I cooked a curry tonight using my patented method 'What have I got? Chuck it in the wok!' I started by heating olive oil and sunflower oil, then added coriander seeds, cumin seeds and black mustard seeds. Once they'd sizzled satisfactorily (without burning) I added a large chopped red onion, followed by chopped garlic then chopped red and yellow peppers. Next to go in was a splash of chilli sauce, some cinnamon stick and some cardamon pods. Some people take the seeds out but I like the whole thing. Please, as with all my recipes, do what works best for you. (This is the second recipe I've posted!) I also added some turmeric (the poor vegan's saffron) and a tiny bit of asafoetida. It's a stinky spice but it's good if used in moderation. I pronounce it using the same rhythm as 'hasta manana' like the Abba song and can sometimes be heard in the kitchen singing "Asafoetida till we meet again. Don't know where..."
I let the veggies and spices chat amongst themselves while I cut half a pack of prepared fresh cauliflower, broccoli and carrot into smaller pieces so that they would cook more quickly. They went in the wok and I gave everything a good stir.
Now for the roux. (I know French and I'm not afraid to use it!) A roux is a mix of flour and oil used to make a sauce. While I was looking for a new bag of mixed grain flour I found a bag of gram (chickpea) flour that I'd forgotten about. I added a bit more oil and about a tablespoon of the flour, mixed them in and stirred while they cooked. I added more flour and some water and kept adding until the sauce was the consistency I wanted.
I set a good handful of cashews to brown in the oven while I opened a tin of chickpeas. I rinsed the chickpeas added them to the wok, stirred them in and scraped the roux from the bottom of the pan. I added cranberries and golden raisins, caught the cashews in time and added them. More stirring.
I zapped a pouch of brown basmati in the microwave and served.
I'm new to blogging recipes but this turned out well, I remembered to take photos and I've been asked to start a blog so I'm posting this one. I sometimes improvise and on this occasion it turned out so well my non-vegan husband wanted more! I chopped a large red onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, a red pepper and an orange pepper and cooked them in olive oil and sunflower oil. I added about a teaspoon of cumin seeds, a similar amount of coriander seeds, smoked sea salt and a dash of sweet chilli sauce. I'd have made it more spicy if it had just been for me. I then added some frozen mixed veg (peas, green beans, carrot and sweet corn) and a tin of chopped tomatoes. I then added a generous amount of dried mixed herbs. The final ingredient was a sachet of Merchant Gourmet's Grains, Red Rice & Quinoa Mix which consists of wheatberries, Camargue Red Rice, Green Wheat Freekeh, Black Barley and Quinoa. It's ready cooked so I just got my husband to heat it through in the microwave before I stirred it in. I checked the seasoning and added some more smoked sea salt, some agave syrup and some maple syrup.
The second photo shows it served with some small potatoes.There was plenty for my husband and I with enough left over to serve with jacket potatoes tomorrow.
