Favoring Curry

Instructions

1. 1

   (Curries are so versatile that it’s difficult to know what to exclude. This is a vegetarian example.) Lightly fry the chopped or crushed garlic, chopped onion and finely chopped ginger in the oil until softened. Add the chopped pepper, cauliflower, tomatoes, spices, salt, pepper and curry powder. In a separate saucepan, heat a pint of water with salt, pour in the rice and cook in accordance with the instructions. Add a touch of turmeric to the rice for an interesting color. Add the chopped mushrooms to the vegetables and keep heating. When the rice is just soft, drain and serve with the curry. A simple meat curry can be based on minced beef. This should be gently fried with onions and garlic until browned before adding the vegetables. Another version that goes down well is prawns,which can take a lot of ginger for extra sophistication. The prawns should be added late, say 5 minutes before you finish cooking. Chicken is another favorite but can be messy unless you buy something like ready prepared breast. Beef, lamb and pork can all be bought ready diced but is still much more of a hassle. If the meat is of cheap quality, it can take a lot of cooking. Strictly, these meats should be sitting in the curry flavors for a long time before the process begins in earnest and there is a whole range of powders and pastes that can be used for the purpose. To get a smoother, more liquid finish, try half a tin of mushroom soup mixed with the spices before adding it to the curry. You may need to use real tomatoes rather than tinned to avoid the whole thing drowning. Other soups work subject to your experience and courage but too much and you might find the mixture wandering all over the table. One outrageous but simple example might be Scotch Broth and Potato Curry. Any vegetable will work in a curry. Try carrots, beans, courgettes and potatoes. Some of the hard vegetables, like carrots and potatoes, may need to be chopped and boiled first to make sure they soften up in good time. If you need greater volume, boil some lentils for a few minutes and add these. Try any spice and curry powder or paste that you find. Given the right measures, I haven’t found one I dislike yet. Author’s Bio: Michael Chapman lives in England. He started out in the public services, tried a couple of spells in the private sector and finally left both to live life on his own terms. Along the way he discovered travel, photography, writing and how to be single for the second time. This publication, The Anti-Recipe Book (ISBN: 90-76953-44-9) (www.gopherpublishers.com), describes some things he learnt when single again and how he managed romantic candle lit dinners, did it badly but got away with it. When he is not writing, he dabbles in public sector management consultancy, keeping fit, and teaching English as a foreign language.