Food + Me = Life

As a cold front hit the south island it brought snow to Dunedin, a good 4 inch’s or so and it’s not officially winter yet. I was feeling a little cold so I decided that it was a perfect day for a nice curry.

As I didn’t have any meat in the fridge or on hand to defrost  I decided it was going to be a chunky vegetable red curry. With soft melt in your mouth chunks of pumpkin, flavour bursting cauliflower and carrots you can’t beat anything like this!

This is a great affordable dish to make, with most ingredients already in the cupboard at home it is perfect mild curry fit for anyone meat lover or vegetarian. With only a mild spice flavour it is a perfect curry for kids or people who don’t like as much heat.

Seasonal Vegetable Curry
with
 Cumin & Black Sesame steamed Rice

Ingredients:

2 onions, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp. canola oil
4 1/2 tbsp. red curry paste
1 tsp. mild curry powder
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 head cauliflower, large florets
1/2 small pumpkin, large dice
3 carrots, large chunky slice
1 ltr. vegetable stock
1 can coconut cream
2 tsp. fish sauce
3 tbsp. corn flour = 3 tbsp. water
salt and pepper

2 tbsp. fresh coriander, ripped
150 gm plain unsweetened yoghurt

Cumin and Black Sesame Rice
2 tsp. black sesame seeds
2 tsp. cumin seeds, toasted
steamed rice

Method:

1. In a Large pot, heat oil over a very low heat.
2. Add onions and sweat without colouring for 5 minutes, add garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.
3. Add curry paste, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, curry powder to the onions. Cook for 5 minutes stirring well, the mix with become very aromatic.
4. Add prepared vegetables and stir coating the vegetables in the curry paste.
5. Add stock and coconut cream stir well and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. After 30 minutes add fish sauce  and check the seasoning adjust it to suit.
7. Make a slurry of corn flour and water, add this to your slow simmering vegetables. Stir in gently.
8. Simmer for another 30 minutes, only stir occasionally you don’t want to break up the vegetables too much, while this is cooking it would be a good time to steam your rice.
9. Pour curry into serving bowl, top with fresh coriander and dollops of yoghurt. Sprinkle steamed rice with the toasted cumin seeds and black sesame seeds.
10. Serve, enjoy how it is or serve with nanas, or hot flat bread.

Serves: 6-7 people, perfect when frozen and re-heated for lunch or a fast dinner.

This is a great curry to have even though it doesn’t contain any meat it is defiantly a stomach fuller, hearty chunks of naturally sweet pumpkin and carrot with flavour packed cauliflower. This curry was sure a hit for lunch today and possibly dinner tonight also, there was a lot left over.