sweet potato and cauliflower curry

The veg box brought us a pair of sweet potatoes, and we had a cauliflower left over.

Not wanting to cook too much in the heat, I peeled the sweet potatoes and cut them into 2cm-ish chunks.  They were simmered for about 18 minutes, and I put the cauliflower florets in the steamer basket for the last 7 minutes.

I chopped an onion and a red pepper, and minced ginger and garlic, and fried that lot off in some olive oil, while Pete ground some spices with a Morrocan twist (including pomegranate seeds), and I put them in the frying pan with the onion mixture for a couple of minutes.

Tipped everything into the slow cooker, and added the rest of the broad bean stock. Cooked on low for about 8 hours, and ate with rice, but cous cous would have worked too.

Tags: cauliflower, curry, slow cooker, sweet potato, vegetarian

aubergine and chickpea curry

using up: aubergines, a sweet potato

I bought some aubergines from the farm shop last weekend - they were a bit tired, but when I looked at them on Tuesday they really did need cooking. So I bunged in some chickpeas to soak, boiled them yesterday morning, and off we went.

First off, I cubed the sweet potato and boiled it for five minutes to get it started.

Then chopped two red onions, three aubergines, a shallot.

Pete made a paste with six cloves of garlic, and coriander, cumin, dry ginger, allspice, cinnamon, pomegranate seeds and black pepper, and a bit of water.

Fried the onion in some groundnut oil, then added the spice mix and fried for a couple of minutes. Put in the aubergines, courgette and sweet potato and stirred it all around til the veg were coated in oil. Added a tin of tomatoes, and about half a can of water (rinsing the tin round with the water to extract the last tomatoey goodness). Sprinkled with a little salt, added the chickpeas and the juice of half a lemon.

Put it on a low heat with a lid on for about 35 minutes, while we prepped and cooked some rice. I put three tubfuls into the freezer this morning - it were really very nice.

Tags: aubergines, chickpeas, curry

thai vegetable curry

Using up: butternut squash, green beans, courgette

This is vaguely based on a recipe I saw on Come Dine With Me, a television programme here in the UK.  I was very struck by the potato element, which is:

One potato, boiled then cut into dice and deep fried.  Set aside for now.

Made a paste by blitzing a chopped onion, 3 cloves of garlic, about a square inch of ginger, a stalk of lemongrass, a dried chilli,  half a teaspoon of salt, and a tablespooon each of lime juice and  olive oil in a blender, and pureéd until it was transformed into a smooth paste.

Peeled the butternut squash that had been lurking in the fridge for a couple of weeks, removed and discarded the seeds, looked at it and realised it was *way* too much for this curry and returned half to the fridge.  Watch this space to see what I decide to do with the rest! Chopped the flesh of the remaining half into 1/2 inch cubes.  The green beans had been topped and tailed on Friday, and I chopped the courgette into smallish chunks too.

Put the paste into a large pan or wok and fried it gently for a couple of minutes, stirring all the while.

Added the veg, and stirred them about a bit, to coat them with the paste, then hurled in a tin of coconut milk. Put a lid on it, and simmered it for about 20 minutes, then uncovered it and cooked for about another 10. I added the fried spud a few minutes before the end (crystal ball job).

Ate accompanied by noodles cooked with a few drops of sesame oil.  I cannot begin to tell you how nice it was - it was ambrosial, utterly lovely.  The squash had started to break down, and had a texture that I can hardly describe.

This made enough to feed the two of us, with another meal’s worth gone into the freezer.

Tags: "green beans", butternut, coconut, courgette, curry, squash, squashh, thai, vegetarian