Tomato Curry With Coconut Rice by Nigella.

This is one of my all-time favourite curry recipes, easy to prepare, always comes out perfect and everyone loves it plus as it’s meatless it’s the perfect option if you have some vegetarians mixed in, I also love this meal has lots of texture and a number of different flavours.

This recipe is from the Kitchen Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson www.waterstones.com

Ingredients:

For the curry:

2 x 15ml tablespoons cold-pressed rapeseed oil or regular olive oil

2 large onions (approx. 350g total), peeled and chopped

1 teaspoon sea salt flakes or 1⁄2 teaspoon pouring salt

4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1kg cherry tomatoes

Halved 2 teaspoons turmeric

1 teaspoon English mustard powder

1 teaspoon hot chilli powder

1 teaspoon garam masala

200g frozen peas

For the coconut rice:

1 x 15ml tablespoon garlic oil

4 spring onions, finely sliced

2 teaspoons nigella seeds or black mustard seeds

300g Thai or basmati rice

1 x 400ml can coconut milk

600ml freshly boiled water

1 teaspoon sea salt flakes or 1⁄2teaspoon pouring salt

Juice 1 lime, or to taste

Method:

For the curry:

Heat the oil in a wide casserole or pan that comes with a lid, and add the chopped onions, sprinkling with salt, and stirring frequently as you cook them over a low to medium heat for about 7 minutes.

Stir in the chopped garlic, then add the halved tomatoes, before stirring in the spices, and cook for 20 minutes with the lid on over a low heat.

Cook the peas in another pan (in boiling salted water as usual), drain and add to the tomato curry for the last 5 minutes’ cooking time. By all means cook the peas directly in the tomato curry, but be prepared then to sacrifice both the vivid red of the tomatoes and the bright green of the peas.

For the coconut rice:

Warm the oil in a heavy-based pan that has a lid, add the spring onions and nigella seeds (or black mustard seeds) and cook for a minute or so, pushing this way and that with a wooden spoon.

Stir in the rice, letting it get slicked with oil and thoroughly mixed with the black-dotted green shreds.

Pour the coconut milk into a measuring jug and top up to the 1 litre mark with freshly boiled water, and then add this to the rice, stirring it in with the salt.

Bring to a boil, and then turn the heat down to low and put on the lid. Cook for 15 minutes, by which time the rice should be cooked and the liquid absorbed.

Fluff up with a fork as you pour in the lime juice, and taste to see if you need either more salt or more lime.