Curries come from countries with long traditions of vegetarian cooking and they are a great way to make flavour-packed vegetarian meals where the absence of meat is irrelevant, writes Ray McVinnie
Curries come from hot countries, and sometimes (but not always) they are spiced with chilli and make you sweat and thus cool down. Europeans perhaps see them as a type of stew and have embraced them as a year-round dish, great in the summer but also a warming dish in winter.
I suppose this makes sense, because curries are eaten even in the cooler mountain areas of places like India. I can remember eating delicious curries years ago in the chill air of Kashmir.
The word "curry'' was adopted by the British in India. It comes from the Tamil word "kari'' and just means a spiced sauce, according to my Oxford Companion to Food. It is a generic term used by Europeans for the spiced dishes from India and Southeast Asia.
They can be quite liquid or quite dry, they can be spicy hot or fragrant and mild and they use widely varied ingredients.
The people of the countries these dishes come from usually have individual names for their diverse dishes: we call them curries.
Sometimes such dishes will use a specific spice blend which is referred to as "curry powder'' (you see this often in Malaysian and Sri Lankan recipes) but what such dishes never use is the so-called "curry'' powder developed by the British and still available here (think institutional curried sausages, horrible!).
It usually tastes the same whatever the brand and often has too much fenugreek, cumin and turmeric in it.
Using it to make a curry would be like using something called "Italian powder'' every time you wanted to make an Italian dish. Avoid it.
Using spices to make a curry is easy and often you will only need a few spices. (One of my go-to curry recipes is a great Madhur Jaffrey recipe for a beetroot and tomato curry that only has cumin and a little chilli in it.)
Buy spices in small quantities from Asian shops that have a high turnover because spices have the most flavour when they are as fresh as possible.
The following are a few easy vegetarian curries that rely on the initial frying of a few spices, whether ground to a paste or whole, and don't require you to use stock (Indians don't use it).
Gingery mixed vegetable and tomato curry with rice
Carnivores, try this with roast chicken or steak.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
250g carrots, sliced 2cm thick
700g purple-skinned kumara, peeled, cut into 4cm chunks
900g pumpkin, peeled, deseeded, cut into 4cm chunks
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 Tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 cinnamon stick
2 Tbsp cumin seeds
¼ tsp chilli flakes
½ tsp ground turmeric
400g can chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
100g baby spinach leaves, placed in a heatproof bowl, covered with boiling water so they wilt, cooled under cold water and squeezed dry
1 tsp garam masala
Steamed rice for serving
Method
1 Put the carrots, kumara and pumpkin into a steamer or saucepan and steam or boil until everything is very tender. Remove from the heat, drain well.
2 Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok and add the onions, garlic, ginger, cinnamon stick, cumin seeds and chilli flakes. Mix well and fry gently, without browning, for 10 minutes or until the onion is soft.
3 Add the turmeric, tomatoes, 1/2 cup water and the sugar. Mix well and bring to the boil. Simmer 10 minutes.
4 Add the vegetables, mix well and simmer 10 minutes. Add spinach (tease out the squeezed leaves), taste and season with salt. Serve sprinkled with garam masala on steamed rice.
Dry potato and pea curry with warm flatbread, yoghurt and date chutney
Carnivores, this goes well with barbecued lamb or chicken or fried fish.
Serves 4-6
Date chutney
This is based on a recipe from Lord Krishnas Cuisine. The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi.
Start this the day before as the dates will almost melt from soaking overnight in the juices. If pressed for time soak for 1 hour, the chutney will be chunkier but taste good.
Ingredients
200g dried dates, sliced 1cm
Juice of 1 large orange and 1 large lemon
1 tsp toasted cumin seeds
¼ tsp toasted fennel seeds
Large pinch freshly grated nutmeg
Large pinch chilli flakes
Small handful coriander, chopped
Method
Put the dates and juices into a bowl, mix well and soak overnight or minimum 1 hour. Add the remaining ingredients, taste, season with a little salt. Reserve.
Curry
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 Tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 Tbsp toasted cumin seeds
1 green chilli (or more to taste if desired), sliced thinly
1 tsp black mustard seeds
Large handful curry leaves
900g waxy potatoes, peeled, diced 3cm
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 ½ cups frozen peas, thawed
A handful each mint and coriander leaves, coarsely chopped
8 large Lebanese flatbread, (I like the Jabal brand) warmed when needed in the microwave or a hot oven
300g plain unsweetened yoghurt
Method
1 Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok over moderate heat and add the ginger, cumin seeds, chilli, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Fry for 2 minutes without browning.
2 Add the potatoes, the turmeric, 1 teaspoon of salt and enough water to just cover the potatoes. Mix well, bring to the boil and boil gently for 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and the water almost evaporated.
3 Add the peas, mint and coriander, mix well, simmer 2-3 minutes until the mixture is hot and thick.
4 Serve wrapped in warm flatbread with a dollop of yoghurt and some chutney.
Find more of Ray's recipes on bite.co.nz
