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.

Red and green ratatouille

The third day of absolutely freezing cold wet windy Wellington weather. Fortunately there's enough food in the house not to have to brave the supermarket. I keep putting off just dashing into the garden for a handful of herbs. Time for something warm and comforting, but I don't feel like making another casserole, and we need to eat more veges. Ratatouille works very well.
           It's a bit late in the year to be making it, but thanks to the fine autumn, last week there were still plenty of red peppers/capsicums, aubergine/eggplant and courgettes/zucchini around. (Interesting how all these relatively recent additions to our vege supply have at least two and often three or more names - French, Italian, English, sometimes American.) I use tinned tomatoes - even in high summer, unless you live somewhere warm and grow your own, we just don't get sufficiently ripe, red, luscious tomatoes. But it works best with plain crushed tomatoes, not flavoured ones.
           I can and still sometimes do make the proper version, using lots and lots of olive oil. But I've also evolved a lighter one that fulfils what Julia Child says is the cardinal principle for this dish: cooking each vegetable separately first, then combining them briefly, to keep the true flavours. The one I made left out the eggplant. Harvey doesn't like it, and while I do, I prefer it cooked by itself in something like eggplant parmigiano. Besides, the colour does look very pretty without it.
           You can make any quantity you like - all that matters is keeping a roughly even balance of veges. For my birthday, two very large brown onions, three large red peppers, three tins of tomatoes and about ten small courgettes, plus garlic and oil, made more than enough to feed 14 people as a side dish. The big white Spanish onions are by far the best to use, but even Moore Wilson doesn't seem to have them any more. If anyone knows how I can get them in Wellington, please let me know.

Revised Ratatouille
Large brown onions - or red ones if you prefer, but peel off the tough outer skins
Extra virgin olive oil
Well-ripened sweet peppers - I like red but you can use orange, yellow, or all three
Small/medium courgettes
New Zealand garlic
Extra virgin olive oil - not Spanish
Black pepper and salt
Sugar (optional)
Flat-leafed parsley

Cut the ends off the courgettes and slice them lengthwise in long even strips, 4-6 strips per courgette (depending how thick they are). Put them in a large bowl, sprinkle them with salt and set aside while you prepare and cook the other veges. (If you want to include eggplant, treat it the same way.) Remove the tops, white bits and seeds from the peppers and slice them in long even strips no more than a centimetre wide. Finely chop the garlic - 2 or more cloves.

Hold a mouthful of water in your mouth while you deal with the onions (I got this tip out of a recipe in the paper one day, and it seems to cut down or even eliminate the tears). Peel, slice off the bottom and the top, and take a downward slice off each side (save these solid bits for soup or something). Slice thinly down through the onion from top to bottom, not across it - the slices will cook better. (I push mine down, side-first, through the slicer blade on the processor.)

Put the onions and garlic and a good gloop of oil (depending on how much onion you have) into a wide shallow ceramic or glass dish and cover for the microwave (I use a rubber and plastic lid, it saves having to use plastic clingwrap). Cook for a few minutes until just tender (I use the "fresh veges" setting). Remove to another bowl and set aside.

Use the same dish to cook the peppers until they're softened but not limp, with another gloop of oil, and set aside. Drain and rinse the courgettes, and cook the same way - no need to add more oil to them, the drops of rinsing water are enough. Be careful to just cook them, they shouldn't be completely limp. You can make it all in advance to this point.

Gently heat a large wide frypan - non-stick is good - with another tablespoon of oil, and put in each vege in alternate layers, sprinkling a little chopped parsley over each layer. Add enough tinned, crushed tomatoes to provide moisture and a good balance of flavours. Heat gently through, and add freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste. A very small teaspoon of sugar can be a good addition at this point (especially if the peppers were not deeply coloured and ripe).

This is good by itself with crusty bread, or to go with roast chicken, beef or lamb. It can be served either hot, warm or cold. You can add pieces of fresh lean chicken to any leftovers to make a quick chicken stew, or use it as a pasta sauce.