Fancy some ice cream at lunchtime?
Photograph: Frank Baron
Some excellent and much-needed packed luncheon suggestions came in response to my recent blog post. Thank you. The ice-cream in a thermos (to have with strawberries) wins a special mention for seasonality and decadence.
When you're busy it is all too easy to wind up in recipe-ruttsville, forever rustling up the same old staples on autopilot. On occasion I have fallen into this trap and found myself envying colleagues' canteen nosh just because, yunno, it'd make a nice change.
Lately, when I got bored of my various stews, I started alternating with a veg curry from Camellia Panjabi's 50 Great Curries of India and an ace lentil and roast veg salad from Ainsley Harriott's Low Fat Meals in Minutes book. Harriott may not be a doyenne of culinary cool but the book sort of landed on my desk and it's actually pretty good. My Sunday industrial batch making sessions became a little more complex what with roasting spices and grinding pastes but the great Sunday packed lunchathon became a sort of therapeutic ritual. However, some simpler curry recipes wouldn't go amis.
Mixed vegetable curry (Kath Katha - a Hindu Goan curry)
Serves 4
2 onions
4 tablespoons oil
1 cup grated coconut
6 dried red chillies
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
4 cloves
10 peppercorns
5cm (2in) cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/3 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 cinamon leaf or bay leaf
1 blade mace
salt
450g (1lb) diced mixed vegetables (yam, carrots, potato, sweet potato, beans, peas)
1 teaspoon lime or lemon
1. Chop one onion and finely slice the other
2. Put 1 tablespoon of the oil into a non-stick frying pan, add the grated coconut and sauté for five minutes. Remove and set aside in a bowl
3. Put the red chillies and coriander seeds into the same pan. After three minutes add the cloves, peppercorns and cinnamon and stir for 2-3 minutes.
4. Remove and add to the coconut in the bowl,
5. In a blender, puree the coconut, roasted spices and sliced onion, adding 100ml (3 * fl oz) of water.
6. Heat the remaining oil in a cooking pot, and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and turmeric powder. After a minute add the cinnamon or bay leaf and chopped onion and fry for 20-25 minutes or until the onion is browned. Ad the spice mix and the mace and fry for 10-12 minutes. Pour in 600ml (1/2 pint) of water, add salt to taste and mix well.
7. Now add the vegetables in order of their cooking time. Start with the yam, followed after 10 minutes by carrots and five minutes later by the potato and sweet potato, followed after five minutes by the beans. Finally add the peas.
8. Cook uncovered over a low heat until the vegetables are tender. Then add the lime of lemon juice
