Monday's Massaman Curry

Let me set the scene for you... It's raining (typical), it's been a long day at work (typical) and you're hungry (also typical!). 

So here's the recipe for your Monday night pick-me up...

... Massaman curry.

Jamie Oliver wrote about this recipe in this week's Sunday Times magazine, and it's a good'un! 

Now this recipe starts off with a competition. Drum roll please...

In the blue corner it's the mean, tough, hard on the outside but soft in the middle, squash! 

And over in the red corner it's YOU!

This is a battle of upper arm strength (of which I have none!), to get into that squash and chop it into four pieces so you can roast it and soften up that delicious golden flesh!

Once you do manage to break into that tough nut (get it?!) pop the pieces into a roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil and season with some salt and pepper before roasting for 1 hour at 180degrees.

Now comes the fun part ... It's a sensory spice explosion and your whole house will be filled with an intense aroma that will get your appetite going even more than it already is!

Start by toasting a quarter teaspoon each of cloves, fennel seats, cardamom seeds, peppercorns and chilli flakes in a dry pan for a few minutes. 

Then, if you have a mortar and pestle, get grinding! (Or cheat like me and use your coffee grinder!) But add a quarter teaspoon of ground turmeric and ground cinnamon now too.

Whilst your spices are grinding away, chop a quarter red onion, a slice of ginger, 1 large clove of garlic and a quarter stick of lemongrass. Gently soften these in the dry pan for a few minutes too.

Then combine your ground spices, softened onion mix with a small handful of fresh coriander and the zest of half a lime. And blend away with a few glugs of veggie oil. The fragrance of this is going to blow you away!

Once you have your spicy paste - this is going to form the base of the curry - warm it in a large pan (the largest you have!) and add to it half a chopped large white onion and about 250g of halved new potatoes. This would be the point that you would add any meat or fish to it if you wanted.

Pour in 1, 400ml can of light coconut milk, and 3/4 of a can of water. Then add 2tbsp of tamarind paste, 2tbsp of soy sauce and 1tbsp of Palm sugar (you can use brown sugar if that's easier). 

Bring it to the boil and allow to simmer for about 30mins to let the potatoes cook through.

Then a couple of minutes before you're ready to serve add the silken tofu cut into 2cm cubes and about 200g of sugarsnap peas (basically one packet). Only cook these for a few minutes so they keep their snap!

Finally add the juice of half a lime and taste - season to your liking!

And then serve up your hearty, spicy, piping hot curry along with fluffy white rice, and wedges of squash. 

Sprinkle over some fresh coriander and then simply sit back, relax and tuck in. 

Initially I did think this was all a bit cumbersome, especially all that toasting and then grinding and then blending of the spices (and on a Monday night!). BUT ... it was so delicious ... Jamie definitely proved yet again he knows what he's doing (don't know why I ever doubted that man!).

I imagine that you can choose whatever vegetables you want to add to your curry, all that's important for this is that spicy paste. Let me know what variations you enjoy!

Happy cooking!