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| Curry Patta Plant |
The curry leaves plant was always on my wish list and after trying to plant many times this time I was successful in growing a healthy curry leaves plant in a container. Curry leaves are an important daily herbs quota in many Indian dishes. We know how the fragrant curry leaves makes our dals tasty and appealing as well as the dahi kadi which is incomplete without the tadka of curry leaves. I used to always long for fresh curry leaves but whenever the leaves brought from market were stored in refrigerator they would remain fresh for few days and then would become black spoiled and also lose its herbal fragrance. so much would go waste always and I would long for fresh leaves because we al know specially Indian dishes get their flavor and fragrance from this strong leaves, kadi patta.
After the rainy season our curry leaves plant has grown well and has also branched out well. Touch wood our curry leaves plant is healthy as I have seen this plant catches white fungus and also pests.
Easy storing tips of curry leaves- A very simple and easy solution to store curry leaves (before we had the plant in our family) was to first allow the curry leaves to dry. Clean the fresh curry leaves and dry it on news paper. Now you can store the dried leaves in news paper in a plastic bag for many days. remember to make the leaves totally dry other wise they may spoil and turn black and will be of no use to you.
Clean the leaves thoroughly and then put on news paper. Allow the leaves to dry naturally for a day or in some indirect sunlight. Now you can roll the leaves in a news paper and store in plastic bag. I have also seen kitchen tissue papers work well when you store the leaves wrapped in tissue in plastic air tight bottles or boxes. Rectangular boxes in plastic are good as they allow the leaves to be in sleeping position so they are not bent, horizontal.
Stored curry leaves can be used as seasoning like the original leaves after washing. You may also crush the dried leaves and add the powder of curry leaves to dishes.
Another easy storing tip would be to grind curry leaves. This one is the best and has worked for me. What more I also freeze the curry leaves cubes and use them after months too. Grinding curry leaves with little water a pinch of salt to preserve and store in deep freezer in a air tight container. Tip- use some mint leaves too along and add a few drops of lemon juice. You can also store in small cubes form so that when required you may add a cube of curry leaves to your dishes. Trust me, they will remain fresh when frozen and also maintain their green colour. Chutneys can be prepared using curry leaves with little garlic and coriander to make tasty chutneys. You may also add coriander and mint leaves along with curry leaves for tasty chutney. This can be used as a dip and addition for pakoras,
(corn pakoras recipe with photos) kebabs and many starters.
Thank you for coming by Garden Care Simplified!
All the Best from Rizwana!
Thats a very good idea to make chutney and freeze it. I will try this surely. Now I am dependent on market bought leaves and do find that they turn black even if dried and stored in a plastic container in the fridge. Will try with newspaper also. We have always had fresh leaves from our own plant but last month my curry leaf tree of over 20 years got the white fungus pest. I tried trimming off the babies, applied neem oil, turmeric paste and even store bought pesticide, but the plants just dried up. It is important to keep air circulating well around the plant to avoid this pest.
ReplyDeleteHi Vijaya,
ReplyDeleteSo sorry to her about your plant. But i guess like humans even plants have their life span and God's wish. As I noticed with other plants also, some just die even if you take great care whereas some just spring up unexpectedly like the orange Amboli flowering bush which always has white infestation but still keeps blooming regularly without my care, I only notice it when there are beautiful peach coloured flowers.
As for curry leaves , Yes it works have tried since many years and it always saves me when unexpected guests used to arrive and I did not have fresh curry leaves of course till we had one in our family.
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