First to clear out - a no-brainer

"Just as a turkey is not just for Christmas – why should a curry simply sleep on a bed of rice?" Saptarshi Ray/The Guardian

Inspired by my post about all the jars, packets, tins, etc that lurk somewhere in my kitchen I decided to make a start with this opened jar of tikka masala paste. Its first use was in a leftovers stir-fry last night - leftover stir-fry as the base, leftover chicken and leftover slaw. In some ways a real Nigel fry up.

I decided there would only be a touch of the curry paste in there - a teaspoon or so because the leftover stir-fry mix already had some kind of spice mix in there. I can't quite recall what now. And yes, I know, it sounds a bit like a dog's breakfast - not at all tempting. And I did have some qualms about combining an Indian curry paste with a soy sauce based stir fry, but then again - why not? And you never know. Maybe it would turn out to be really delicious.

Of course I forgot to take any photographs. I probably wouldn't have remembered to anyway, because halfway through the cooking the power went out and I was plunged into darkness. In many ways it was a good thing that I was actually making a stirfry on my one gas burner - normally I cook on an Induction cooktop. However I could see nothing, and had to feel my way to find a torch and then to light some candles, before finishing the cooking. Thankfully the rice in the rice cooker was more or less cooked. Dining by candlelight is a bit romantic and it certainly hides glaring problems with the look of the food, but after one or two mouthfuls, the lights - and the electricity - came back on.

Before I move on from our meal - which was pretty nice I have to say, and certainly got rid of several containers of leftovers from Sunday's feast - I should say something about a mildly disturbing thing about the curry paste. I began the cooking by tempering some curry leaves in leftover oil from the fridge, and the oil on top of the curry paste. Then I thought I would add my small spoonful of curry paste, and stir it around in the oil for a bit before adding my bits of chicken and slaw. And I did this, but then I noticed that instead of the paste sort of separating out into mini globules and half melting - which is what I was expecting - it separated out - after a bit of a stir - into hardened globules, that quickly looked burnt. Maybe it was my fault and I just had the heat on too high - but that's the whole idea of a stir fry isn't it? At first I was going to leave it there and pretend this was how it should but then it looked increasingly burnt and sort of chewy in a bad way, and so I took it all off the heat and fished most of it out. Fortunately I still had light to do this by.

So really there was not much curry paste left in this dish. A failed experiment. Obviously I should have added it after the vegetables. But it was a bit disturbing how it hardened into chunks so quickly.

I was always having to think of other things to do with my jar of paste however, so let's forget yesterday's almost disaster and move on.

Getting rid of the remains of a jar of curry paste is a bit of a no-brainer really. I mean I could just use it up on a regular basis by making a curry a week say. The problem with this is, that even if you use a different base - chicken, beef, lamb, vegetables - the curry will have the same basic taste all the time. Which is boring even if the main ingredient is different every time. I suppose you can vary it a bit with what you use as the main liquid - tomatoes, yoghurt, stock, cream, even water or vinegar - and also extra ingredients like vegetables - but curry pastes tend to have a dominant nature and the taste will always shine through.

And my aim with this investigation is to discover other things you can do with leftover curry paste. So I went looking and found a few, although people spoke more of leftover curry sauce, rather than paste - but that's just a quibble - you can make sauce from paste after all - just add liquid.

I found a few things and eventually found an article by Saptarshi Ray - from a British migrant family - in The Guardian in which he spoke about mixing cuisines - mostly Italian using curry pastes and sauces:

"So sometimes to mix things up a little my parents would combine some leftover curry with pasta. Yes, pasta. Every non-Asian I have told of this reacts with incredulity, some with scorn, and some just ask "why?" But every one of them who has subsequently tried this eclectic mix - a tandoori tortellini, faal farfalle or rogan josh rigatoni - has loved it. And why would you not?"

And here's some Tandoori Tortellini with bacon and capsicum from Ben Holman from the nearby Yarra Valley no less, who says of his creation:

"Learnt it about 15 yrs ago at a pizza shop. I've got a few people onto it! Try it with gnocchi first I reckon that's better."

I confess I thought at first that the tortellini were home-made and stuffed with tandoori chicken - and I guess you could do this - but no - in true anything goes as long as it's easy and tasty fashion - the tortellini are just shop bought and the sauce is made with the tandoori paste, bacon, capsicum, onion, garlic and chicken and then mixed with cream. TikTok kind of food really. A slightly modified Indian sauce with an Italian pasta. So indeed, yes it could be gnocchi but it could also be any kind of pasta. Pasta is bland so it will take anything - as would Asian noodles too.

Saptarshi Ray adds this caveat however:

"As a subcontinental twist on western comfort foods like toad in the hole or bubble and squeak, the combination only seems to work if it's all homemade: it doesn't work with takeaways as the sauces will be too rich, the spicing too uneven."

And here are examples of the bubble-and-squeak and toad-in-the hole: Indian bubble and squeak with fried eggs - UK delicious - a mainstream example, but there are many others; Twisted masala toad-in-the-hole with curried onion gravy - Zar's Kitchen

As I said earlier on using up leftover curry paste is a no-brainer really. I mean it's just another spicey kind of sauce or mix, that can be added to whatever you want, from soup to any marinade you like to devise. Below are a few suggestions from here and there. Interestingly the Thai curry pastes and sauces were a bit of a favourite - often combined with coconut cream.

Burgers - two examples here - one from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - well his recipe does not include curry flavouring, but he suggests adding some as a variation Rice veggie burgers and Red curry chicken and courgette burgers - Georgina Hayden/The Guardian

And the rest: Thai curry pizza - The Nessy Kitchen - the sauce is spread on the base instead of tomato sauce; Red curry sausage rolls - Marion's Kitchen; Spiced potato and iceberg salad with yoghurt - Emma Knowles/delicious.; The best yoghurt curry dip - The Flavour Bender - a really lazy and easy dip open to all manner of variations.

I did find examples from the professionals and the semiprofessionals, but I have to say that the majority were from the thousands, maybe millions of bloggers, TikTokers and suchlike. Housewives, and experimental young people, with imagination but not much time or even not much expertise. Some of their suggestions looked truly awful, but some were worth giving a go.

I'm making some kind of pasta for dinner tonight. Maybe I should try spicing it up with some chicken tikka masala paste? Perhaps I'll go and take a piece of chicken breast out of the freezer. Some frozen peas? Capsicum, beans? Or go the tomato route with chorizo and/or bacon and those capsicum?

But yes - curry paste - so many options - some of them crazy:

"Make kedgeree the next day, then stick that kedgeree in a giant Yorkshire pudding. Who's watching?" Saptarshi Ray/The Guardian

Well the person you are cooking for I guess. But they may be forgiving - or at least amused. Hope so.

YEARS GONE BY

July 2

2025 - Deep dish pizza

2024 - My kitchen bit by bit - 1 - I should get back to this

2023 - Nothing

2022 - Nothing

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - Cooking with the grandchildren

2018 - Nothing

2017 - Still on holiday