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As I have mentioned here before, I probably spend a bit more time and money than I should in the lovely Leon restaurants, brainchild of Allegra McEvedy, cook and charactere par extraodinaire. So imagine my excitement when they decided to bring out their own cookbook, proving again that they aren’t precious about their gift (it is even being serialised in the paper). Here is one of my favourites, gobi curry, which I am making with a rather psychedelic romanesco cauliflower that was in the box this week.
Recipe serves 4 (at least!)
Ingredients
From Allegra McEvedy’s fabulous restaurants and cookbook
1 medium onion
1 carrot
2 tbsp sunflower or peanut oil
1 to 1.5 red chili(s) (go for a bird’s-eye if you like it hot)
2 thumb-sized pieces of root ginger
5 cloves garlic
1 large tsp Madras curry powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp black onion seeds
1 medium sweet potato
4 heaped tbsp ground almonds
A good handful of sultanas
½ a small cauliflower
400ml tin of coconut milk
150g frozen peas
Juice of ½ a lemon
A really big handful of coriander
Salt
2 heaped tbsp desiccated coconut, to serve
1 chop the onion in half and into thick slices, cut the carrot into thick chunks and add to oil, salt and cook over a low heat, covered, for 15-20 mins (stir occasionally)
2 blitz the chili, ginger and garlic to a paste in a food processor and add to pan, cook for further 5 mins
3 wash and chop sweet pot into 2.5 cm chunks, add to pan with ground almonds, mix well
4 turn up heat and add 250ml water and sultanas, bring to a simmer and bubble for 10-15 mins (lid off) stirring occasionally
5 break cauliflower into florets and it and coconut milk to pan, simmer for further 10-15 mins, covered.
6 check veg is cooked and then turn off heat and add peas, more salt, lemon juice, the coriander chopped and the coconut sprinkled on top. I serve it with white rice, rotis and some lime pickle. Some sharp apple cider would be a great partner too.
Note, the veg in this recipe is quite flexible, for instance I am replacing the peas with some spinach that I had left in the fridge, and I have used a whole small romanesco head - the beauty of a dish that will actually get made is often it’s flexibility. To make it child friendly just leave out the chili and about half of the spices, see what I mean, felixible.
