Recipe - Low carb creamy curry

I set out my stall for this blog way back in my very first post (here) . I said that I'd be celebrating the good things in life (for me) and covering subjects such as 'folk customs and festivals,  wildlife, the plants we can forage, the landscape, our wonderful traditions. I might even share a few recipes and menus and talk about art too.' I've been remiss about the food side of things so far - although I did explain my new relationship with meat here - but I'm starting to fix that from today. 

I quite often post images of the food I cook on Facebook. What I hope to show by posting images of these images is that you can lose weight, or control it, without resorting to 'living on bird food and rice crackers' as I once heard a friend refer to their diet. There are lots of people out there who struggle with their weight - I was one of them. But then I used the opportunity of lockdown to figure out what I was doing wrong and I developed a new cooking and eating regime that allowed me to lose four stones without compromising on flavour and deliciousness. 

And so, following a number of requests, I've decided to start posting a few recipes on this blog. 

I'll start with a basic creamy curry -  a bit like a korma or a pasanda. You can make it with chicken or lamb or a good meaty fish. Or, if you're a vegetarian, or you occasionally fancy an alternative to meat, you can make it with potatoes, mushrooms, eggs, tofu, Quorn, or (a favourite of mine) butternut squash and cashews. You could even use leftover veggies from the Sunday roast. And you can make it as hot or as mild as you like.It's a very flexible recipe.

The other benefits of this curry are that it's fairly low in bad carbs - the things that put the weight on - and it takes less time to cook than for an average takeaway delivery to arrive. 

Chicken curry and cauliflower rice, served with sliced red chili and flaked almonds

Ingredients - serves two  

• Coconut oil (or use rapeseed/sunflower if you want to cut down on saturated fats)
• Two onions 
• A clove of garlic 
• Fresh ginger
• Curry powder (heat of your choice) 
• Chili powder or fresh chilies (optional)
• Spice paste (I use a tikka masala paste) 
• Tomato puree 
• Mango chutney 
• Fresh coriander (optional) 
• Ground almonds (optional) 
• Protein or veg of your choice
• Full fat Greek yoghurt (or plant-based alternative)
  
  

A spicy butternut and cashew curry with mango chutney and a cooling yoghurt and cucumber raita

Method 

Peel and chop the onions and fry in the oil until they start to soften. Add the garlic and fresh ginger to taste -  or you can leave them out if you don't like them. I usually grate both with a fine grater but any method will do. Remember - the ginger will add heat.

Sprinkle in a tablespoon of curry powder (heat of your choice). You can also add a bit of chili powder or slices of fresh chili pepper if you like your curries hotter.

Now add a heaped teaspoon each of tomato puree and mango chutney and stir it all in. Add a splash of water to loosen it all up and to help create the sauce. 

Add a tablespoon of curry spice paste. You can, of course, make your own spice paste (there's a good recipe here that I've used several times). If you're vegan and using a shop-bought paste, make sure it's  ghee free.

Now add your fresh (or frozen) coriander so that it wilts down and cooks through. Use the stalks as well as the leaves - it's all flavour - because we are going to blend this sauce shortly. But, if you don't have a blender, chop the coriander before adding and take out the tougher stalks. Whatever you do, make sure you wash it first as coriander often contains some grit from the sandy soil it's grown in commercially. 

Or, of course, you can leave it out if you don't like it - coriander contains aldehydes that some people find 'soapy'. 

Homemade curry spice paste

Transfer the contents of the pan to a jug and blitz with a hand blender. But if you don't have a blender - don't worry. Your curry will have a slightly coarser texture but it'll still taste good! 

Meanwhile, add your protein or veg to the pan you made the sauce in - there will be enough residual oil in there to cook with. Pre-cook harder veggies  like potato, cauliflower or butternut squash before adding to the pan. Softer veg like courgettes or aubergine will cook okay in the sauce. 

Now pour your sauce back into the pan and - if you want to - sprinkle in a tablespoon of ground almonds and stir it in. Once the protein/veg is sufficiently cooked in the sauce - if you're using fish add it right at the very end as it cooks in minutes - take the pan off the heat and stir in two heaped tablespoons of yoghurt. Stir until fully incorporated into a rich creamy sauce. 

Alternatively, you can keep the yoghurt back and use it to make a raita instead - simply add some finely cubed chunks of fresh cucumber or some ribbons of fresh mint. Or both.

Serve your curry with basmati rice. Or make cauliflower rice. 

Get a good, fresh cauliflower with tight firm curds (about half a large one will make enough for two people) and grate it. Then put it into a microwave proof dish and cook on full power for 4 minutes - it steams in its own moisture. If you want, add a tablespoon of desiccated coconut before steaming for extra flavour. In terms of taste and mouth-feel it's very like rice but much lower in carbs.

So there you go - a 20 minute curry that's extremely adaptable and low in the stuff that piles the weight on. And it's delicious. 

Enjoy!