My once monthly lonely Indian Curry night strikes again with another, even if I do say so myself, fantabulous vegetarian curry. Last month I finally made this wonderful Beetroot Curry, this month I turn to a vegetarian version of this Lamb Rogan Josh from Them Apples.
Rojan Josh is a type of Indian Curry which is cooked in oil with intense heat. Yoghurt is the essential part of a rogan josh and almonds are often added to thicken the gravy. Once again I made this a vegetarian curry, but that was mainly to save time and now I have tried this I’ll have to go back and make the slowly simmered lamb version.
Vegetable Rogan Josh
By Coffee Muffins adapted from this Lamb Rogan Josh .
Total time: 50 minutes
Yield: 2 dinner sized portions (probably with leftovers).
- 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
- 12 peppercorns.
- 6 cardamom pods, whole.
- 1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon of whole coriander seeds
- 2 tablespoon of desiccated coconut
- 3 tablespoons of blanched sliced almonds
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
- 1 teaspoon of turmeric
- 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
- 1 large thinly sliced onion
- 8 spears of asparagus, thinly slice the stalks, but leave the tips whole, optional.
- 2 stalks of celery, very thinly sliced, optional.
- 5 baby new potatoes, very thinly sliced.
- 8 button mushrooms, quartered.
- 1 tin of chopped italian tomatoes.
- 3 tablespoons of natural yoghurt.
Add the peppercorns, cardamom, chilli powder, almonds, coriander and cumin seeds to the pan, keep them moving so they don’t burn. After a couple of minutes add the dessicated coconut (watch this burns easily) and toast until all the spice go a wonderful coffee brown colour. (I didn’t watch the coconut and it went a less wonderful black colour).
Once the spices are toasted remove from heat and leave to cool. Then using a food processor pulse the spices, almonds, garlic and ginger till they are a fine powder, add water until it forms a thick paste.
Pour the paste back into the frying pan, now under a medium heat. Add the onions to the paste and stir to coat evenly.
Once starting to soften add the remaining vegetables (the veggies listed above are just an idea of the sort of things you can use peppers and other root vegetables would work well here too). Mix till they are coated in the spice paste. Cook for 5 minutes under a medium/high heat.
Now turn down the heat to medium and add the chopped tomatoes, the yoghurt and turmeric. Once the tomatoes have started to bubble turn the heat down to low, and put on the lid. Leave to cook for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
Serve with boiled white rice and warm naan bread.
The list of ingredients for this recipe is indeed quite long, but if you do as much indian cooking as I do then you will use these spices often.
I ate this on the sofa with a large glass of white wine watching property shows on TV. While outside it was unseasonably cold and pouring with rain, I was in the warm feeling quite happy and contented.