On the first Tuesday of every month we like to head down to Guildford High Street to marvel at all the delicious, locally produced foods and compile a recipe for you based on ingredients we have managed to buy- here’s our offering for the July Farmers Market. We try and support businesses by buying some tasty little treats and picking up fantastic fresh food to cook great meals for under £5 a person. Doing this shows that you don’t need to break the bank to eat healthy food that is locally grown, sourced, produced and manufactured.
This month we have gone for a very different approach to our Farmers Market meal. July provides such a delicious amalgamation of vegetables that it was too tough to choose between which ones we wanted to use. Solution- buy them all and make the focus of the meal those fresh flavours and textures and the combinations they provide. Vegetable curries are a great way of incorporating all those ingredients and the beauty is that you can mix any manner of different herbs, spices and veg to get completely new flavours.
As expected, we did have to grab a couple of extras from the supermarket, but the majority on the recipe (including a jar of curry paste) were bought from the market. There are many ways in which you could make veggie curries with what’s on offer at the Farmers Market, but here is our offering. And what better way to enjoy these ingredients? Put some rugs down on the grass on a sunny, summer’s eve and share it all out with your friends and family!
Ingredients from the market:
3 red onions
3 brown onions
1 super large tomato (or a palette of tomatoes)
1 palette of baby/plum tomatoes
1 palette of potatoes
A large cauliflower
2 bags of spinach
2 courgettes
1 yellow pepper
1 fresh fennel
4-6 cloves of garlic
1 Vietnamese coriander plant
1 green chilli
1 jar of medium curry paste
Extra Ingredients from the supermarket:
1 large pot of natural yoghurt
Cumin seeds
Mustard seeds
Turmeric
Garam Masala (a bag of mixed spices)
Butter
Sugar
One lemon
Optional extra ingredients:
Brown Basmati Rice
A variety of different flavoured Nan breads
Cooking time: 2 hours
Serves: 8-10 people
Instructions:
Curry One
- Firstly, prepare your veg by chopping up your red onion, courgettes, yellow pepper, fennel and tomatoes and put to one side.
- Add the onion and cumin seeds to a large frying pan with some oil and brown on a low heat. Once done, add the chopped yellow pepper, majority of the courgettes and one quarter of your fennel (the other three quarters will be used in the side dish).
- Add the fresh tomato, the jar of medium curry paste for kick and a cup or two of water to the vegetables and stir well. Leave the mix to simmer for 15-20minutes whilst the flavours infuse and the sauce thickens.
- Wash and add one and a half bags of the spinach to the pan, leaving a few minutes until suitably wilted, adding a small amount of natural yoghurt and salt to taste to complete the dish.
Curry Two
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil, meanwhile, wash and scrub the potatoes and chop into smaller segments.
- Add the potatoes to the water. Wash and chop the cauliflower and add to the same pan- leave both until suitably softened.
- Chop up most of the brown onion into small pieces and add to a separate pan, frying in with some oil and cumin seeds until brown, keeping a handful separate to use later on.
- Drain the water from the potatoes and cauliflower and add all the ingredients together with some butter, crushed garlic, garam masala and turmeric to flavour.
- Chop up the fresh green chilli and add ¾ to the mix (putting the remaining chilli to one side) with a cup or two of water and leave to simmer until the vegetables are soft and have almost formed a paste within the pan.
- Wash and add the remainder of the spinach to the mix whilst stirring in a generous amount of natural yoghurt until you have a consistency and flavour that you are happy with.
- Finally, slice up a few baby/plum tomatoes, tear off some Vietnamese coriander leaves from your plant and grab the remaining bit of onion/cumin mix that you had put aside from earlier, and sprinkle all over the top to finish.
Side Dish
- Fry the remaining brown onion and chilli that you have left over from the other two dishes in a smaller pan, with some mustard seeds and a teaspoon of sugar.
- Once browned, add your remaining fennel and courgette to the mix and leave on a low heat until the flavours have combined, then leave to cool.
- Once cooled, mix in the last of your natural yogurt and the juice of half a lemon to give it a cool and sharp contrast and a perfectly balanced flavour.
If so choosing, serve each dish collectively with brown Basmati rice, Nan bread, lemon wedges, baby/plum tomatoes and a natural yoghurt dip, leaving each guest to help themselves as they please. Or alternatively you can serve each individually as small courses, one at a time.
Tom Burgess