Kitchen Garden : Curry Leaves / Kadi Patta / Meetha Neem

Curry Leaves are used as seasoning in so many Manglorean dishes and other South Indian cuisines, that most houses have their own plant growing in the backyard or kitchen garden.

I know friends who live abroad in Egypt, US, Canada and even if they have no garden to speak of, they still have a cherished curry leaves plant growing in their home.

Curry Leaf plants are extremely difficult to repot, so your best bet is to buy a slightly grown plant from a nursery in a little bag. Dig a hole in a large pot at home and insert the curry leaf plant with all its attendant soil, directly into the pot.

Curry Leaves have a tap root, so you will need a deep pot for sure.

Kadi Patta is also used in a couple of North Indian dishes and my mom-in-law always uses them in kadhi.

The leaves are called Meetha Neem in Gujarat and are used to season certain dishes in this part of the country too.

In Andhra Pradesh there is a chutney pudi / gun powder made with curry leaves as the main ingredient.

The leaves are extremely flavourful and worth eating whole, because they are renowned for their cholesterol lowering properties.

Kitchen Garden : Corriander / Dhaniya

My mum and my good friend May from The Chef (who has moved to Ahmedabad last year) are excellent gardeners. They have extremely green thumbs and anything they plant, grows beautifully. I on the other hand have a good touch with animals and pets, but a terrible one for plants.

The longest effort I ever made to grow anything was when I tried to grow Green chillies in Egypt (fresh spicy green chillies are not available in the market there) They grew quite well for a couple of weeks and then just withered and died.

However, with the constant coercion and encouragement from these 2 women, I decided to try my hand once again, even though, I even manage to kill of those lucky bamboo plants that just need water every week or so.

The 2 of them realised that the only way to get me hooked was by planting edible stuff. With our frequent travel, it's not just the cat, but also these plants I now have to be worry about. when I put down extra food and water for the cat, I also have to appropriately over-water the plants in my balcony.

One of the easiest things to grow from scratch was coriander / dhaniya. This is a herb that is used as garnish for a large number of Indian dishes and is beautifully fragrant.

My office maali told me to soak the dried coriander seeds (also used in seasoning) overnight. In the morning I put them in a pot with a light layer of soil on top. He told me to just sprinkle water daily until the shoots came out and then water as usual. He warned that if I put normal quantity of water initially, the seeds would rot.

I have friends who have also planted  discarded dhaniya roots directly and have achieved success with that method.

The leaves smell lovely and I'm waiting for them to grow higher, so I can start using them in our food.

Also visible in the pot is a curry leaves plant.