Green Veg Risotto.

Anyone who tells you risotto is difficult is a damn liar. Or in idiot. One of the two.

It is piss easy.

Admittedly, I've only ever made veggie risottos, but one assumes that as long as your chicken/prawns/meaty chunks of choice are thrown in where I've thrown in the veg, and are cooked through before serving, it's all good.

'Green' risotto is a little vague, but there's courgette, spinach, peas and broccoli in here. 

Various other risottos I've made include: mushroom & bacon (I guess that's not veggie, but bacon cooks quickly enough), courgette & aubergine, root veg (carrot, parsnip, a little potato), and beetroot - fresh beetroot, that you have to peel. So far all I've been able to find in the supermarkets here is pickled or preserved 'fresh' beetroot and I don't trust it.

A note: you can use any rice. Arborio is the normal risotto rice because it absorbs the flavours well, but chances are you haven't got any lying around the house, and besides that, it's more expensive than normal rice and we're in a recession, dammit. Plain old long grain is fine, honest. It'll still soak up the stock and the flavours, just not quite as well as arborio. We had some sushi rice lying about - which is also super absorbent - so I used that, but I've used long grain before and it's been just as delicious.

In some places I've put things in brackets because that's what we used (frozen veg etc) but you can use fresh, obviously. 

Serves 2

Ingredients

1/2 a courgette, diced 

A handful of spinach

A handful of (frozen) peas

4 large (frozen) broccoli florets

1/2 (red) onion, diced (you can use yellow onion either)

2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped

Large handful of rice

Chicken or veg stock cube (I used chicken)

Water

Splash of white wine (optional)

Splash of single or double cream

Salt 

Pepper

Oregano

Butter

Olive oil

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Prepare your veg - everything should be ready just to throw in the pan so you can concentrate on stirring once it's on the go. Seriously, this is the only trick to the risotto. If you've got an arm that is capable of stirring, you're good to go.

Meanwhile, in one pan, put the stock cube in a pan with around a litre of water. Bring it to the boil then turn down the heat so it stays hot throughout cooking.

In another (a large, deep frying pan is best), let 2 biggish knobs of butter and a splash of olive oil melt into each other. Add the onion and garlic and fry for a couple of minutes, then throw in the fresh veg. Again, fry for a couple of minutes, until coated in the oil, then add the rice and make sure this is coated in the oil too.

Your frozen veg goes in now, along with the salt, pepper and oregano.

Once everything in the pan has a nice coat of oil on it, get a ladle and spoon the stock into the pan one scoop at a time - you add one scoop to the risotto, and let it soak in, stirring all the time so that all the rice has time to absorb it. When the water is almost completely soaked in, add another scoop until the stock pan is empty. It'll probably take 3 or 4 scoops for the rice to really start to fluff up, so don't worry that your rice isn't cooking, unless you reach the bottom of your stock and it's still not fluffy (in which case, just add more water...)

When you add the last bit of stock, also add the wine and cream, and stir well. In the end, the sauce doesn't need to soak in completely, as the dish should still be rich and creamy, but  also thick.

Add more black pepper to the top to serve.

Onion Bhajis & Raita

We had an Indian FEAST on Friday night. Vidi:

Clockwise from left: Sag Aloo, Onion Bahjis, Chicken & Chickepea Curry, Naans, Cucumber Raita, Rice.

In a fit of laziness, we bought the rice and naans and just warmed them up. I'm going to let Ana fill you in on the Curry and Sag Aloo (and hopefully, some better pics) at a later date, but Bhajis and (delightfully simple) Raita are below, both from a retro-tastic cookbook I found in a charity shop some years ago, simply titled 'Indian Side Dishes' (and apparently published in 1995, though it looks at least 20 years older).

Blurry Bahjis and curry; Sag Aloo; Raita

Onion Bahjis

2 medium white onions, quartered then sliced

1 egg

2 tsps plain or gram flour

1 tsp garam masala

Cumin 

Coriander

Salt

Add the flour to a bowl with the spices. Add the egg and stir to a gluey mixture, then add the onions, salt and coriander and stir. Add more flour if the mixture isn't stiff enough - the recipe says to add breadcrumbs but we had none handy...

Heat the oil in a deep pan until fairly hot, then form the mixture into balls with your hands and carefully drop them into the oil. Cook for around 5-6 minutes, turning occasionally, then remove and place on some kitchen roll to drain the excess oil.

We could cook around 3 balls at a time, and made 6 in total (of various sizes, but about a handful of mixture each time). 

The original recipe was for "Bite-sized Bajees"  - curious spelling - and was for 20 nibbles. It also advises that the pan and utensils are properly dried before use, as any contact with water will make the oil spit. Which is good advice and bears repeating. Also, use metal utensils, not plastic ones. Or at least don't leave the plastic ones in the hot oil for any great length of time. Seems obvious, but an old housemate ruined a good slotted spoon that way. Sigh.

Cucumber Raita

Serves... Well we made enough for 3 or 4, really. 

But we ate it all (indeed, we ate most of the food we made, which was probably ill-advised).

200ml (a.k.a. one small pot) natural yoghurt

1/3 cucumber, finely chopped

Salt

Pepper

The book did include mint in its list of ingredients, which I would've definitely put in for an even fresher dish, but again, we didn't have any.

Add all the ingredients to a bowl. Stir together.

Told you it was simple.

A Sprout Is Not Just For Christmas.

In case you're not up to date, let me explain:

I moved to Berlin, like, three weeks ago.

Cooking at home has been unadventurous thus far (combo of lack of space to store/make things and lack of money, plus need to meet new people and therefore going for food to socialise...), but cooking at work has been challenging and interesting.

I work at a small high-end fashion label here, and we take turns to cook (though I tend to volunteer most days!) and then we all eat lunch together. Lovely!

But also, on a Tuesday, we get a big box of veg for the week, and we eat veggie meals. We've bought things to go with the veg (rice, pasta, eggs, yoghurt, curry paste, etc) but sometimes we get things we don't know what to do with - we roasted fennel last week (my first fennel experience).

Last week we got brussel sprouts (or Rosenkohl, as they call them here) - what does one do with brussel sprouts, other than eat them with Christmas dinner?!

We finally ate them today, and added them to the (masses of) leftover spinach and feta pasta from Friday.

I've got a lo-ve-ly bunch of brussel sprouts, di-di di-di

Wash 'em and chop 'em up small, and heat up a frying pan with plenty of butter in it.

Add salt and pepper and add more butter if necessary...they should be soft but with a bit of crunch on the outside.

Serve 'em as a side dish or chuck 'em in some pasta or something... (I reckon they'd be great in a stir fry and will endeavour to try this at some point in the near future.)

Stewed Pork, Veggie Salsa & Flatbread.

I don't know if stewed pork is the right word. Or vegetable salsa, for that matter. But that's what I'm calling it.

They made flatbreads on This Morning, errr, this morning, and I was all "OOOO. I shall make that."

Serves 2, but there was a lot, and some leftover salsa...

Need:
One pork chop, fat/bones removed
One red onion
One courgette
Two cloves garlic
One tomato
4 medium mushrooms
Half a tin chopped tomatoes

Plain flour
Water
Coriander
Tarragon
Cayenne Pepper
Chilli Powder
Salt
Pepper
One vegetable stock cube
Olive oil
Honey

Lettuce + 1/2 an avocado per person to serve.

That seems like a lot, but a lot was leftovers/things that needed to be eaten!

Do:
Remove the bones/fat from the pork. Flatten and tenderise (translation - hit it with a rolling pin for a bit), and chop into cubes. Place in an oven proof dish.

Take half of the onion and half of the courgette and chop finely, adding to the dish. Crush a garlic clove into the dish (I used a garlic crusher as opposed to the garlic card. You want minced garlic, rather than puree, if possible, but finely chopped will do). Add sprinkles of salt, pepper, coriander, tarragon and cayenne pepper, then a drizzle of olive oil. Cover and place in fridge for at least an hour (I made mine at about 3pm and we ate about half 6...)

For the flatbreads, mix plain flour, salt and water. Roll out to desired size an shape - seriously, they can be any size or shape. I went for a naan-y look, and probably made enough dough for 4 decent sized ones rather than the 3 big ones I made, but you can always make more flatbreads than needed and eat the others cold for lunch the next day or something. Simple and versatile!

To the pork mix add a veggie stock cube and enough water to cover the ingredients (It'll make a watery sauce but we don't need to serve this...), then put in the oven at around 200 degrees - it should take about 25/30 mins for the pork to be tender. I had a sit down for 15 mins before finishing the rest, but then I had pre-prepared by flatbread dough...

Finely chop the other half of the onion, the other half of the courgette, one tomato and the mushrooms (you can use any amount of any of these, really, just we had mushrooms and courgette to use up and not that many tomatoes in the house...). Add the onion and the other minced garlic clove to a pan (I recommend a large saucepan rather than a frying pan) with olive oil. After 2 mins, add the other veg. Fry until soft, then add the chopped tomatoes. Again, this was a leftover, and if you only have full tins use one of those - I had to add a bit of water and some ketchup to get a decent amount of tomato-y sauce!

Add a big squirt of honey and salt, pepper, coriander and chilli powder and simmer, reducing the sauce so that all the veg is covered but it's not runny.

While the salsa is reducing, fry the flatbreads in a little olive oil - preferably in a griddle pan, for that nice patterned burn look, yknow.

Serve!

Onion Tart.

i really fancied making an onion tart but the internet provided little in the way of appetising recipes - plenty for onion quiche, but i wanted something significantly less eggy. finally i found and modified a recipe which suggested double cream. win!

ingredients

one large white onion

one large red onion

one 200ml tub double cream

one tsp honey

salt, pepper, thyme, worcester sauce & butter

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(also, plain flour, butter, milk, water, salt and pepper for the pastry; or you can buy ready made. homemade pastry is super easy and wonderful tasting and i love making pastry and dough SO MUCH; i probably make it at least once a week for something.

i tend to guess at measurements, but 5 heaped tablespoons of flour and 4 knive-fulls of butter will about do it, then sprinkles of salt and pepper, and rub the butter in til the mixture is like breadcrumbs. add a splash of milk and stir together with a spoon, then add water til the dough forms a ball. if it's too sticky, add more flour. knead on a floured counter for a few minutes, then roll out to desired size and thickness. EASY. it doesn't need to be cooked through before the filling is put in either! and if you grease up the tin with plenty of butter, the tart should come out really easily.)

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slice the onions into thin slices. add a large knob of butter to a frying pan, warm up then throw in the onions. after a minute, turn the heat right down and leave them to simmer away, stirring every minute or so.

make your pastry (or roll it out and line your tin if you're using pre-made); preheat the oven to a medium heat.

when the onions and browned and super soft, add salt, pepper, thyme and a little worcester sauce to taste, and stir in a teaspoon of honey.

tip around 2/3 of the double cream into the pan and let it thicken slightly.

add the mixture to the tart, and stick it in the oven until the pastry is brown and the top is bubbling.

i also grated some cheese on top about 5 minutes before the end, and served with green beans, parsnip and mushroom that had been fried in honey and mustard. gorgeous - the cream hadn't quite set, which was perfect because the dish wasn't too dry.

i have 2 pieces left, which i'm gonna serve with mash, green beans and rosemary and mint gravy tonight, and salad with honey mustard dressing tomorrow.

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i had a little pastry left over, so before i added the cream i plonked 3 little spoon fulls onto the rolled out scraps and made 3 little snack-sized onion pastry parcels - just an idea for leftovers!

Product: Garlic Card

this thing is genius; and i can't understand how it actually works, but work it does.

i give you the garlic card.

i bought it in the design museum when i was in london... (but you can buy it on amazon - it comes in a range of colours; i got red cos i have red chopsticks, also from the design museum. i see a theme developing here.)

...and basically, it purees garlic.

and you think "well that doesn't look like much!", but then you swipe the puree off the card with your finger, and into a pan/into a bowl and it looks like quite a lot of puree, AND THEN your meal is remarkably garlic-y.

i mixed it with pepper, oregano and soya butter.....

...then spread it on some bread and grilled. garlic bread! (perfectly garlic-y!)

served with fry-veg soup...?

i read this recipe on some site the other day and tried to recreate it from memory since i didn't bookmark it...

one large tomato, cut into chunks

one medium onion, cut into chunks

one large mushroom (or a few smaller ones), sliced

fry in olive oil until brown

add stock, mixed into a cup of warm water

add half a tin of chopped tomatoes

flavour with salt, pepper, basil, oregano and worcester sauce, and a squirt of ketchup if you are a fan of the sweet taste

put a lid on the frying pan and simmer until the sauce thickens (10-15 mins).

serve with crusty bread - or garlic bread!

a hearty but small tea or a great lunch dish!

NB: i also topped mine with thinly sliced goats cheese and pepper.

great tip!

in order to melt the cheese and keep the dish

warm while the bread finishes off browning, put

the pan lid on top of the bowl for a minute or two!

Tortillas.

decided on a whim that i'd like a wrap for tea the other night, but had no change on me to pop to the corner shop for tortilla wraps. a quick google told me i had all the ingredients and so i set about making em from scratch!

scroll down for tortilla recipes and some filling suggestions inc. one veggie/vegan option...

chicken & avocado tortillas with spicy rice

tortillas

this is really still in trial and error phase - i've made them on two occasions, both producing great tortillas, but of different sizes and amounts of tortillas. as such, this will, i think, make 2 decent sized tortillas (about 10 inches across, but very unlikely to be circular!)

4 heaped tablespoons plain flour

large dash of salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

warmed up milk (add as necessary)

pepper (optional)

you can also add other herbs/spices/flavourings as desired, but these make great plain tortillas!

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add flour, salt, pepper and olive oil to a bowl and stir together with a spoon. gradually add the milk (i heated a little through in the microwave) and stir or whisk 'til you have a slightly sticky dough. turn it out onto a floured surface and knead, knead, knead for a few minutes - it should take the stickiness out of the dough! split the ball into smaller balls (one for each tortilla) and leave to rest in the fridge for about half an hour.

heat a little olive oil in a non-stick frying pan.

flour up a rolling pin and a bench and roll out your tortilla - they should be as thin as possible, and you're trying to get them round (but mine were either square or wonky; no matter). you can also pick them up and let gravity do it's thing if they're thin enough! whack them in your pan for about a minute on each side (they should crisp up a bit and, well, look like tortillas!) then stick them on a plate. they can then either be filled or you can cover them in cling film and leave them in the fridge for a couple of days - great if you like to eat wraps instead of sandwiches!

**the website i got this from also included baking powder but i had none and didn't notice a difference!

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now you've got your tortillas, you can fill 'em. these are three fillings i've had in my tortillas over the last couple of days - 2 chicken-y numbers for tea (with homemade fries and spicy rice, respectively) and one for veggie lunch option.

chicken and humous - fills two tortillas (or one large one)

one small chicken breast, cut into strips & marinated

half a tomato, thinly sliced

1/2 a small white onion, sliced

1/3 red pepper, sliced

1/3 yellow pepper, sliced

a big dollop of humous

1 heaped tablespoon natural yoghurt

mint

for the marinade: olive oil, plus squirts and splashes of ketchup, honey, worcester sauce and fish sauce, and some chilli powder, basil, salt and pepper.

- slice your chicken and stick it in the marinade (i did this while my tortilla dough was resting), then put it in the fridge.

- the mint yoghurt is THE EASIEST THING EVER and is great. literally, sprinkle mint into some natural yoghurt. keep tasting it to get to the desired mint-y level and leave to one side...

- fry your chicken in a little olive oil for a minute, then add in the peppers and onions and continue frying until cooked through.

- spread humous on the tortilla - you should keep your fillings to the centre of the tortilla, leaving space at the bottom too! - then lay the sliced tomato on top. if you want to add salad (spinach is a great choice) put this on too, then top it off with your chicken-y mixture. dollop the mint yoghurt on top then fold the bottom up and the sides over each other! (i'm keeping mine together with skewers in the pic...)

chicken and avocado - fills two tortillas (or one large one)

one small chicken breast, cut into strips & marinated

half an avocado, sliced

dollop of cream cheese

relish:

half a tomato, roughly chopped

1/3 large red onion, sliced

2 small mushrooms, roughly chopped

chilli powder

large squirt of ketchup

a little worcester sauce

marinade:

tablespoon natural yoghurt

tablespoon lemon juice

teaspoon honey

big sprinkle of coriander

little sprinkle worcester sauce

pepper

salt

- as before, slice and marinade the chicken.

- for the relish, add the onion and tomato to a little olive oil in a pan and fry for a minute, then add the mushroom and fry for another minute. add the other relish ingredients and keep it simmering until the rest is ready.

- fry the chicken for a few minutes; until cooked through.

- spread the cream cheese as before. add the sliced avocado and the chicken on top of that, then place

the relish on top

and wrap. this was my favourite wrap of the three! the chicken marinade is wonderful.

(leftover relish goes into spicy rice, along with some peas. alternatively you can leave it in the fridge for another time!)

humous, tomato and avocado - fills one tortilla

one big dollop of humous

half a tomato, thinly sliced

1/4 avocado, thinly sliced

a little salad

this is simple - just layer up the ingredients, starting with the humous (i find wraps are best when they go like this: spreadable things/slices of things/chunks of things/sauces&relishes).

add some basil or pepper if you'd like!

this would probably be great with some cheese on top too!

Noodle Soup.

so the other night i fancied noodles, but not a stir fry.
WHAT TO DO.
soup, that's what.

for two small-ish, but very filling portions, you'll need:

- one portion of noodles (i use sharwood's rice noodles which are perfect cos you can snap them in half for smaller noodle pieces, whereas an egg noodle nest is harder to break into smaller pieces...)
- half a carrot, peeled and sliced into really long, thin pieces.
- a handful of spinach
- an onion, sliced into biggish chunks
- a handful of frozen broccoli

- a handful of beansprouts

- one vegetable stock cube

- sprinkles of salt, pepper, chilli powder, ginger, worcestershire sauce and coriander

- a knob of butter*

- water

--------------------------

in a large pan, melt the butter and fry the onions until soft.

add the carrots and then add some of the water and all of the herbs and spices, and the stock cube. then chuck in all the other ingredients (snapping the noodles in half so you have smaller chunks!) and cook until the soup thickens up a bit - add flour if necessary.

SO easy; and very tasty.

* or a dairy free alternative for a vegan dish!

Stuffed Mushrooms.

or, more specifically, stuffed mushrooms on spicy rice with salad, taken on an iphone.

sorry for the pic quality...

for the mushrooms

3 big-ish, flat-ish mushrooms*

1 slice bacon

half a white onion

half a garlic clove

a splash of milk*

sprinkles of: basil, oregano, salt, pepper

*i made this a bit spur-of-the-moment, so i just picked the biggest, flattest ones i had, but i've since bought an actual flat mushroom, on of the really big ones. gonna try a different filling, more of a bolognese affair (mince. tomatoes. etc.)

for the rice

one portion brown rice

handful of peas

squirt of ketchup

dash of worcester sauce

sprinkles of: chilli powder, basil, pepper, salt

+ any mushroom filling that won't fit in the mushrooms

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interesting flavours all around here...

turn on the oven; warm it up like.

boil some water, set the rice off cooking.

cut (or pull...) the stalks from the mushrooms, and place the mushroom caps on a baking tray.

fry the rest of the mushroom filling ingredients - leaving the milk til' near the end, it's just to give a little moisture to the proceedings.

spoon into the mushroom caps. drizzle with olive oil, shove in the oven to roast.

when the rice is nearly ready, bung a few peas in there. when there's only a little water left in the pan (or, because i always put far too much water in - on purpose, kthnx - strain the rice&peas and leave a little water in there with 'em) add the other ingredients, including any leftovers from the filling pan that didn't fit into the mushrooms.

check the flavour/spice is to your liking; plonk on a plate next to some salad leaves.

the mushrooms should be slightly browned and a little shrivelled by now, but as long as they're warm through they're done. serve!

course, omit the bacon for a veggie alternative, substituting it for red pepper or parsnip chunks.


* water can be substituted for vegans!

Bean Burgers.

So I had half a small can of red kidney beans this one time.
And I didn't fancy making chilli.
So I googled recipes, and I got the idea for a bean burger.

ingreds

half a can of red kidney beans
one small mushroom (or half a large one); chopped into small chunks
a handful of oats
sprinkles of: salt, pepper, chilli powder, coriander

oil to fry

--------

mash the kidney beans in a bowl
add the other ingredients, and mix together
if it's too dry (falling apart), add a few drips of oil; if it's too wet (sticky, etc), add more oats

scoop up and form into a burger shape
whack it into frying pan with a little oil; fry until browned

I served between 2 small slices of toast, with cream cheese and ketchup, but only cos that's all I have - usually a burger goes in a toasted muffin with some lettuce and ketchup. nomnom.

Curries! Galore

i know jenn has already posted a curry recipie (am i spelling that right?) (no, you are not, it is recipe. loveforyou - jenn) but here are 4 of my favourites...

Tikka Chicken (per person)
1 chicken breast
3 tablespoons natural yoghurt
2 tsps Tikka seasoning (this is available from most supermarkets, its bright red)
4 cherry tomatoes
fresh coriander
1 tsps garam masala
salt and pepper
squeeze of lemon

combine all the ingredients on a bowl, mix well and leave in the fridge for no less than 6 hours. mix everything but the chicken first and taste and add more spice the spicier you like it.
heat some oil in a frying pan, and pick out the chicken pieces and fry until they turn a darker colour. bung in the rest of the sauce and stir. add a little more yoghurt if it looks dry. preheat the oven to 180. put the chicken and sauce in a overproof dish and put in the oven for half an hour. when serving, blop on about a table spoon of yoghurt.

Vegetable Curry
for the basic curry sauce:
2 cloves of garlic
2 tsps Garam masala
1 tsps chilli powder
squeeze of lemon
seasoning
half an onion
half a can of chopped tomatoes

fry the garlic gently in oil, make sure you dont burn it. add chopped onion, and fry to soften them. add the garam masala and chilli powder, stir into the garlic and onions. add a little bit of water if it looks dry. add the lemon juice and seasoning, stir then add the tomatoes. at this point you can add any precooked veg you like. butternut squash is particularly good, and even spinach. when you've added the veg, pop the curry in the oven at 180 degrees for half an hour

Bombay Potatoes
follow the basic vegetable curry recipie, except cut out the chilli powder and tomatoes. add par boiled halved new potatoes. if the curry is too dry, use water to make the sauce less thick. still bake in the oven at the same temperature and time

Spiced Rice
enough brown or white rice for one person (half a cup)
1 tsps tumeric
1 tsps garam masala
2 tbs chopped onion (pre fried)
2 tbs peas

prepare the rice as usual. when cooked, add the spices, onion and peas. continue to heat through until all the ingredients are hot.

The Best Pasta Bake Ever.

Some notes:

- This makes enough for tea and lunch the next day! Did for me, anyways.

- I'm really into double cream right now

- You're gonna need a shitload of mushrooms

Luckily, my housemate had a bag to get rid of, so before they went out of date, I thought I'd scoff 'em down.

I mean, really, look at them...

That is a lot of mushrooms, non?

This is the first time I used cream to make the sauce, and I only used it to use it up, but it took it up a level and I'm probs gonna put it in every pasta bake I ever make now - yes, the sauce is rich, but it's also delicious, creamy, and full of flavour.

ingredients

one shitload of mushrooms (what? it's a standard measurement unit! orite, orite, a couple of handfuls)

two handfuls pasta (as usual, I use wholegrain...)

one garlic clove

one small onion (or half a large one)

one slice bacon*

one handful baby spinach

a splash of milk

about 50ml double (or single) cream

one small handful of grated cheese

sprinklings of

salt

pepper

basil

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cook the pasta as per the instructions. you might wanna turn on the oven (to a medium heat) already; it'll be nice and warm by the time you need it.

chop the onion into slices and the garlic finely, and chop the bacon and mushrooms into bitesize chunks - fry them all off in that order, until they all look about done.

when the pasta is done, drain it then put it back into the pan, wherein you should quickly add the milk and cream, and the sprinklings and stir 'em. throw in the frying pan of food, and the handful of spinach, and keep on stirring til everything is covered in sauce.

if the sauce is too thick, add some more milk; if it's too thin, add some plain flour and whisk it into the mix so you don't get lumps.

pour the mix into a casserole dish (anything that will withstand the oven, yeah?) and whack it into the oven for about 15 mins. it should be crispy up top.

after this time, sprinkle the cheese on the top (this is, of course, optional) and cook for another 5-10 mins. as long as the cheese is melted but not burnt, it's all good.

serve!

*course, leave out the bacon (again, using it up) for a veggie meal; i have tagged it as such!

Sweet Potato, Spinach & Mushroom Curry.

it comes to my attention that mostly we write and post at night here, and I find this odd cos I always post on ventures first thing.
i mean, currently i'm supposed to be on a night out, but I'm tired and lazy and have to be in uni at 9, so i'm sat in bed, eating chocolate and writing. dumdedum.

anyways, i made this a couple of nights ago - i'm usually a chicken korma or tikka masala kinda gal, but i acquired a free bigass bag of mushrooms and had to have mushroom based meals for the rest of the week - you have a mushroom pasta bake to look forward to, too.

i served this with brown rice, but you can add whatever (rice, naan, poppadoms, mango chuntey..mmm...), just follow directions on the packets etc etc.
i might get around to making a naan sometime, cos i have the recipe, but we will see, we will see.
(note from Ana - try making a refreshing raita...it's super easy and cools your mouth if your curry is too hot, otheriwse it's just a tasty side dish!
chop 2inch of cucumber into small quatered pieces, keep them quite thin. add to some natural yoghurt and season. you could try adding some lemon juice to. to add a sweet twist, which works well with this kind of curry, add some dessicated coconut or even replace the cucumber with banana. i tried this at a curry place is spain and it worked surpirsingly well)

these veg portions are rough guides - put in the amount you'd like, if you're more of a certain type of veg.

ingredients

3 small sweet potatoes, diced
2 handfuls of mushrooms, diced
one handful of baby spinach

half a large onion (or a whole small one!), chopped
one garlic clove

one small tub of natural yoghurt
1/3 of a bar of creamed coconut (you can usually get this in the world foods aisle; and blue dragon do a slightly more expensive one), cut into slices

spices - one teaspoon of each!
garam masala (essential for curries, really!)
ginger
cinnamon
coriander

+salt&pepper to taste

optional - if you like a spicier curry, i'd recommend adding a chilli or two (instead, or as well as the chilli powder!), and maybe less yoghurt.

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chop all your veg and fry off the sweet potatoes in a large flat pan or frying pan for 2 mins. add the onion and crush or chop the garlic and add this too (if you're adding chillis, these go in now too!). fry for another 2 mins.

add the mushrooms. keep frying, keep stirring...throw in the spinach after another couple of mins, then add all the spices and herbs and stir, making sure all your veg is coated in them!

add the creamed coconut and add a little water, a bit at a time, until the coconut has melted. you don't want to add too much water otherwise it will take a long time to reduce and the veg will be overcooked, and you'll be hungry.

add in the yoghurt and stir a lil bit more, til it's all mixed in, then simmer until your curry has reached peak consistency - I'm a fan of the thicker sauces (as likely you can tell from the pic), but if you like a runnier sauce then don't simmer for so long!

curry really isn't that hard to make at all!
(i doubt this is particularly authentic, but it is easy...)

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if you're a curry fan and this is the first one you've made, it's worth experimenting with flavours and spices, and trying different amounts until you find the flavour for you.


by the way! this should make 2 small portions or 1 really big one - I had a small portion for tea and the rest for lunch (without side dishes) the next day. woo, value for money!