Carrot and Sweet Potato Curry

An unintentional and not all together unwelcome side effect of this year's food challenge, is that when I'm not thinking about pig I'm thinking a lot more about vegetables.  This is possibly down to the amount of time I am spending on Leeds Kirkgate market.  You can find me most Saturday mornings wandering around Butchers Row mulling over the porky possibilities.  Afterwards, meat in hand,  I like to fill my shopping bags with as much fruit and veg as I can carry home*.

I still find myself buying additional veg in the supermarket.  A couple of weeks ago I went green veg mad and bought pak choi, kale and spinach.  I must have been feeling run down and lacking in iron.  We managed to plough our way through the greens but that was at the expense of the carrots I had already bought on the market.

My initial thought, whenever I have any leftover vegetables, is soup.  However this wasn't a handful of carrots left over from a meal, this was a full bag of carrots whose potential had never been met.  I felt that it was only fitting to make them the star of a meal but I couldn't get soup out of my head.  It was the classic Carrot and Coriander that was haunting me.  I just couldn't shift the idea of the sweet earthy and fragrant dish from my mind.  I then realised that it wouldn't take much to convert the ingredients for a good soup into a great curry.

The base of the curry was onion, garlic and ginger, fried in ghee with mustard seeds, curry leaves, cumin, coriander, fresh chilies and turmeric.  Once the onion had softened and the spices were toasted I added the carrot, sweet potato and a little red pepper, along with just enough stock to cover the veg.  By the time the carrots were tender the sweet potatoes had broken down into the stock to thicken the sauce.  All that was left to do was to stir in some fresh coriander and serve with naan bread.  I doubt that this is in any way authentic, but the flavour combination is so good it shouldn't be reserved just for soup.

*I'm going to start cycling to the market so the limit to my spend will be the capacity of my rucksack!

Paneer, Carrot and Pea Curry

Tonight sees the final instalment of last week's great carrot mountain and it is a recipe that we haven't tried before.  I was forced to trawl the kitchen library for carroty inspiration, not wanting to serve them only as a side veg, but I drew a blank.  Neither did I want to use lots of them as mirepoix for various stews and sauces.  I resorted to the most natural course of action these days and Googled "carrot recipes".

So rare are dishes where carrots are the star that I found myself five pages through the search results.  Dedicated food sites, chefs and bloggers all let me down.  Fortunately Z is more eagle eyed than I am and found tonight's meal.  Paneer, carrot and pea curry.

For those not in the know, paneer is Indian cheese.  I baulked at the idea of a cheese curry the first time I saw it on a menu but now I'm a convert.  Paneer holds its texture so can be added to wet sauces or grilled. 

The recipe was a long one and as it was the first time I had cooked it, I followed it to the letter*.  First fry some onion and lots of carrots in oil for a few minutes.  Add spices, coriander, cumin, turmeric, chilli, mustard seeds, curry paste, ginger and garlic.  Next add a tin of tomatoes and some vegetable stock and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.  Finally add creamed coconut, peas and the paneer.

Next time (yes it was that good I'll be cooking it again) I'll swap green beans for the peas for a better texture and up the chilli levels, other than that it was pretty spot on.

*apart from where I didn't have the ingredients or where I felt something would work better.

Beef and Carrot Stew

As I pointed out yesterday, I often get home from a trip to Leeds Kirkgate market with more food than I had intended to buy.  Along with that cabbage I am also the proud owner of too many carrots!

Carrots, it turns out, are Britain's favourite vegetable*.  Why then are there so few carrot recipes?  People must do more than eat them as a side vegetable or make cake out of them.  We tend to make soup from our carrot gluts.  A wonderful roasted carrot and caraway dip also makes several appearances every summer.  But neither of these are worthy of an evening meal.

We still have the majority of Mr Cabbage in the fridge** so we needed something that would let us make headway into both vegetables.  Luckily we have some shin beef in the freezer and Z is currently working three days a week.  Today was a day at home so she could crack on with a good slow rib sticking beef and carrot stew.

Three and a half hours later the collagen from the shin beef has broken down to leave meltingly tender meat.  The carrots are still intact, because they were left large, and their sweetness has flavoured the gravy.  The bitter cabbage is the perfect foil for the stew, along with boiled potatoes.

*according to The British Association of Carrot Growers
**even after last night's heroic efforts.