COOKING PASTES RECIPES

Steps:

• 1. To make any of the above curry pastes, first peel the garlic and ginger. Put a frying pan on a medium to high heat and add the spices for toasting to the dry pan. Lightly toast them for a few minutes until golden brown and smelling delicious, then remove the pan from the heat.
  2. Add the toasted spices to a pestle and mortar and grind until fine, or put them into a food processor and whiz to a powder. Either way, when you’ve ground them whiz the toasted spices in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients and ½ a teaspoon of sea salt until you have a smooth paste.

Steps:

• Pour 1 cup of water into a microwaveable pot for short pasta like elbow and ziti. Pour 2 cups of water for long pasta like linguine and spaghetti.
• Cook in the microwave at full power until water boils (2:30 minutes for 1 cup and 5 minutes for 2).
• Add all the other ingredients except pasta. Stir.
• If adding short pasta, cook for 12 minutes at 350 watts (50% power if your microwave is 700 watt), until water is absorbed. Serve however you like it.
• If adding long pasta, the ends will stick out of the pot. Cook for 1 minute at full power. The pasta in the water will have softened, and you can then push the ends into the pot.
• Cook another minute at full power, then stir, making sure all the pasta is covered by water.
• Cook 6 to 8 minutes, depending on how wide the pasta is, at 350 watts until the pasta is done.
• Drain the water away and serve however you like it.
• To increase the recipe, add 1 cup water for each additional 2 oz of pasta. Cook the water until it boils, then follow the recipe above exactly, because all the other cooking times remain the same.