Curry-Leaf Pesto
Taking a leaf from Tamil cuisine in which curry leaves pair beautifully with tomatoes, I combined the curry leaf with the concentrated flavours of sun-dried tomatoes! I combined dry fried curry leaves, sun-dried tomatoes, a little raw garlic and some dried chilies with toasted sesame oil. The resulting paste worked beautifully not only with pasta (and especially well with vermicelli and wheat pasta) but also as a tapenade over bruschetta and a rub for fish fillets, chicken breasts and paneer kebabs prior to grilling.
Ingredients:
3 cups curry leaves, dry fried
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes
½ cup toasted sesame oil
3-4 pods of garlic
2-4 dried red chilies
Salt to taste
Preparation:
Combine everything and grind into a coarse paste. Enjoy!
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Rushina M. Ghildiyal
Rushina M. Ghildiyal is a gastronomy columnist, book author, writer and content consultant. Essentially, she has found the perfect guise under which to hide her true obsession, thereby legitimizing her foodie idiosyncrasies. Rushina is beset upon getting an harmonious flavour balance every time, brazenly discusses food with anyone, anywhere, collects food books and passionately adores all things culinary. She also has a delicious predilection for diverging from the mainstream food haunts, in search of the routes less taken, looking for the scrumptious underbellies of the world’s great cities.