A Gorgeous Curry
A gorgeous curry is almost the perfect meal – the flavour is fantastic and you can load it up with lots of vegetables. It’s also brilliant reheated, so make a large batch and freeze half for another meal.
This recipe is one of Jamie Oliver’s. It’s easy to cook once you’ve been shopping for the spices, and I guarantee it’s worth it! I’d never used fenugreek or curry leaves before I tried this recipe, and now I’ve bought a curry leaf plant – that’s how much we love this curry!
And it’s easy to make, with the help of a food processor. First I get everything ready, and then cook it. It is worth buying all the spices and the curry leaves as it really does make a difference to the taste.
Ingredients
2 teaspoons of mustard seeds
1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds
Small handful of curry leaves
1 tablespoon of grated ginger
1 tablespoon of grated chilli
2 large onions
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of chilli powder (I use medium heat)
6 tomatoes
1 tin of coconut milk
Water
Salt (you need quite a lot for this recipe – be brave!)
Cooking It
Heat up a good splash of oil (I use peanut oil, but use whatever you have), in a large pot or pan over a medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds. Once they start to pop, add the fenugreek, ginger, curry leaves and chilli and cook for 2 or 3 minute (this is an important step – the fenugreek doesn’t taste good if you don’t cook it out for a few minutes). While that’s cooking, put the onion in a food processor and blitz it up. Tip into the pan, and let it cook for a few minutes. Blitz up the tomatoes, but don’t add them yet! Add the tumeric and chilli powder and cook for a minute, and then add the tomatoes. Cook for another few minutes, and then add some salt. Then add the tin of coconut milk, and half fill the empty tin with water, and add the water to the pan. Bring it to a simmer, and cook for around 15 minutes.
At this stage, I usually add some pumpkin (which I love in curry, but strangely enough hubby doesn’t). You can add any vegetables you like. I add them in two batches – the vegetables that take a while to cook should be added now, and then near serving time I add spinach. I’ve tried lots of different vegetables and cauliflower, capsicum, broccoli, and carrot all work well.
If you plan on freezing some – at this stage take about half of the curry sauce out of the pan, and put it in a container to freeze. I throw in raw spinach too. This freezes really well, and when I re-heat it, I cook some meat and add to the sauce. This means I have a healthy, tasty meal for those nights that I don’t have much time to cook.
Variations
You can keep this as a vegetable curry, or add meat or fish. I’ve tried chicken and beef curries, and either work well. I slice up the meat, and cook it separately. If I cook chicken, I’ll usually add some cumin when I fry it in a pan. I cook the beef in a fry pan too if I’m using it, and add to the curry when it’s nearly done. I usually add the spinach at the same time.
Finishing Off
This curry does need salt – you should taste it now, and add more salt if required. I use quite a bit to get the flavour right. We have our curry with rice and pappadams – absolutely delicious! Jamie Oliver definitely knows how to make a great curry and now you will too.
Enjoy!
