Carrot Korma

One of the problems with living here is not that vegans are misunderstood in France, although they surely are, but that living alone there are few dishes I can cook that will be just enough for one meal. Tonight's Carrot Korma is a case in point, the quantity I made would have served two or three greedy people with bread or rice, and probably provided a taste for six as a side dish.



The recipe is based on one that is on the web in several places in slightly differing forms - since I had few of the listed ingredients, really only looking to use up a large bag of carrots that won't keep much longer, I've freely adapted and produced something which is close in spirit but probably doesn't taste much like the other versions about.

Grate a quantity of carrots, this is possibly the most tedious part of the recipe, I used enough carrots to produce about two cereal bowls of grated vegetable.

Mince or finely chop three or more cloves of garlic and slice a long medium hot green chili into thin rings. I used one of the chillies I'd bought for the stuffed chili peppers on Friday. They weren't very hot without the seeds so for this dish I left the seeds in. If you have any ginger, I didn't, finely grate about two teaspoonfuls of that too, I really think it will improve the final product.

In a clean pan heat two tablespoons or so of a light oil and add a dessert spoon of mustard seeds, a good grind of black pepper and the garlic and chillies (and ginger if you have it). Keep the heat low and stir everything around until the mustard seeds start to pop, then add a teaspoonful of ground cumin (if you have seeds add them with the mustard seed), half a teaspoon of turmeric and a smidge, say a 1/4 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and ground allspice. Mix up well and add the carrot, stirring everything together until the carrot shreds are coated with the spices. Cover the pan and leave on a gentle heat for about 20 minutes. Give it a stir from time to time.

When the carrot is soft and cooked add two tablespoons of coconut cream. This is another place where I've deviated from the 'original' which calls for dry coconut shreds at this point. I think that would be better but I have none. If I did use dried coconut I might be tempted to add just a little extra liquid. Salt to taste. Cover the pan again and allow to heat through for a couple of minutes.

I garnished my korma with pistachio nuts. Ideally served with indian flatbreads, chapattis or parathas tonight's dinner was served with some cooked green beans and french bread recovered by warming through in the oven.

How did it taste; pretty good but the chili heat was too much for me, even with this limited amount of peppers and I had to add some soy yoghurt to cool everything down.