Gardeningchef Cooks a Vegetable Tikka Masala

Hello Steemers!

It has been a chilly Sunday here in the hills so to warm us up a bit I decided to make a curry. Curry is my absolute favourite dish to make and eat, there are so many variations you could never get bored. In the past I have used store bought curry pastes and whipped up a lovely meal, but once I started making my own I never went back. Today I made enough paste for a big batch of curry which will last a couple of days, but if you doubled or tripled the ingredients you could pop the remaining paste in a jar in the fridge and it will keep for up to a month. Great for a busy week when you want something delicious ready in half an hour! The vegetables used could be varied to suit your taste, I used what I had to hand.

The curry paste I have made is inspired by a Jamie Oliver recipe, which I have tweaked slightly to my own preference. (You can find his recipe in his book 'Jamie's Ministry of Food')

TIKKA MASALA CURRY PASTE - INGREDIENTS

2-3 cloves garlic (depending on how big they are)
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger
½ a teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon of smoked paprika
2 teaspoons of garam masala
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons of oil, preferably groundnut
2 tablespoons of tomato puree
2 fresh red chillies (I used 4 little Twilight chillies as it's what I have growing right now and they're pretty spicy!)
1 small bunch of fresh coriander
1 tablespoon of desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons of ground almonds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground up
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted and ground up

In order for the paste to blend up as evenly and smoothly as possible I start by placing the fresh ingredients first in the food processor bowl, then the dry on top.

Once those are nicely blitzed together I add the oil and the tomato puree and then blitz again to finish. I find that doing it this way results in the smoothest blended paste.

With the paste completed it was time to bring the curry together. I finely sliced 1 large onion and started cooking that in a wok on a medium/low heat. When softened and translucent I added 4 minced garlic cloves and a thumb sized piece of root ginger, finely grated. Once those became fragrant I added diced carrot and sweet potato first to make sure they were well cooked through. Once the harder vegetables were slightly caramelised I added the curry paste to get all the flavours melding together.

When those were half cooked through I added broccoli, peas, diced red pepper and some diced fresh tomato. After that cooked for a couple of minutes I added a jar of chickpeas, a tin of diced tomatoes and a can of coconut milk. Seasoned to taste, I brought it up to the boil and then simmered on a low heat for around 20 minutes, checking the veg as I went until it was all perfectly cooked.

I boiled some basmati rice and once that was ready supper was served! The two people I cooked for were very happy with their meal, success all round!

Have a great rest of the weekend!