If you cannot find kala namak, or black salt, you can substitute a 1/2 teaspoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt. (Read more about black salt in our guide to salt).
If you’d prefer to forego toasting and grinding the spices yourself, you can use pre-ground spices. You can substitute 1 tablespoon of ground fenugreek for the 2 teaspoons of fenugreek called for in the marinade, and 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of ground fenugreek for the 1 tablespoon of fenugreek seeds called for in the sauce; you can substitute 1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom for the 1 green cardamom pod called for in the sauce; you can substitute 1/8 teaspoon of ground clove for the 1 clove called for in the sauce; you can substitute 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper for the chile de arbol (more, if you like it spicier).
Brown cardamom is sometimes called black cardamom, but note that it’s not the same as Chinese black cardamom (also sometimes called red cardamom).
I’ve been craving butter chicken - it’s on my list of things to make soon! (Had an awful takeout version last night, sadly.) Look forward to reading about how it was on WFD…
So I’m definitely in isolation ocd… I’ve transplanted the tomato seedlings into disposable cups as step one of moving them outdoors. Not even done yet… Sibling looked at the lot of it and said… I’m pretty sure the huge raised planters I ordered are going to fall short
Meanwhile, I have two solid and two emerging zucchini seedlings, finally!
One papaya seed appears to have sprouted too.
And snow pea shoots have made an appearance!
Now I have herb seeds soaking, because I thought I should grow something that will yield before I (hopefully) go home when things normalize a bit (yes, optimism).
Does one REALLY need a greenhouse in California? It’s mad cray, but I love it!
I think they are considered 4 inch pots. I’ve bought them in bulk in years past, and I give a lot away. I think solo cups would work just as well, but cut off two or three slivers around edges for drainage. That’s what I do with the peppers, but with a second cup for a reservoir of diluted nutrients.
“Discovered little slugs eating…”
Go out after dark and squish them with extreme prejudice!.. Or use sluggo.
Same here, they were eating the strawberries and the leaves, also the leaves of fave bean. The other night I was out to spray soap onto the roses’ mealy bugs. There I saw in horror that a bunch of 7-8 of slugs rather big in sizes, covering the strawberries. A massacre followed.
Aww, poor slugs. They’re all just trying to survive in this COVID-19 world.
@shrinkrap – that is a gorgeous greenhouse! The envy of many of us home gardeners worldwide.
@KarenDW – wow, I’m working on trying to grow lemongrass and having a heck of a time finding seeds (partly due to this pandemic, where I guess gardening has become a common boredom buster). I just bought a few stalks from my Asian grocer yesterday and I’m going to see if I can get these to sprout roots.
So I visited the older neighbor’s prolific garden today, and he was complaining about the slugs too. He suggested I get violent but I just ordered the pellets instead because I just can’t deal.
Haha, I showed my cat once a really fat slug, he was not interested. There were some snails, but medium or small sizes only. Not maybe I can have more success farming snails than doing vegetables.
Hens eat them, right? Maybe I should get one for some eggs too. LOL
I don’t know the one you are ordering. I use some environmental friendly ones available here (Neudorff Ferramol), they are alright, but you need to re-apply them quite often, it’s tiring to fight all these.
Besides slugs, there are weevils, strawberry sap bugs, sowbugs all fighting to have a bite on the strawberries (the fruits, not the leaves).
Well, I did get some little slugs yesterday. Couldn’t bring myself to do anything other than fling a giant snail out of the cilantro pot though.
Waiting for the slug pellets. Worried about my emerging snow pea plants, plus the poorakready- holey serrano chili seedlings.
We are trying to figure out how to fit the many seedlings space-efficiently in raised planters and other pots. I suggested posting on Next Door to exchange some for other herbs and plants we don’t have, or just give them away because I didn’t realize how prolific the seeds would be.
I thought we might be able to do 2-3 tomato seedlings (spaced out as a triangle) into a large pot, but others say not. Sigh.
I started seedlings for bok choy, gailan, gaichoy, you choy, chard, lettuce, and spinach earlier this month. They’re only starting to put on growth now. Hopefully the weather isn’t too hot this coming month.
Not self sufficient but hopefully enough to offset the need for frozen and canned veggies. I normally just grow summer veggies like tomatoes, peppers, etc. but due to the SIPs, am growing a ton more leafy veggies than normal and will stagger plantings for a continuous harvest.
Aphid activity is worse than normal this year, but I haven’t had any slug issues maybe because it was a relatively dry winter.
but I just ordered the pellets instead because I just can’t deal.
