Sunday 13 December - Sri Lankan Cashew Nut Curry

We've never tried a Sri Lankan Curry before, and found this one in one of Rick Steins books after spotting him making it on TV. We were an ingredient short, and strangely were unable to source Pandan leaves in Gosport - so we just left them out, figuring we wouldn't know what it was supposed to taste like anyway.

The first stage was to make the roasted curry powder - I did half quantities as it seemed to make a huge amount. The first stage was to toast some rice

Then the spices were toasted - cumin, coriander, fennel, fenugreek, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, cardamom and mustard seeds

 



Finally the dried chillies went in the pan, then all the spices and rice were ground up

The main body of the curry was cashew nuts, and these were soaked in hot water, almost as if they were pulses, so soften up prior to cooking.

Then the curry sauce was made in the usual way, with onion, ginger, garlic, lemon grass, curry leaves and coconut milk - it was all left to simmer for around 30 minutes

Then in with the soaked nuts, and another 30  minutes to soften them up

 

 

The final addition was some green beans. We served this with plain boiled rice, and some homemade naans. Quite tasty, but could have done with a lot more heat for us.