I love curry, like reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally love curry. Itās one of the only cuisines that doesnāt make vegetarians or vegans feel like a fully clothed person at a nudist camp.
I once knew a wonderful Bengali woman who made THE best curries. I would stand and watch her, fascinated by her silver tin full of spices, which she would use in great amounts in every meal. She used to be amused by my love for what she called āpoor manās foodā - which was mostly sticky rice and spinach. It was so simple and delicious.
Years on and Iām still trying to achieve her curry greatness. I doubt Iāll ever get there, but I think Iām pretty damn good!
This meal gave enough portions for approximately 6 people if eaten together. Youāll have to forgive me as I never measure anything. All spice measurements are an educated guess, but next time I promise to measure everything out!
Soak basmati rice for an hour in cold water. Once soaked, drain and add fresh water, to approximately 1.5 - 2cm above the rice level. Add two cardamom and two cloves. Add some salt and bring to the boil - DO NOT STIR. Once boiling, simmer and put the lid on. Your rice should be cooked in 7 - 10 minutes. If it starts to dry out, add a dash more water. If your water is cooked but too wet, remove the lid, keep the heat on low and allow it to dry out.
You could use fresh spinach, but I recommend frozen as you need quite a lot. I used approximately 15 cubes of spinach. Defrost the spinach in cold water. Once defrosted, squeeze until youāve removed as much water as you can. Place on a chopping board and roughly chop. Then chop a thumb of ginger, two garlic cloves and one small onion (you can also add chili if you wish). Fry the onion and ginger until softened and add the garlic. Fry for a minute or two and add two teaspoons of powdered cumin and coriander. Fry off for a minute to release the flavours and then follow with your spinach. Keep stirring so not to burn the spices. I like to keep it going for five minutes, if it starts to look dry, add a little water. Season to taste.
I must admit, this one is a bit of a guessing game when it comes to measurements as I find it really depends on your taste, but the one thing I will say is keep tasting (and smelling!) until itās how you like it.Ā
Heat some oil in a pan. I took a thumb of ginger (chopped), three garlic cloves (crushed) and one finely chopped onion and fried them slowly (I added the garlic when the onion was looking translucent). Once the onions were soft and a bit golden, I added a punnet of halved cherry tomatoes. I slowly cooked these on the hob, allowing them to soften and sweeten. If the pan got too dry I added some water to help it along. When the tomatoes were soft and almost caramel sweet, I made some space in the pan and added a tsp of oil. I then added to the hot oil a heaped tsp (each) of dried cumin, coriander and garam masala (you can also add dried chilli if you wish). I allowed them to cook of for a little while, releasing the flavours in to the oil. Stir the whole mixture and add a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas. Give it a good stir, add a splash of water if you need to loosen it up, season with salt and let it bubble away for five minutes.Ā
Itās time to taste - this is where you can add more flavours. Here I would probably add more cumin and garam masala, a squeeze of puree if I think it needed a richer tomato flavour and a squeeze of lemon (it really lifts the sweetness). As I said, this dish is a guessing game, but - once youāve worked out your fave spice combination you can really play with it. You can add cloves, panch phoran, which is an Indian five spice mix (and fab in any curry dish), even star anise.Ā
Dhal has to be one of my favourite things to eat in the whole world. Itās cheap, filling and bloody tasty. Simply soak some red lentils (a small bag will feed six) in water and leave them for two hours. Once soaked, drain and lightly rinse with cold water. Pour the lentils in a pan and fill with water approx 2cm above the lentils. Add half an onion (no need to chop), a tsp of turmeric and a stick of cassia bark. Bring to the boil and simmer until the lentils are soft and starting to break down. Depending on how long you soak the lentils for, this can be an hour to two hours. Keep an eye on it - you donāt want it to dry out. Dhal is meant to be wet so add some extra if need be. In a frying pan add a tbsp of oil and add some dry, whole spices such as: 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp coriander (crush if you can), 2 cardamom pods, 3 cloves, mustard seeds and some panch phoran. Have two crushed garlic cloves to hand as well. The dry spices will start to sizzle - do not leave the pan. Keep everything moving. 30 seconds later, throw in the garlic. Again, keep it moving, otherwise it will burn. As soon as the garlic starts to change colour throw the whole mixture in to the dhal. Youāll notice that once added, the dhal will start to thicken. Finish with fresh coriander.
I hope that you enjoy these as much as I do! Maybe next time Iāll note the exact ingredients! :)
