Curry Night

Years of poverty have left their mark in that I’ve never really thought about what I want to eat, rather what’s available/filling. Today I decided that I wanted a curry and that I’d cook from scratch. Buying the spices was an enjoyable experience in itself; it felt good to have a list of ingredients and sense of a project. Spices in the local shops cost a fraction of those in supermarkets although some items are more difficult to find than others as the local shops tend to cater to the needs of the large local Afro Caribbean community.

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2 tablespoons ghee
2 onions, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons fresh ginger
root, finely chopped
6 whole cloves
2 (2 inch) sticks cinnamon, crushed 1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 (15 ounce) cans chickpeas
1 cup chopped fresh coriander


Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, and
fry onions until tender.
Stir in garlic, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cumin,
coriander, salt, cayenne, and turmeric. Cook for 1 minute over
medium heat, stirring constantly. Mix in chickpeas and
their liquid. Continue to cook and stir until all
ingredients are well blended and heated through. Remove from heat.
Stir in coriander just before serving, reserve 1
tablespoon for garnish


Pilau Rice
450g/1lb basmati rice
1 medium onion, finely chopped
Ghee
4 cardamom pods
8 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
pinch saffron threads
2 bay leaves
600ml/1 pint hot chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
salt


To make sure you get lovely fluffy rice, wash it in several changes of cold water, then leave to soak for about 30 minutes in fresh cold water. If you don't have time for this, place in a sieve and wash under the cold tap for a minute or so.
Cook the onion in the ghee for around 5 minutes until softened. Add the spices, saffron and bay leaves and cook for a couple more minutes. The spices will give a wonderful fragrant flavour to the rice. Add the rice and stir until the grains are coated in the ghee before stirring in the stock or water and salt. Bring to the boil and then cover with a tight-fitting lid. Turn the heat down low and leave to cook for 10 minutes before turning off the heat. Don't remove the lid; just leave the rice to continue cooking in the pan for about 5 minutes until you're ready to serve.