Wednesday 1 August 2012

VEGETABLE KORMA

My biggest strength - and biggest weakness - when cooking is my tendency to freestyle wildly. I can't follow a recipe to save my life, and this vegetable korma was no exception. I borrowed a blueprint from the 'Indian Bible' cookbook and went to town. 

Instead of winter vegetables (potato, cauliflowers, beans and carrots) my incarnation of VK featured capsicum and zucchini.  Some ingredients were pretty non-specific, so before long I found myself facing a dilemma. It called for unsalted cashews, which you can buy roasted or natural. It needed cream, but I wasn't sure whether thin or thick would work better (and this, dear readers, is why the blog is called 'gastronomically challenged'). I went with natural and thin... next time I'd go with the opposite.

Serves four

150g unsalted cashews (save a couple for garnish)
1 onion
1 red capsicum, diced
1 zucchini, cut into 1cm rounds
1 red and 1 green chilli, finely chopped
2 teaspoons crushed ginger
2 teaspoons of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
1 cinnamon quill
375 ml vegetable stock
2 tablespoons (40ml) of cream

Soak the cashews in hot water for 10 minutes, then drain and blend to a smooth paste in a food processor. Heat oil in a heavy based saucepan and cook the onion, ginger and chillies over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, until the onion is soft. Add the zucchini, capsicum, then the coriander and turmeric.
Add the stock and stir thoroughly. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer (oh and throw in the cinnamon quill here) until the zucchini is almost cooked. Stir through the cashew paste and simmer for a few more minutes. Stir in the cream and serve with rice.

Verdict: quite edible, considering that it's a) the first curry I've ever made from scratch; and b) I probably made a faux pas with the nuts and cream. Still, you live and learn!

1 comment:

  1. tasted fine to me! (albeit a tad too hot/spicy for me) it had a nice consistency too.

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