How to make curry paste

Broccoli soup

This is what I'm cooking for lunch tomorrow. I have fresh broccoli in my garden ready to harvest. Up date: I made 2 very large crock pots of broccoli soup. I harvested 10 broccoli plants . I needed the room to plant other things. Thank God for crock pots! I wish I had a big freezer. I would just freeze the soup. But I only have a small freezer. I’m probably going to can it. My garden went crazy when we where gone on vacation . It’s a jungle and I need to harvest so much at once. It’s going to make me pretty tired dealing with all this fresh produce at one time. It’s a good problem.

for the salad

I canned some of my veggies in flavored oil. First I chopped a good variety of vegetables (radishes, carrots, onions, cabbage, kohlrabi, bell peppers and garlic). I blanched the vegetables in a mix of salt water and red wine vinegar. Then I drained the veggies and fill the jars. Finally I made a oil with olive oil, sunflower oil, limes and oregano, and chopped peppers. I covered the veggies with this oil mix. I cleaned the jars and processed them in my canning pot for 25 minutes. I should be able to use this mix on salads. I have so much lettuce in my garden. We will be eating allot of salad this summer. It looks so beautiful, and I hope it taste even better. I got the basic idea from a Jamie Oliver video. We are eating sausages with Nicolas home made ketchup for lunch. Juergen is driving home from a good visit with his family. I don't know any details, but I hear the birthday party was really good. Richard (Juergen's dad) was blessed.

Cabbage rolls

Today I'm going to use some of our cabbage from the garden. We are making cabbage rolls. I'll even use some of the tomato sauce I made this week to cover the rolls as they bake. I'm using old bread instead of rice. I'll use Italian spices and I'll add one or 2 eggs in my mix. I am also using red cabbage instead of white. I have allot of cabbage in the garden. I am going to try making homemade sauerkraut later in the month. That's a first for me. Our broccoli soup turned out very good. I only used half of the broccoli yesterday. I got one big pot of soup plus 5 quarts to put in the freezer. Today we are cooking the rest of the broccoli in the Crockpot. I brown 4 chopped onions with 6 cloves of garlic in olive oil. Then I add the onions and garlic to the Crockpot with clean chopped broccoli. To this I add water and chicken bullion. I cook this for about 8 hours on low. I blend this mix until its smooth. I add some small chopped and peeled potatoes (just a handful) in the pot to cook. Then I blend the cooked potatoes, they thicken the soup. Finally I add some milk and cheese, salt and pepper. You don’t need to grow your own broccoli to make this easy soup. I guess you can also add the potatoes to the Crockpot and let them cook with the broccoli. I was making it up as I went. We are just learning to grow, cook and save our own food. It's all new to me.

Thai soup

I’m inspired by the BBC video series by Nigel Slate called “Simple Suppers”. He has a recipe for a Thai Curry paste. It is ground lemon grass, ginger, spring onions, garlic, chilies,and coriander. You can add this fresh paste to a soup made of fresh vegetables like tomato and eggplant. And of course coconut milk, chicken broth , fish sauce, and some sort of meat. I’m going to use the left over chicken from last night. I have one large chopped baked chicken breast. You could add shrimp or beef. To this soup you can add a few glass noodles. These noodles don’t need to be cooked. You just take a package of noodles and soak them in hot water for a few minutes. I may grate a few fresh carrots in for color and texture. I’ll top with fresh coriander and fresh lime. It sounds really complex, but it’s not. It comes together very fast. The trick is the freshly ground spices. I love Thai food. My kids will love this soup!

Lemon chicken

My small group is coming for dinner. I'm going to cook chicken that has been marinated in olive oil, garlic, basil, and fresh lemons and limes. I bake this tonight. My family will be at our church retreat. Jessica doesn't like crowds, so I'm going to stay home with her. Juergen will come home early. We are invited to a big party at the Heidelberg castle Saturday night. The kids are happy because they get to stay at the retreat. It will be a busy weekend.

Home made tomato sauce

Last night I chopped up my tomatoes with the skins still on them (a good amount, maybe 2 dozen ripe tomatoes), garlic, onions, peppers, and few dried chilies. To this I added a few cans of processed tomatoes, Italian spices, olive oil, red wine, and red wine vinegar. I cooked this on low over night in my crock-pot. Then I used a mixer to make it into a smooth sauce. Lastly I added coarsely chopped parsley and Basel. I’m going to use this sauce for pasta and pizza. I got 5 quarts of sauce to freeze, plus another 3 quarts I used now to make a wonderful tomato soup. All I did for the soup was add fresh milk and some fresh sweet yellow bell pepper to give it some crunch. I’ve got 75 heirloom tomato plants in my garden. If we get some sunshine, I hope to have allot of tomatoes for sauce and salsa.