I’m a bit out of sync due to the amazing couple of weeks on the Vincent Price Legacy Tour, reports on events coming soon.  It was all utterly brilliant, and I’m still getting over it!

I made Basil’s curry for Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen, which seems like eons ago, so here’s a quick post with photos and the recipe, which is a very good mild curry (scroll to the bottom for the recipe).

The flower arrangement in a pumpkin I did my very own self, at a fabulous flower arranging class at The Blossom House in Crouch End.  Lisa from Daring Buds is a genius – click here to go to her Facebook page in case you are in London and fancy having a go at flower arranging.  Highly recommended, I loved it.  Heather and I are sporting Halloween corsages I made with leftover bits and pieces.

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Heather and I sporting the Halloween corsages I made from leftover bits and pieces

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I'm afraid the evening descended into the usual Halloween debauchery once we'd all been given our "unlucky bags"

So here’s Basil’s recipe.  It’s from the 1940s so is very mild compared to some of the humdingingly hot curries you can get these days in the Western world.  But it’s delicious nonetheless.

Basil gleaned this recipe from the East India Curry House in New York.  From a bit of internet rummaging I discovered that this curry house was a tiny restaurant “tucked away in midtown Manhattan up a winding flight of stairs” presided over by someone with the marvelous name of Miss Trudie Teele.  The curry house was a favourite of “home sick colonials” and “ex-servicemen who found out about curry during the war”.  And movie stars it seems!

Basil Rathbone’s India Curry

2 and 1/2 lbs boneless lamb

4 onions

4 tablespoons butter

1 small clove of garlic, minced

Lemon juice

3 green apples

1 and 1/2 lbs tomatoes

Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons curry powder

1 tablespoon paprika

Cut lamb into neat pieces.  Sprinkle with salt and curry powder.  Slice and sauté onions and garlic in melted butter until brown.  Add spices, and cook 15 minutes.  Peel and slice apples, add meat, and cook in juice about 1/2 an hour.  Slice and add the tomatoes and more liquid if desired. Cover the pot and cook slowly until the flavours are truly blended.  When serving, sprinkle with a little salt and add a little lemon juice.  Serve with boiled rice to which a pinch of saffron has been added for colour.

Thanks Basil!  …and Trudie! 

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