I cannot think of cooking Indian food, especially South Indian food without Curry Leaves. It is hard to find them during winter in the Indian stores in Denver, so we decided to buy a Curry Leaf Plant instead. When Rajan went to Dallas, he bought the plant in one of the Indian grocery stores. Mine looks like the dwarf variety, which does not grow tall, but spreads its branches.
Its leaves are highly aromatic and are used as aherb or spice.. In Indian cooking curry leaves are used fresh in some recipes, while the most common method is to fry them in oil for the tadka (tempering of curries).
Curry Leaves can be stored in a Ziploc bag, in the refrigerator for a few weeks and they will remain fresh.
There is nothing like picking fresh curry leaves just the right amount when you need them for cooking.
Bhatia Nurseries in New York sells Murraya Koenigii (curry leaves) phone 212-221-7040.
Weekend Herb Blogging
14 comments:
Hi Sheela,
Thanks for participating in Weekend Herb Blogging. Nice job on this. Did you know I'm a teacher too? I teach fourth grade in Bountiful, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. What grade do you teach?
Hey Sheela, it's wonderful having your own herbs available 24x7. I wish I could do the same but I have a purple thumb. I love curry leaves and am terribly envious.
WOW Sheela! You are so lucky to have a curry leaf plant at your home. We at Muscat are thoroughly dependent on the cut branches and sprigs available at grocers.
came in via mahanandi's
Hi Sheela,
is there anything the curry leaf can be replaced by? Like e.g. the djeroek leaves?
Best regards
Job
Hi Sheela...I have a curry plant too. It is inside the house right now during winter. How often do u water it?
Also welcome to the blogging world. I find that blogging has inspired me to cook a lot more.
Hi there,
You write well and if you wish to write a cookbook, DO IT!! It's not difficult and you make money too. I am an author of 12 cookbooks and this year will be releasing another 3! Writing cookbooks is as easy as putting up articles in a blog.
Please visit my blog
http://www.spice-queen.blogspot.com/
and give you comments about food and also visit my website.
The leaves can be stored in the Freezer and they will last for months.
We have our plant outdoors in Pearland, Texas. It is too big to bring inside during winter.
The plant will drop all leaves during winter and the leaves come back in April.
I harvest all of the leaves in November since they will fall off any way.
I put them in Ziploc bags and store them in the Freezer. In this way I get curry leaves that are still green during the winter. Make sure that you have air tight bags - otherwise the leaves will dry-out and you will loose the green color.
The plant can survive if the root system is well protected. Use mulch to protect the roots.
To get more leaves - prune the top each branch in June and use Mircle Grow fertilizer - You will get multiple branches from the pruning point. You also get baby plants which can be used for propogation.
Hi Sheela - I have been looking for this plant forever!!!! I live in Dallas...could you tell me which store you bought this from? Thank you...
Hello Sheela, How do you care for the plant in the winter? What special precautions do you take? I have been trying to grow them but havent been very sucessfull. Any kind of tips will be most helpful. Thanks!
Wow...thanks...i'll try to track them & buy a curry leaf plant
It was very interesting for me to read this post. Thank you for it. I like such themes and everything that is connected to this matter. I would like to read more on that blog soon.
Sincerely yours
Steave Markson
it is so good to see your curry leaf plant. I also have a curry leaf plants. I live in New Mexico, where the climate is very dry like 7 % humid, so I have to extra miles to keep my plant in top shape. I also have a dwarf variety, gamthi variety and also a regular variety. Your plant looks awesome, i bought my curry leaf plant from ebay it was about 4 inches , now it is about 3 feet in length.. this is a nice blog
how do you identify a dawrf variety? i bought some plants but seller can't tell what variety it is. Plant is about 16 inches tall but not very aromatic. Shape of leaves don't look like that on bhatias site of dwarf variety. http://www.bhatia-nurseries.com/curry.htm. if its dwarf type, will have to return to seller. Do only dwarf variety have citrusy smell. Can that happen too if you use too much of a seaweed fertilizer? thanks!
Post a Comment