Crackingly good curry - even if i do say so myself - and low fat

[Channa]

That's a well established way of preservation of food..... My Irish grandparents used to stack root veggies in barns covered with hay and sand to keep them dry for the winter and they lasted months and did not go mouldy.

i remember having a chat with a young mum who loved buying fresh veggies from Morrisons because "they spray them to keep them fresh" she said.

"They spray them under special lights so that they get damp and then they go off twice as fast when you take them home so you have to go buy some more". She looked horrified.

I take the few prepackaged veggies i do buy out of their bags and put them on towels and leave them to dry before putting them away.

In days gone past before freezers anything out of season needed to be preserved. Fruits in to jams etc. Paper bags are seen as good for preserving veg in the short term, I suspect similar to what you describe the paper draws the moisture.

Salt does the same thing, even when cooking a lot of people believe when sautéing onions for example the salt is seasoning. Part of the reason but the salt draws the moisture so the onions caramelise allowing the natural sugars to come out.

A couple of dishes are as a direct result of preserving. Vindaloo is Portuguese, the pork preserved in vats of vinegar with garlic heads and shipped to India from Portugal..that is where the unique taste and name comes from .Vin wine vinegar, aloo from garlic not potato. You will never get it that way in a restaurant but at home marinade the meat overnight as described.

Very popular in France is confit of duck, a confit is another preserving technique, the duck is first liberally seasoned in salt and pepper and left for 24 hours, (again the salt is drawing the moisture) wiped off with a towel very slowly cooked allowed to cool then placed in earthen ware jars and covered with duck fat. as It sets the air cant get to it.keeps for months..when you are ready pull outwipe off the fat and cook. amazing thing is not greasy at all.

A bit of chemistry involved with all of it, Hestons inspiration perhaps ?

Channa