Jack is Cooking Hurricane Curry

Well Hello Internet!

Last night as Hurricane Irene bore down upon new york city, we hunkered down and made some curry!  It was the perfect thing to eat while eagerly waiting for the storm.

Otherwise known as a Navratan Korma, this was my own twist on a delicious creamy vegetable curry.
as always with my curry recipes i will divide the spices into groups depending on when they need to be added.  This particular curry has lots of separate steps to take in order to prepare your mis-en-place, but otherwise the actual steps taken are quite simple.

Heres what you will need:

Spice Group A:
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds

Spice Group B
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon asafetida
1/2 teaspoon salt

The Rest of the Ingredients:
1 potato cut into 1 cm cubes
2 large carrots sliced
1/2 cup green peas
1 large head of broccoli (with as much stalk as you can get) cubed

1/2 lb paneer (cubed)
2 tomatoes (cubed)
1 onion (grated)
2 cloves of garlic (finely grated)
1.5 inches of ginger (finely grated)
1 can of coconut milk
2 tablespoons ghee
olive oil.

The Preparation:

1.  Prepare your spice bowls.
2. Cut all vegetables to equal sized pieces and parboil them.  these will be cooked more later, so don't overdo it now.  strain and set aside in a colander.
3. Cube the tomatoes, grate the onion, grate the ginger and the garlic.
4. Heat the ghee and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan.  fry the paneer until it is golden brown on all sides.   pour the paneer with ghee and all over the vegetables in the colander.  While its still hot sprinkle some garam masala over them and toss.

Boiled Veggies and Paneer sprinkled with Garam Masala

Now that everything is prepared we can get onto the cooking of the actual curry.

1.  In a medium sized pot, heat some olive oil, and add in Spice Group A.  fry for about 30 seconds, and then add in the onions.  fry these together for about 4-5 minutes.  Add the Ginger and the Garlic, and fry for 30 more seconds.

2.  throw in Spice Group B and fry together for about a minute.  add the chopped tomatoes, and fry for 3-4 more minutes:

Spices and Tomatoes

3.  Add the vegetables and paneer, and toss until they are all nice and coated in the spice-tomato mixture.

4.  Add the can of coconut milk, bring to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are just tender.

simmering curry

Serve with rice, and sprinkle a little cilantro on top for added effect! 

and that's about it!  you can make this during a hurricane no problem, as long as your gas stays on.... or you can make it any other day and its just as good!

mmmm mmmm delicious!