I can’t remember the last time I made a curry from scratch with fresh ingredients (Uncle Bens fault) so today I’ll do just that. I discovered an Indian deli tucked away on a side-street in the next town, so I’ll be venturing there later. Meanwhile, take a look at this Jamie Oliver recipe. I’m drooling!….
~You will like this curry – it’s easy and fun to make. Two little tips are first, to use a Magimix or food processor to chop the onions and tomatoes as it makes less mess, it’s really quick and will stop you crying! Second, get all your ingredients prepared and ready to go, then you can have the sauce finished in 15 minutes.
Keep your eyes peeled for curry leaves – I’m trying to get supermarkets to stock them at the moment, but you can buy them from Indian and Asian delis. Get yourself a big bag of them, let them dry and they’ll last for ages. If you really can get them, do without, but it won’t be quite the same. Serves 4
*5 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
* I teaspoon fenugreek seeds
* 3 fresh green chillies, deseeded and thinly sliced
* 1 handful of curry leaves
* 2 thumb-sized pieces of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely grated
* 3 onions, peeled and chopped
* 1 teaspoon chilli powder
* 1 teaspoon tumeric
* 6 tomatoes, chopped
* 1 x 14fl oz tin coconut milk
* salt
~For the Fish version
*4 x 225g fresh haddock fillets, skinned and pin boned
* 1 knob of tamarind paste or 1 teaspoon tamarind syrup
* optional: 1 large handful of baby spinach
* optional: 1 good handful of fresh coriander, chopped
For the Chicken version
* 4 chicken breasts, sliced into 1cm strips
* 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, crushed
For the Vegetarian version
*800g mixed vegetables, chopped (potatoes, courgettes, peppers, onions, sweet potatoes, spinach, chard, cauliflower, lentils, beans…use your imagination)
Heat the oil in a pan, and when hot add the mustard seeds. Wait for them to pop, then add the fenugreek seeds, fresh green chillies, curry leaves and ginger. Stir and fry for a few minutes. Using a Magimix food processor, chop the onions and add to the same pan. Continue to cook for 5 minutes until the onion is light brown and soft, then add the chilli powder and tumeric. Using the same food processor, pulse the tomatoes and add these to the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add 1 or 2 wine glasses of water and the coconut milk. Simmer for about 5 minutes until it has the consistency of double cream, then season carefully with salt.Take this sauce as a base. To make the fish curry, add the fish and tamarind to the sauce and simmer for 6 minutes. Feel free to add some baby spinach and chopped coriander at the end of the cooking time.
For the chicken version, stir-fry the chicken strips and coriander seeds until lightly coloured, then add your sauce and simmer for 10 minutes. For the vegetarian version, simply add all your veg to the sauce at the beginning when you add your onions. Continue to cook as normal and simmer until tender.~
Thankyou Jamie Oliver!
Mise en place
~I got all the ingredients Jamie asked for, or so I thought, prepared it (one hour, minimum) Meanwhile Hubs is starving looking in the fridge which REALLY annoys me! The kids are running riot , what’s new? Apart from No.1 who is ill on the couch with a bad dose of flu. No’s 3& 4 are dancing to the Scissor Sisters’ ‘Don’t feel like cooking dancing’ on the kitchen table as I de-seed and finely chop red chilli peppers. What can I do? Poke ’em in the eye? And No.2 is asking me intelligent questions while surfing the net. Stop!!!! I’m not clever!
I burnt the curry leaves and Hubs said I didn’t. I DID!
The sauce
My husband enjoyed the meal and when I asked him what his real thoughts were, he said it could have been hotter. I used ground chilli flakes as opposed to chilli powder, DAMN! Makes all the difference to use the correct ingredients.
Hang on a minute……. is that a dinosaur in the dishwasher?
How the hell did that get there? (Methinks my 2 yr old is involved)
With chicken
TIP: When de-seeding chilli’s wear surgeons gloves!
A Place For Everything 