veggie curry, tarka dhal and brown rice

You can make this with all sorts of veg, and all sorts of spice mixes.  It takes about 45 minutes, start to finish, but you can leave it in the oven for ages if you're busy - just make sure it's covered.

Brown rice

Bring to boil in a cast iron, the water about an inch above the rice.  When it reaches the boil, put the lid on and stick it in a medium oven.  Forget about it until you are ready to eat.  It'll be done.

Veggie curry

I used:-

olive oil
1 onion
garlic
biryani spice mix
3 carrots
some mushrooms
large turnip
tin of tomatoes

1.  Soften chopped onion in olive oil until a bit soft.
2.  Prepare other veg and chuck it all in.
3. Simmer, taste, add more water if you need it.

Tarka dhal

Red lentils
water
olive oil
spices for frying - eg. fennel, cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, garam masala, curry leaves

1.  Boil lentils until gloopy, add more water when you need to.
2.  Two minutes before serving, fry spices in oil, they're ready when they start releasing their aroma.
3.  Chuck onto lentils and savour the sizzling.

Scoff - in this case with a blob of natural yogurt.  Miss the yogurt out, and you have a vegan, gluten free dinner.  Kerching.

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

Veggie curry, tarka dhal and brown rice

My Mum is here for a visit.  She very generously took me out for Tapas last night.  So the veggies were stocking up in the fridge, so I thought I'd rustle us up a veggie curry.  Halfway through making the curry I thought ... d'ya know I quite fancy some dhal.. so I made some of that too.  Dinner for 2 - tick - kitchen fairies lunches for 6 - tick.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 leek
1 red pepper
Mushrooms
1 cauliflower
6 medium potatoes, diced
curry spices (I used a ready mixed masala mix, could have been paste etc etc)
garlic - about 3 cloves, crushed
water/ stock
1 tin tomatoes
Big handful of spinach

Brown rice

red lentils
water
3 tbsp oil (neutral flavoured, I used mild olive oil)
1 tbsp urad dhal
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 clove garlic (crushed)
1 tsp fennel seeds (and/or cumin seeds)
1 tsp garam masala
2 (dried) red chilies

1.  Sautee leek in olive oil - when a little softenned add other vegetables, except spinach.
2.  Add garlic and spices, stir.  Add water/stock and tin of tomatoes ... simmer until veg are soft enough, sauce will have thickenned a bit.
3.  Boil lentils in water (about 20 minutes) for dhal.
4.  Cook rice (follow packet instructions)
5.  Heat 3 tbsp oil (neutral) and when hot add urad dhal, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, chilies, garlic and whatever other spices you want to add.  Heat for a couple of minutes, until the seeds start to pop.  Chuck into the cooked lentils.

Scoff.  Say yum.  Think - this is lots of my 5 a day, it must be good for me - scoff seconds :).

Rice and dhal

I was recently told that dhal means something along the lines of ... spices put in at the end... the wording which was used - and I can't even remember how I found it out - was more glamorous.  Up until this point I thought dhal was generic for lentils.  I have tried this interpretation a few times now - and I think is is the secret!  I have made lentil based curries (or as I thought dhal... with lentils, veg and spices cooked together) for years - and though they are OK - they have never been as delish as some of the dhal I had whilst living near Southall, London - or from the "curry mile" in Rusholme, Manchester.  This dhal is basically boiled lentils, with a roasted spice hot sizzly oil chucked in right at the end - it's fresh and spiky - and makes a huge difference.

Rice - basmati
Lentils - yellow (other types are fine too)
Onion

1 tsp Fennel seeds
1 hottish chili
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 curry leaf
salt
Garam masala mix
Olive oil

Natural yogurt


1.  Rinse lentils and put on to simmer in plenty of water, for about 30 minutes (depends on lentils - you want to cook them until soft).  I also chucked in about a quarter of the finely chopped onion, just for the savouriness, but you don't have to.  Don't let the lentils get dry, spoon any scum off the top as you go.
2.  Rinse rice, and cook it as you know how ... I bring it to the boil on the hob, water 1 inch above the rice - lid on and in low oven until all the water is soaked in... at least 20 minutes, but can sit there happily for ages.
3.  When the lentils are nearly ready - roast whole spices and the chili in a dry frying pan.  As soon as the aroma ramps up chuck in olive oil, finely chopped onion, then finely chopped garlic and any powdered spices, add salt now.  Heat through for a few minutes.  Chuck sizzling oil/spice mixture into cooked lentils - stir in... this is the revelation!  It makes an enormous difference.

Ideally you would serve as part of a gorgeous mixture of wet and dry dishes ... but I was on my own, so a splodge of yogurt and this was it - but it was DELISH!