10 minute chickpea curry

Don't you think this meal looks like an alien or maybe my funny valentine?



When it's too hot to cook...just cheat. A week of temperatures over 38 degrees (that's 100 degrees F to the rest of you) doesn't inspire much cooking, but still I have trouble with the whole just salad for dinner thing, so I cooked, just a little. It is a little Americany in it's combination of mixing two pre-packaged ingredients together but bear with me, it is more natural and has a lot of flavour. The two ingredients are chickpeas in a can - simple, and a jar (well, part of a jar) of Indian chutney. (see below for more on my love of these) Introducing...

The Ten Minute Curry!

Heat 3 heaped tablespoons of brinjal (eggplant) chutney in a saucepan and tip in 1 drained can of chickpeas. Cook, stirring occassionally, for about 10 minutes. Add a little water / liquid from the chickpea can if it gets a little burny.

Serve with salad and a raita made from 1 c unsweetened yoghurt, 1/2 smallish cucumber, cubed, and some chopped fresh mint or a pinch of dill.


Pickles!
I love buying these from local Indian/Asian stores: India knows chutneys! My favourites are lime pickle, mango chutney and brinjal (eggplant)pickle. They have lots of spices that you don't have to prepare yourself, you can read all the ingredients - all real things, not numbers! One of the real ingredients though is sugar, which I try not to cook with much these days, so remember that. But for the every now and again meal, brilliant!

Here are some other ways I like to use these pickles:

- Salad dressing with a kick: Get a nice big teaspoonful (chop any big chunks up finely), mix with 1/4 olive oil.

- Pizza spread: Use in place of tomato paste (a thin spear only) for exotic pizzas. Then just top base with some cheese and one or two toppings like zucchini, pumpkin, whatever.

- as a rub for roast veggies: Mix a tablespoon of pickle with some olive oil in a bowl, tip over your roasting pan of chopped veggies ready to go into the oven. Rub the pickly-oil all over the veg using your (gloved) hands. Roast, keeping an eye on them for burning bits. So yum.

- Dip: Mix with yoghurt for an easy dip that might really impress people (little do they know!). Serve with veg crudites or what you will.

Green Banana and Eggplant Curry

Today we got green bananas in our organic veggie box - in fact, the whole thing was more fruit than veggies as this is summer and summer's all about fruit. So here's an alluringly tropical fresh and fruity curry. I believe this recipe is Sri Lankan but I can't remember which recipe book I adapted this one from - I 'veganized' it as the original had both yoghurt and cream - too heavy for summer anyway, no? I used fresh coconut in my recipe tonight but to be honest, the subtle flavour of it find of got lost in this dish so unless you have plenty of fresh coconuts to hand, I suggest when you get fresh ones you enjoy as-is or marinated as a side dish as I did the other night. 2 T peanut oil 2 t mustard seeds 1 t coriander 1 t cumin seeds 4 cardamom pods, lightly crushed 3 T desicated coconut 2 cloves of garlic, peeled, crushed 1 t chilli flakes 1 t salt (I completely forgot to add this and it was delicious so cut down/ cut out salt if you can) 2-3 large green bananas or plantains, peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces 2 medium eggplants, cut into 2cm cubes 30 fresh curry leaves 200ml vegetable stock (I used some homemade vegetable broth I had in the freezer - very handy) 2 t tamarind paste (I was actually out of this so substituted pomegranate paste which worked well too) juice of 1 lime 1/4 c flaked almonds 1/4 c spring onions finely sliced or a herb like mint or coriander Heat oil in wok or deep saucepan, add seeds and cardamom and fry over moderate heat till fragrant. Add coconut, garlic, chilli and salt and gently fry till coconut is golden. spices banana and coconut before adding the eggplant Add bananas and fry 20 seconds, then add eggplant and curry leaves and fry another 20 seconds, stirring well. Add stock and tamarind paste and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer until bananas are just cooked, about 15 minutes. If the curry dries out, add some boiling water. Stir in lime juice and check seasoning. Serve with basmati rice cooked with a little lemon zest. I also cooked mine with a sprinkling of wild rice (black seeds that turn the rice pleasantly purple). And do you like the plane and heart decorations I made from the banana skin? No? Well, I'm not baking much at the moment and just really wanted to use my cookie cutters!

Think Cheese, Think Peas, Think CHEESY PEAS!

I bet when you were thinking cheese you weren't thinking Indian Paneer cheese. Well I was.

The other day I was lucky enough to be given some fabulous home-made paneer so I took it home and used one of my recipe books to make a Mutter Paneer - a paneer and pea curry. Waay too much turmeric and not nearly enough tomato for my liking, so today, I made a better one. My version uses lots of tomato of course, and whole seeds ground in a mortar and pestle (hard cassia bark first) but use powdered spices if you haven't got anything to grind with. I suggest you DO make your own paneer - it's not only a million times better that the packet stuff but is cheaper too (only $2 something for 2 litres of milk these days). It's also very easy to make - all you need is a little time ahead - about half an hour to drain and about an hour to let it firm in the fridge.




For the paneer:
2 litres of full-cream milk
1/3 cup / (80ml) lemon juice (or vinegar if you don't have any lemons)

In a large saucepan, bring the milk to the boil, stir in the lemon juice and turn off the heat. Stir with a wooden spoon 1-2 minutes as it curdles (separating into pale yellow liquid - whey, and small white solids - curds) If it doesn't curdle within a minute or so, add some more lemon juice and keep stirring. Line a colander with a clean tea-towel (or muslin if you have it), pour all the contents of the pan in and run some cold water through it. Leave 10 - 30 minutes for the whey (the yellowy liquid part) to drain off. What remains is the curd. Wrap the towel around this and form into a block by patting with your hands. Put the wrapped block onto a plate and put a plate / wooden board or nice and heavy like a saucepan filled with water on top of it and leave in the fridge - the longer you leave it the better, but you can use it after 40 mins. Voila! - You've made paneer!



For the curry paste:
2 onions, chopped
6-8 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 t fresh ginger, grated
2 pieces of cassia bark (or cinnamon quills or 1-2 t cinnamon powder)
1 t cumin seeds
1 t fennel seeds
1 t coriander seeds
1 t cardamom seeds (lightly crush about 6 green cardamom pods and scrape out seeds)
4 whole cloves
3 dried red chillies / 1 t chilli flakes
1 t paprika

Either place everything in a spice grinder and grind till smooth or do it the work-out way using a mortar and pestle.



Rest of the ingredients:
800g pureed tomatoes (use a blender or food processor and whizz)
500g frozen peas (covered with boiling water and left in covered bowl to soften)
2 T vegetable oil
1-2 t garam masala
1/4 t ground turmeric
1-4 T cream / 6 T milk
fresh coriander leaves to garnish.

When you're ready to start putting the dish together, get the paneer out of the fridge, unwrap and cut into 2cm cubes. Now, most recipes ask you to fry the cubes of paneer but I prefer to leave them as is. If you want to fry them first, take a big heavy based saucepan and fill 1/3 full of oil and heat till 180 degrees (or until a cube of bread browns in 15 seconds). Cook the paneer in batches for 2 min per batch, or until golden. Drain on paper towels.

Heat the 2 T oil in a large saucepan, add the curry paste and cook over medium heat for 4 minutes, or until fragrant. Add the pureed tomato, powdered spices and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the cream then add the peas and paneer and cook a further 3 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice and / or wholemeal paratha.

Serves 6. Can be frozen.