Chickpea Fruity Curry

This one is adapted from a Jack Monroe recipe. If you've been in a coma for the last three years and have somehow stumbled on my blog without ever seeing cooking on a bootstrap, you should definitely have a look through Jack's recipes, they are delicious and cheap and the newer ones are all vegetarian/ vegan friendly.

Ingredients 

1 tin chickpeas

1 tin peaches

1 tin chopped tomatoes 

1 handful frozen diced onions

2 teaspoons garlic paste (or 2 cloves of garlic) 

Medium Curry Powder or Garam Masala - just keep adding it until the spirit of an ancient and benevolent chef tells you it's enough. Not all spice blends are creates equal. 

Method

1. Heat the onions in a frying pan over a low heat. When they look just about defrosted, add the garlic paste and some of your chosen spice blend, keep it on a low heat, you don't want the onions to brown. 

2. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and pop them in boiling water to soften them a little. 

3. Drain the peaches, keeping the juice for the sauce later. Chop them into chunks, the size is up to you, I went for about 1 inch chunks. 

4. Add the peaches, peach juice, chickpeas and chopped tomatoes to the spiced onion mix. At this point I added about a teaspoon of curry powder because I tasted it and the flavours weren't quite where I wanted them to be, I recommend tasting at this point, but remember that the flavours are going to develop and intensify as you simmer it for at least half an hour and the liquid reduces. I added a cup of water half way through as the sauce was a little too thick, and then I let it thicken again.

I served this with turmeric rice with raisins I'd soaked in apple juice overnight, it made for a perfect sweet and savory, fruity and spicy meal that I'm sure I'm going to make again and again.. Maybe with spinach next time. 

Coconut Rice

All of my rice recipes feel like cheating, they all have the exact same idea and it's just a case of finding the most delicious liquid that rice will absorb.

The basic premise is that I use 1 measure of any white rice and 2 measures of liquid. That measure could be a cup, it could be the tin that the liquid came in, it could be weighed (approx 90g per person). It could be any white rice - basmati, long grain and jasmine are the easiest and cheapest to find in UK supermarkets so I tend to start with those.

The other premise is that I'm bored of boring rice and I wanted to find different ways to make it more exciting. Why use water when you can use stock? Why use stock when you have coconut milk, etc. 

Coconut Rice is one of my staples, the flavour matches beautifully with mango, lime, chilli, lemon, Thai flavours, satay, sweet potato, squash, peppers, greens and of course other coconut based meals like mild curries. 

Coconut Rice

Ingredients 

1 tin Full fat coconut milk

1 tin White rice

1 pinch salt 

Method

1. Pour a tin of coconut milk into a saucepan. 

2. If you want fluffy rice, measure out the rice in the tin from the coconut milk pour it into a sieve and wash it until the water runs clear. If you like sticky rice you can skip this step. 

3. Add the rice to the saucepan with a tin of cold water and a pinch of salt. 

4. Simmer the rice over a medium heat for approximately 10 minutes, stirring occasionally as the rice absorbs the liquid. The cooking time will vary slightly depending on the type of rice you use so check the packet and taste it as you go along, if it's still a little too firm you can add a bit more water towards the end. 

5. Remove the rice from the heat and cover it with a lid or plate or foil for about 5-10 minutes, this lets the rice steam in any leftover liquid and gives you time to prep whatever you're serving with the rice.