Recipe Wednesday: Goal #58 – Jamie Oliver Vegetable Jalfrezi

Recipe Wednesday was inspired by the Youngrens, California photographers who cook, photograph, and post recipes on periodic Sundays.  Cooking good wholesome food is something that is very important to my wife and I so I’ve decided to start documenting our kitchen adventures.  You’ll see pictures and recipes from books that are quickly becoming our go-to guides.  Hopefully it can give you some ideas for your own kitchen.

Today’s recipe is another goodie from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution cookbook and therefore is part of Goal #58.

Jamie includes 9 recipes in his “Easy Curries” section, plus several variations of rice and instructions for making curry pastes.  Indian is probably more popular in Britain than it is in the US, but Heather and I happen to really love Indian.  Having the ability to make delicious Indian recipes at home has been really fun because we don’t go out to eat that often.  Jamie recommends using Patak’s pastes and sauces which makes these recipes even easier and can be found in the international section of almost all grocery stores.

We’ve made 4 of the 9 recipes in the section so far.  The recipe for Vegetable Jalfrezi is below the pictures.

Vegetable Jalfrezi

1 medium onion
1 fresh red or green chile
a thumb sized piece of fresh ginger root
2 cloves of garlic
a small bunch of fresh cilantro*
2 red bell peppers
1 cauliflower
3 ripe tomatoes
1 small butternut squas
1 x 15-ounce can of garbanzo beans
peanut or vegetable oil
a pat of butter
1/2 cup of jalfrezi or medium curry paste (such as Patak’s)
2 x 14-ounce cans of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 lemons
1 cup natural yogurt

*we always leave this out or use it as garnish only because Heather doesn’t like cilantro.  Did you know that liking cilantro or not liking cilantro is genetic?

1. Peel, halve, and roughly chop your onion.  Finely slice the chile.  Peel and finely slice the ginger and garlic.  Pick the cilantro leaves and finely chop the stalks.  Halve, seed, and roughly chop the bell peppers.  Break the green leaves off the cauliflower and discard.  Break the cauliflower into florets and roughly chop the stalk.  Quarter the tomatoes.  Carefully halve the butternut squash, then scoop out the seeds with a spoon and discard.  Slice the squash into inch-size wedges, leaving the peel on but removing any thick skin, then roughly chop into smaller pieces  Rain the garbanzo beans.

2. Put a large casserole-type pan on a medium to high heat and add a couple of lugs of oil and the butter.  Add the onions, chile, ginger, garlic, and cilantro stalks and cook for 10 minutes, until softened and golden.  Add the peppers, butternut squash, drained garbanzo beans, and Jalfrezi curry paste.  Stir well to coat everything with the paste.  Add the cauliflower, the fresh and canned tomatoes, and the vinegar.  Fill 1 empty can with water, pour into the pan and stir again.  Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 45 minutes with the lid on.  Check the curry after 30 minutes and, if it still looks a bit liquid-y after this time, leave the lid off for the remaining 15 minutes.  When the veggies are tender, taste and add salt and pepper, plus a squeeze of lemon juice.

3. Serve with fluffy Basmati rice with a few spoonfuls of natural yogurt, a sprinkling of cilantro leaves, and a few lemon wedges for squeezing over.