I like to make my own curry pastes rather than buy them so I know what’s in them and make sure it is as fresh as possible, with good oils and whole spices. Having a curry paste on hand means that making curries and flavouring soups is so quick and easy. This one is a mild Indian style paste that can be used for many recipes.Ingredients.

3 shallots.

3 fat cloves of garlic.

1 thumb of fresh ginger.

2 tablespoons of tomatoe paste.

2 dried chill is or equivalent in flakes.

1 tablespoon cumin seeds.

2 tablespoons of mustard seeds.

2 tablespoons of coriander seeds.

2 tablespoons of fennel seeds.

1 tabespoon of powdered tumeric.

1 teaspoon black pepper ground.

2  limes or lemons.

1/2 tablespoon of cardamom pods.

50ml of olive oil.

Dry fry the cumin, fennel, coriander and mustard seeds for a few minutes each until their fragrance if released.

Grind them up individually in a pestle and mortar or a coffe grinder.

Smash the cardamom pods to release their seeds, remove the husks and then grind the seeds.Peel the shallots the ginger and the garlic and chop roughly. Then chop the chillies up a bit and  juice the limes.Now everything goes into a food processor, all the ground spices, oil, tomato paste, onions, garlic, ginger, chilli, turmeric, pepper and the juice from the limes.Blitz until fine and fully combined. Store in a jar in the refrigerator.