Veggie curry, dhal and brown rice

A bit of a day at work.... a bit of a day with family news.  Apparently, when I got home, I was extremely hyper, so this might explain why, instead of making something quick I choose to make something easy - but involving quite a lot of chopping and faffing.  There are many ingredients in this, but it really is very simple (but it does take nearly an hour to make...) .

There are 3 main parts - 1 x veggie curry, 1 x tarka dhal and some rice - yogurt is also very integral - but too easy to be called a recipe/cooking!

Veggie curry:

2 tbsp peanut (or other mild) oil
1 onion, chopped
Garlic (2 cloves, crushed or 1 tbsp paste from a jar)
1 aubergine, diced
1 courgette, diced
spice mix (to taste, I used about 1 and a half tbsp of quite spicy kebab mix)
 1/2 butternut squash, peeled and diced
1 kholrabi, peeled and diced
1/2 (big) patty pan squash, diced
8 new potatoes
1 tin chopped tomatoes
salt and pepper
water
(1 tsp sugar)

Rice:-

Brown rice
Water
Salt

Dhal:-

Lentils, red in this case...

Tarka:-

Peanut oil - 1 tbsp
Green chili - 1 - stab it to let the flavour out
fennel seeds - 1 tsp
cumin seeds - 1 tsp
black mustard seeds - 1 tsp
curry leaves (8 ish)
fenugreek leaves (8 ish)

Here I must point out that the veg could have been all sorts of combinations - I had this stuff in the fridge, and I thought it would go together - it did.

Veggie :-

1.  Sautee onion until a bit soft in the oil.
2.  Chuck other veg in as you chop it, and keep stirring it around.  Add water when it looks a bit dry.
3.  Add spice mix - a bit at a time, taste when the ingredients have had a chance to mesh together.
4.  Throw in tin of tomatoes, at least half a tin of water and allow to simmer as everything else cooks.
5.  Taste again - adjust seasoning - add sugar if chili is too hot.
6.  Simmer until veg is nice and tender.

Rice:-

1.  Put rice in heavy bottomed saucepan with close fitting lid.  Add cold water to about 2.5cms above surface of rice
2.  Bring to the boil.  Simmer for 15 (ish) minutes for brown rice.  Turn off heat, plonk on lid and leave for 10 minutes to steam.

Dhal:-

1.  Put lentils in pan, add about twice the volume of water - bring to the boil - simmer until soft (about 20 minutes) - skim the top if and when necessary, add water if not soft.
2.  When cooked, turn off heat and let it cool and thicken a little.  Add tarka 2 minutes before serving.

Tarka:-

1.  Heat oil in frying pan - to a medium heat.  Chuck in a seed or two, listen for the sizzle - a sizzle is what you want - if they pop straight away it's too hot - take it off the heat for 1 minute, then add the seeds and carry on
2.  Add whole spices (fennel seeds etc....), keep them moving.... add the leaves.
3. Chuck into dhal, stir - scoff

Both of us cleared our plates, and agreed that the yogurt really helped bring it together.  All elements nice - as a combination - yum