BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND CELERIAC CURRY

A tasty vegetarian curry with rice and homemade onion bhajis

As hot as you  like! This one was pretty spicy but you can tame it down a little by adding

 less fresh chilli and chilli powder.

This is not an authentic recipe, its just mine but its very good.

Curry first and then the bhajis....

Ingredients

1 butternut squash

1 celeriac

1 large parsnip

6 tomatoes

1 large red onion

Fresh ginger (approx 40mm piece)

2 cloves garlic

1 red chilli

1tsp ground coriander

1tsp garam masala

1tsp ground paprika

1/4 tsp chilli powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

600ml vegetable stock

200ml coconut milk

Fresh coriander to sprinkle

Peel and chop the red onion into large chucks and pop into the blender with the garlic, fresh chilli and all the spices.  Whizz until smooth, adding a splash of water if necessary (a drop at a time) to get a paste like consistency.

Peel and seed the vegetables and chop into large chunks

Heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large pan and then add the curry paste, cooking for 5 minutes whilst stirring.  Stir in the chopped vegetables and cook on a medium heat with the lid on, regularly stirring. After about 5 minutes, add in the stock.

 Simmer until the veg is cooked through but not breaking, approx 30 mins. 

Add the quartered tomatoes and cook for another 2 minutes.

Lastly, stir in the coconut milk and 

serve with rice and onion bhajis (see recipe below)

Garnish with chopped coriander and a drizzle of coconut milk.

Onion Bhaji Ingredients

2 large onions

100g self raising flour

1tsp of cumin seeds or ground cumin

1tsp turmeric

pinch of salt

Finely slice the onion into a bowl and add the flour, salt and spices and mix together.

Once combined, start squeezing the ingredients together . This will squeeze the moisture out of the onion into the flour to help bind.   

Mix in three tablespoons of water, so that the mixture has a wet stretchy dough consistency. 

To shallow fry, cover the bottom of a frying pan with a cm of oil and heat to a medium high heat .

You want the bhajis to cook through without burning on the outside so the oil should be just hot enough to bubble when you add the mixture and not be smoking.  You can test this by dropping a small piece of the onion in.

When ready, take a heaped spoon of mixture and drop into the hot oil.  Choose the size of spoon to the size of bhaji you want to make.  We used a teaspoon. 

Cook until golden brown on both sides.

Take out of the pan and lay on a plate covered with a piece of kitchen roll.

Put into a low oven to keep warm.