pan add a bit of water. Then add your carton of passata, 250ml water and 1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander and simmer on a low heat for 15mins, the liquid will reduce.

Leave to cool completely before freezing and you will be left with a home-made curry paste, with about 1/5th the amount of oil of the shop bought versions. Jazz up, spice up and use however you wish to make awsome quick home-made currys.

I froze them like this:

In silicone muffin cases, so when they are frozen solid I can pop them out and put them into a freezer bag, I just hope my next batch of muffins dont taste like cumin!