No-waste curry: Using up veges and doing good

A while ago I visited Kaibosh, the wonderful Wellington food rescue group. It collects various kinds of leftover food and redistributes it to organisations who can use it. Currently they have 24 donors, from Countdown to People's Coffee, and the food goes out to 27 groups, from Wellington Women's Refuge to Lower Hutt Food Bank.
          They're now inviting people to "Make a Meal in May to share with the people you care about, and raise funds for Kaibosh at the same time". Find out how here.
           The main kind of food they rescue (over 60% of their collection) is fruit and vegetables. These also feature strongly on a really useful site, Love Food Hate Waste, dedicated to helping us all cut down on food waste at home.
            So this week I thought I'd update a remarkably simple, healthy recipe that I posted back in 2012, because it's a terrific way to use up as many veges as possible in a very tasty way - and it would make a great dish to serve at a May Meal for Kaibosh.

Vegetable Curry
(adapted from Doris Ady's recipe in The Sultan's Kitchen - for the full story, go here.)

Basic vegebtables:

1 large firm fresh potato (any kind)

1 large brown onion

1 large red, yellow or green pepper

To these you can add pieces of kumara, pumpkin, parsnip, carrot, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, as well as peas and sweetcorn kernels - whatever you have on hand and want to use up.  If you increase the quantity of veges, increase the spices proportionately.

Peel the potatoes (and other root vegetables) and cut them into cubes about 1.5cm square. (no need to be exact - it's jsut a matter of keeping them all roughly the same size and making sure the pieces won't take too long to cook.)

Peel and thinly slice the onion.

Deseed and slice the pepper.

Cut veges such as cauli and broccoli into flowerets. (If you're feeling really anti-waste, peel the thick main stalk and cut it into chunks too.) Slice green beans thickly..

Spices and liquid:

1 mild red chili (use a hotter one, if you like it, or dried chili flakes instead)

1 cm length of a thick piece of fresh ginger

1 cinnamon stick

1-2 tsps turmeric

(If you want a stronger curry flavour, you can add 1-2 tsps of a good brand of mild curry powder s well. Chefs would not approve, but too bad.)

1 tsp belacan or blachan (dried shrimp paste)

(You can buy this in Asian food shops. It smells very pungent, so once you've opened it, keep it firmly wrapped up in the fridge. It seems to stay perfectly okay to use for a long time, and gives the curry a totally distinctive flavour - but you don't need much! And it will still taste okay without this - or try a dash of fish sauce instead.)

2 cups of  chicken or vegetable stock (you can use stock cubes, but miso paste plus water is better, or proper stock)

Deseed and finely chop the chili (then wash your hands).

Finely mince together the peeled garlic and ginger (or use a food processor).

Put all the veges and all the spices into a deep saucepan. Add the stock - the liquid should almost cover the veges.

Bring to the boil, cover and simmer until the vegetables (especially the potatoes) are cooked but not disintegrating.

To finish:

1 small tin or half a larger tin of coconut cream

juice of 1 large lemon

salt

finely chopped parsley

Add the coconut cream to dissolve in the curry, and reheat gently.

Add salt and lemon juice to taste. (I like quite a lot of juice. Lime juice is even better.)

Before serving, sprinkle with chopped parsley.

To go with this:

A big bowl of rice (basmati and brown rice are both good), and quartered hard-boiled eggs. If you like them, add some of the side dishes that make curry so good - chutneys, sambals, yoghurt or raita, lime pickle, poppadums or naan bread. 

         This is so easy to make, and with no fat and lots of veges, really healthy too. Like most curries, it's even better the next day. You can also turn any leftovers into a delicious soup.

Some like it hot, I like it medium

When I get tired of the usual hearty, warming winter food, I turn to curry. For 25 years, ever since I came to Wellington to work as an editor at Reed's, I've made the curries I found in a modest but very inviting book they first published in 1968: Curries from the Sultan's Kitchen, by Doris M. Ady. It must have been a success, because it was reprinted four times and then picked up by a US publisher. (You can still find second-hand copies on line, but they're not cheap.)

At first glance, the author's name looks English. In fact, Doris and her husband and children came from Burma to settle in Australia in 1958. Her extremely useful book covers a wide range of South-East Asian curries, from Burma of course, but also from India, Pakistan and what was then Ceylon. I particularly like to make the Ceylonese ones, because my birth mother was born there, and loved curry.
          I don't often make meat curries these days, as I can buy such good ones over the road at Flavours. But vege curries are much easier to make. My all-time favourite is the Ceylonese Potato Curry, because it's so flexible. I've increased the amount of spices and garlic a bit - I think Doris was being careful for Antipodean palates. This amount gives four medium helpings, but you can easily size it up. 

Potato Curry (adapted from Doris Ady)

"At Ceylonese dinners, the main curry is usually accompanied by a vegetable curry. This is a basic recipe which can be varied by the use of different vegetables such as eggplant, all varieties of beans, peas, cauliflower, etc."

1 large firm fresh potato (any kind)

1 large brown onion

1 medium red, yellow or green pepper

1 mild red chili (or a hotter one, if you like it)

1 tsp turmeric

2 cloves garlic

1 cm length of fresh ginger

1 cinnamon stick

1 tsp belacan or blachan (dried shrimp paste)

(You can buy this in Asian food shops. It smells very pungent, so once you've opened it, keep it firmly wrapped up in the fridge. It seems to stay perfectly okay to use for a very long time, and gives curry a totally distinctive flavour - but you don't need much!)

2 chicken or vege stock cubes (or you can use miso), made up with water to 2 cups liquid - or use liquid stock

1 small tin coconut cream

juice of 1 lemon

salt

finely chopped parsley

Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1 cm cubes (approx).

Peel and thinly slice the onion.

Deseed and slice the pepper.

Deseed and finely chop the chili (then wash your hands).

Finely mince together the peeled garlic and ginger (or use a food processor).

Put all the veges and all the spices into a deep saucepan. Add the stock - the liquid should almost cover the veges.

Bring to the boil, cover and simmer until the potatoes are cooked but not disintegrating.

Add the coconut cream to dissolve in the curry and reheat gently.

Add salt and lemon juice to taste. (I like quite a lot of juice - maybe a large lemon's worth. Lime juice is even better.)

To serve, sprinkle with chopped parsley.

If you want to eat this without another curry, serve it with rice, chutney, yoghurt and poppadum or naan bread, and four hard-boiled eggs, shelled and quartered. I didn't get a great photo, but believe me, it's incredibly tasty, so easy to make, and with no fat and lots of veges, really healthy too. Like most curries, it's even better the next day.

Sometimes I make a fresh raita or some other relish to serve on the side. This one is pineapple, celery, red pepper and fresh coriander, mixed with a splash of fish sauce, sugar, salt, and lemon juice.