Back to the 9-5 + Curry Friday

It has been more than a year since the last time I did 'normal office hours', so after a week of data-entry temping, I can't believe how tired I felt at the end of the 5th day! Temping at offices a short stroll from my front door is a luxury in terms of commuter-convenience, so a cruise by Tesco for some veges ,and I was home with my feet up in no time. My new place has a great outdoor area (another luxury) and it was a treat to throw open the doors, hit the couch and have some reading time, with a beer. Since spending the winter cooking in France, the inspiration to produce anything beyond roast veg, omelettes or salad has been somewhat lacking, but I was hit with a need for something homemade, with a bit of a kick. 

A pub-free relaxing Friday evening

Curry being virtually the national dish in the UK, nowhere are we short of curry houses. Yet I felt like something full of veges and flavour, and was prepared to put in a bit of got-the-kitchen-to-myself effort. On Saturday nights in the chalet out in Morzine we did curry night, which was a hit with guests for their last night before flying home to Blighty. Although it perhaps was not the greatest option for us, with 9 toilets to clean on changeover Sundays! Curry night was always a mission prep-wise, as there was so much to chop for the 4 curries, samosas, salads, and fresh raita, as well as lemon and ginger cheesecake to prep ahead for pudding, poppadoms to throw on at the last minute, and a ton of rice to cook for 16 skiers/boarders. Don't get me started on the hob-juggling of 17 pots, serving dishes and serving utensils required to get this buffet-style selection served. The reward was well worth it though and it was usually the funnest night at the dinner table, with everything being passed around amidst reflections of the thrills and spills of the week that was. Even though each week was one of about 25 for us as seasonaires, for most guests it was their one holiday of the year on the mountains, and for many, sacrifices and savings had been made to make it happen.  

One of the final curry nights, note sunshine out the window at 7.30pm, as the days got longer

With these good memories in mind, and the said 25-ish weeks of curry practice (including a 50-person curry night birthday party), throwing together a single Morzine-inspired Indian vegetarian curry was a breeze, and well worth the minimal effort. Chicken Korma was often the favourite in Morzine, and I had it sussed by the end of the season. I got away with serving it minus the garlic, onions and ginger to kids for dinner, and even the bosses' little people had eaten it!

Ross and I had an impromptu curry birthday party to cater on our last night as chalet chefs


 

Indian Vegetable Curry (inspired by Saturday Night Chicken Korma)

 

Our local London supermarket has an outstanding array of international ingredients, reflecting the population of the area. Next time I will try cooking okra in this, but in the meantime you can be quite creative with the vegetable selection. I have recently become a bit dubious about foods that have additives which seem unnecessary to me (have you ever checked the ingredients on a can of coconut milk?!). I don't know if 'creamed coconut' is that much better or how sustainably it is sourced, however it tastes delicious by itself and is fun to use for something different, with the ingredients simply being 100% coconut. It comes in a sachet in a box for 99p (less than coconut cream too), and the sachet can be placed in a bowl of warm water to soften before use, if it has gone solid.

 

Here is the recipe for about 4 people:

 

approx. 25-50g butter (for 16, I used to use 250g butter, so I have cut this back slightly)

2 large heaped spoonfuls of Indian curry paste (I used Pataks Madras)

1 large teaspoon each of ground cumin, turmeric and coriander, bit less of cinnamon

1 large red chilli, roughly sliced, don't bother removing seeds

1 large onion, chopped

garlic (say, half a head)

big lob of ginger - about the size of a roll-on deodorant (sorry, first thing I can see that roughly looks that size), SKIN ON, grated

1 carrot, chopped

1 sweet potato or similar sized piece of butternut or pumpkin, chopped

1 large courgette, chopped

1/2-1 aubergine, chopped

approx. 150g mushrooms, sliced

1 can of coconut cream, or about half a block of Creamed Coconut (softened)

approx. 1/2-1 cup ground almonds, although I used finely chopped raw almonds (as buying 750g bags of whole almonds for £5 is the way I go, though not as good)

fresh coriander

natural yogurt

 

1. In the chalet, I had an amazing, almost-commercial-grade food processor, into which I would throw all onion, garlic, ginger and chillies for all curries (about 25 onions for one curry night!). However, in this instance I have done all the rough chopping of the onion, chilli, garlic and ginger by hand, before blitzing it to a coarse paste with a stick blender. If you have no machinery, just chop those ingredients as much as you can. News flash!!! You don't need to peel ginger! Just rinse like anything else and cook away. I grated it first here to make it easier to blend with the chilli, onion and garlic, since it is quite fibrous.

2. Melt butter in deep pan or pot. Add curry paste and spices and cook to coat for a minute or two.

3. Add the blended onion/garlic/ginger/chilli to the pan and cook for a few minutes.

4. Add all the other chopped vegetables to the pan, and coat with the spices, while stirring for 5-10 minutes.

5. Add your coconut cream, or the softened creamed coconut with about a cup of boiling water.

6. Keep the heat low and stir, topping up with water if necessary, to ensure the vegetables cook through and you have a bit of a sauce. At this point you can also add the almonds.

Bubbling away over medium heat, careful it doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan

7. Put the rice on to cook (brown for about half an hour with lots of salt).

8. Once the rice is cooked, season the curry with salt and pepper. A small spoonful of honey gave a slight sweetness needed, due to the fact that I was using knife-chopped almonds, not commercially ground ones which tend to be sweeter.

9. Stir in natural yogurt and lots of fresh coriander to serve (and/or garnish with more of each). Serve with rice, cucumber and yogurt raita, chutneys and tomato and red onion salad. Or by itself!

Served!

I think this recipe is probably pretty healthy and extremely tasty! Enjoy x