Sweet potato, green bean and coconut curry

 I'm not sure if my spice tolerance has gone down over the years or if I've just come to my senses and realised that too much chilli gets in the way of other flavours. Whatever the reason, I use far less chilli in my own cooking and studiously avoid anything excessively spicy when eating out. This is a very simple mild curry that can be prepared from beginning to end in about 30 minutes.

Ingredients

1 onion
500g sweet potato
200g green beans
2 tbsps vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
mild curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
400 ml coconut milk

juice of 1 lemon
small bunch of fresh coriander

Method

1. Peel and chop the onion. Peel the sweet potato and cut into small chunks. Top and tail the green beans and cut into 3 cm lengths.
2. Gently fry the onion in the vegetable oil until it is translucent.
3. Add the finely chopped garlic and minced ginger and fry for another minute or so.
4. Add the curry powder and salt, fry for another 30 seconds.
5. Add the sweet potato and the coconut milk, and simmer gently until the potato is almost done (about 15 minutes).
6. Add the green beans and cook for another 5 minutes, until they are done.
7. Add the lemon juice and chopped coriander, mix and serve.

Curry powder

Lots of recipes call for huge numbers of individual ground spices - and even roasting and grinding spices from scratch. It's the kind of detail that can turn preparing a simple dish into an unappealing chore. It's often quicker and easier simply to use a ready-made spice mix and it may be better, too: using spice mixes means you can cook with a far wider range of spices, and your spices will probably be fresher too. 

Mild chicken curry with coconut milk

This is a simple curry, mild enough for kids to eat and easy enough for them to cook.

Ingredients
vegetable oil
1 kg of chicken breast or thigh meat, cut into large chunks
250g onion, finely chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
2 tbsps mild curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tin of coconut milk

Method

1. In plenty of vegetable oil, gently fry the chopped onion until it is almost done.
2. Add the garlic and ginger, and fry for another minute.
3. Add the curry powder and salt, fry for another 30 seconds.
4. Add the chicken, stir well so that is coated in the onion and spice mixture, and fry for about 10 minutes.
5. Add the coconut milk, bring to a boil, reduce heat to minimum and simmer for 30 minutes.

Mild egg curry

If I'm making an Indian meal with a couple of spicy dishes, I generally try to make something really mild for my kids so that they aren't left just eating plain white rice. The spicing in this is so mild that I hesitate to call it a curry at all, but it makes a great foil for hotter food.

Ingredients

12 eggs

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 tsps minced ginger

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tablespoon mild curry powder

1 tsp salt

1 tin coconut milk

small bunch of fresh coriander, chopped

juice of 1 lemon

Method

1. Steam the eggs for 10 minutes, then allow to cool. Peel and cut in half lengthwise.
2. In a large frying pan, fry the onion gently in plenty of oil. When it is cooked but not brown, add the ginger and garlic and fry for another minute. Add the curry powder and salt, fry for another 30 seconds or so, then add the coconut milk.
3. Simmer for about 5 minutes, add the chopped coriander and lemon juice, stir to mix, then add the eggs, yolk side up. Spoon the sauce over the eggs and simmer very gently for another 5 minutes.

Rabbit dhansak

I have mixed feelings about market shopping: it's time-consuming and can be both physically and mentally exhausting, as you struggle to make sure the stallholders don't palm off shoddy produce on you and have to adapt your cooking to what's available. But when I'm in the right mood, I find it really stimulating. I often have great recipe ideas while looking at what's on display, sometimes directly inspired by whatever is laid out in front of me, and sometimes taking advantage of a bit of daydream time while I wait to be served.



When I got back to Spain from Italy the other day, the first thing I did (after frantically feeding the washing machine and hanging up wet clothes) was to pop down to the market. In the fish section, I bought a kilo of clams. And at the butcher's I picked up a beautiful free-range chicken, which I intend to do al ajillo but with the added twist of a pickled lemon, and I also got some pork ribs, which I plan to pressure cook with chilli and ginger. My final purchase was a free-range rabbit, but instead of doing my usual coniglio alla cacciatore, I thought I would do a bit of fusion cooking, so I came up with this rabbit and brown lentil curry. I don't know if this really qualifies as a dhansak or not (usually, I think, a meat curry where the sauce is thickened with red lentils) and I don't care either.

Ingredients
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
2-inch piece of fresh ginger
6 tablespoons of vegetable oil
4 teaspoons of mild curry powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 free-range rabbit, jointed
250g brown lentils
800 ml of chicken stock
juice of 1/2 lemon
small bunch of fresh coriander

Method

1. Peel and finely chop the onion, garlic and ginger, and puree in a food processor with the vegetable oil.
2. Gently fry the puree in an open pressure cooker, being careful not to burn.
3. When the onion is turning golden, add the curry powder and salt, fry for another 30 seconds, then add the rabbit pieces and fry for a minute or so, turning them so that they become well coated with the onion and spice mixture.
4. Add the lentils, chicken stock and lemon juice, close the pressure cooker and bring up to full pressure (2 rings). Cook for 15 minutes, then cool the cooker under runninng cold water.
5. Open, check for seasoning, add chopped coriander and serve.

Googlecooked!
Googlewhacking is the sport of trying to find an elusive query (two words - no quote marks) with a single, solitary result. Googlecooking is the art of producing a recipe (two-word title - yes quote marks) for which there are no other hits. I give you "rabbit dhansak"!

Pork meatballs with squid, in a green curry sauce

I'm always a little nervous when people introduce me as a foodie. It's true that I love food and love cooking, but I would hesitate to describe myself as a good cook. I'm well aware of my shortcomings - gaps in my knowledge and my technique, and the more than occasional mediocre dish that I produce.



However, every now and then I cook something that makes me think that maybe I do deserve to be described as a good cook. It's usually when I bring together some slightly unusual ingredients in an inspired combination that I have not knowingly copied from anywhere else, and this was the case with this meatball curry that I cooked up this evening, having spent the day out drinking beer on the first Saturday of Carnival. The ingredient which lifts it up onto another level is the inclusion of some squid in the meatball mixture.

Ingredients
meatballs
100g squid, cut into small pieces
1 leek
2 cloves of garlic
1-inch piece of fresh ginger
500g minced pork
2 tbsps light soy sauce
1 tbsp white wine
2 tbsps green chilli chutney (substitute with 1 tbsps of minced green chilli and 1 tbsps lemon juice)
4 tbsps breadcrumbs

sauce
vegetable oil
1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

1-inch piece of fresh ginger
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 stalk of lemongrass
1/2 tin of coconut milk
1 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsps green chilli chutney (substitute with 1 tbsps of minced green chilli and 1 tbsps lemon juice)


Method
meatballs

1. Peel and chop the garlic and ginger, and wash and chop the leek. Put the cuttlefish, leek, garlic and ginger into a food processor, and chop finely. Transfer to a large bowl, add the pork, soy sauce, wine, chilli chutney and breadcrumbs, mix well, return to the food processor and whizz briefly.
2. Form the mixture into walnut-sized chunks and fry in vegetable oil until browned. (You will probably need to do 2 or 3 batches.) Remove to a plate.

sauce

1. Peel and chop the onion, garlic and ginger, transfer to food processor and chop finely.
2. In a medium saucepan, fry the onion mixture gently in vegetable oil. Once the onion has softened, add the coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, fish sauce and green chilli chutney, and stir well.
3. Bring to a simmer, then add the meatballs, cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes. Serve with rice.

Mince and green bean curry

This was inspired by a visit to the Edinburgh Mela, a multicultural festival (predominantly Pakistani and Indian) held in Edinburgh each August. Multiculturalism has taken a bit of a knocking recently (much of it, I suspect, from people who are delighted to have found an acceptable way of being unpleasant towards Muslims), but I'm unclear as to what the alternatives are. Zero immigration? Forced assimilation? Ghettoisation? None of them sound very attractive to me.

halal haggis burgers

curry on Leith Links

eye candy

In the kids' activity tent at the Mela there was a spice mixing workshop, where children could choose their own whole spices, and pound and mix them in a mortar to make curry powder. For this curry, we used Sammy's meat curry powder which contained turmeric, bay leaves, cumin seeds, coriander, peppercorns, black cardamom, cinnamon and fennel.


Ingredients
2 small red onions
vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic
1-inch chunk of fresh ginger
3 teaspoons of good quality curry powder
500g minced lamb
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tin chopped tomatoes
250g green beans

Method

1. Peel and finely chop the red onions, and peel and mince the garlic and ginger. In a high-sided frying pan or saucepan, gently heat the onion in some vegetable oil. When it is nearly done, add the minced garlic and ginger, and fry for another minute. Add the curry powder, stir well, and fry for 10 seconds.
2. Add the mince and fry, stirring well to break up any lumps, until all the meat is browned. Add the tomatoes and the salt, bring to a boil, then turn down to minimum, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the green beans and continue to cook until they are just done.

Aubergine curry

The key to this recipe is for the onion and tomato sauce to be very smooth, and this technique can be used as the base for lots of curries.




Ingredients
sunflower oil
1 large onion
4 cloves of garlic
1 kg of tomatoes
1 kg of aubergine
2 teaspoons of minced red chilli
1 tablespoon of medium curry powder
½ teaspoon of salt

1 bunch of fresh coriander

Method

1. Peel and roughly chop the onion and garlic, and whizz thoroughly in a food processor so that they are very finely chopped. Slice off the tops and bottoms of the tomatoes, and discard. Chop the tomatoes roughly and whizz thoroughly in a food processor. Top and tail the aubergines, then cut into large chunks. Deep fry in batches until golden brown, and leave to drain in a colander.
2. In a large saucepan with plenty of oil, fry the onion and garlic gently until the onion is cooked (but not browned). Because the onion is so finely chopped, you need to be careful it doesn't burn. Use a low to medium heat, plenty of oil, stir frequently and add a little water if it starts to stick. Once the onions are cooked, add the curry powder and fry for 30 seconds or so to release the flavours, then add the tomatoes, chilli and salt, bring to the boil and simmer for about half an hour until you the sauce is juicy and thick.
3. Wash and finely chop the coriander (stems and all). Add the cooked aubergines, stir gently so that they are well-coated in the tomato sauce, but being careful not to break them up, then add the coriander and cook at a low heat for another 10 minutes or so.

Spinach and potatoes (saag aloo)

This is one of my favourite Indian restaurant vegetable dishes: I always have a struggle to decide whether to order this or bindi bhaji (okra) when I get back to the UK.



This recipe is adapted from the one given by Madhur Jaffrey in Indian Cookery, the book of the TV series she did for the BBC back in 1982. It’s a great book, which has lots of nice, clear recipes, although sometimes I think it’s a bit heavy on the ingredients and contains some unnecessary steps. Even these, though, have their charm. Her earnest instructions to pick through your lentils to check they don’t contain any stones are a sign of the book’s roots in a series of letters sent by her mother back in India, when Jaffrey first learnt to cook as a drama student in London. I can’t remember the last time I found a stone in my lentils.

Ingredients
500g potatoes
1 onion

500g frozen spinach
plenty of sunflower oil
2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons of black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon of turmeric
¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of salt

Method

1. Peel and cut the onion into very fine strips. Chop the garlic finely. Peel the potatoes and cut into 1-inch cubes.
2. Heat plenty of sunflower in a large saucepan, add the onion and fry for a minute, then add the garlic and fry for another 30 seconds or so before adding the mustard seeds. Fry for another 30 seconds, then add the turmeric, cayenne pepper and salt, and stir well.
3. Add the potato cubes, the spinach and enough water so the dish looks moist without it being too watery.
4. Bring to a simmer, turn heat to minimum and cover. Cook until the potatoes are well done (probably around 40 minutes), stirring every so often and checking that there is still enough liquid. The final dish should be neither dry nor soupy, but juicy.

When I cooked this for the photo, I didn’t have any mustard seeds, so I substituted them with sesame seeds instead. I also think that turmeric (I suppose like most spices) is one of those ingredients whose quality varies greatly. I'm not a fan of the big packets of Rajah brand spices you get from most Asian shops, which I think have rather an industrial flavour. Turmeric should be musky but aromatic.