Curry In A Hurry
You’ll need a blender, a large stock pot and about 12-16 pint (500ml) jars, lids & rings washed and sterilized. A pressure canner with 2″ of water, a rack on the bottom and have a second rack ready to place on the first layer of jars for stacking.
In a blender puree washed, ripe yellow tomatoes, your surplus of cherry tomatoes and any other tomatoes that need to be processed. Note how much you have in each blender full (usually 6 to 8 cups). Pour a total of 24 cups of tomato puree into your stock pot and set on medium heat.
Next, puree 8-12 cloves of peeled garlic (or a bunch of tiny ones that won’t store well), two large peeled onions (or a bunch of tiny ones from your garden that need be used), and 2 red apples. Add the aromatic puree mixture to the stock pot. In years previous, I’ve also added tiny carrots from my garden to this puree mixture, which added a lovely colour and flavour.
From my hen scratch notes, these are the spice amounts that I added in 2018. Please feel free to add less, let the curry simmer, then taste and adjust the spice, salt and pepper levels.
- 2TB Curry Powder
- 2TB Coriander
- 2TB Ginger
- 2TB Garam Marsala
- 3TB Paprika
- 1TB Chilli Powder
- 1tsp Cumin
- 1tsp cardamom
- 3TB Salt
- 1TB Pepper
- 2 Cinnamon sticks in the pot
Put the pot of curry on the back burner. Let it softly simmer for 60 minutes to infuse flavours and start to reduce. Taste. Adjust seasonings and remember that the curry should be intense in flavour, since you’ll be adding it to plain foods in the future (chickpeas, chicken, cauliflower, rice). Add a spoonful of sugar if it’s too tart.
Once the curry tastes amazing, remove the cinnamon sticks, and ladle it into hot sterilized jars. Wipe the rims of the jars, add new lids and turn rings snuggly, but not tightly into place. Place 1/2 of the pint jars (500ml) on the bottom rack of the canner. Water level should be about halfway up on the jars, and not over the lids. Place a rack over those jars and add another layer of pint jars. Do not pressure can jars of different sizes in one batch.
Lock and secure the canner lid. Put over a medium-high heat and pressure can at 10lbs (as per your canner’s instructions) for 55 minutes. If you use quart (1l) jars, you’ll need to pressure can the curry at 10lbs for 85 minutes.
Turn off the heat. Let the pressure return to zero naturally. Wait couple of minutes, remove the canner lid. Let the jars sit in the canner for 10 minutes then lift them straight up and out of the canner and place them on tea towel to cool completely. Do not tip jars for any reason, as the hot liquid will bubble and may ruin the lid seal.
When your ready to used the canned curry for supper. Add it to your vegetables, or meat choice, and simmer for 15 minutes. Optional: add a can of coconut milk or cream or butter for richness.
Enjoy 🙂