Curry Chinese Style

I have noticed that most of the curry recipes in cook books are Indian-style curries, but I prefer Chinese curry so I taught myself to cook this one. This is a vegetable curry because, let's face it, we don't need meat in all our dishes and this is a great way of eating veg because the curry flavours stand out more than the veg. Choose whatever veg you like – I normally go for cauliflower, butternut squash, mushrooms and courgettes, and, trust me, you won't even miss the meat! This recipe is for the sauce alone, the rest is up to you!

Ingredients

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 onions, finely chopped

A thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

4 cloves of garlic, sliced

4 mild fleshy red chillies, seeds removed and chopped

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground coriander

½ tablespoon chilli powder

2½ teaspoons curry powder

2½ tablespoons plain flour

400–500ml vegetable stock

Vegetables of your choice cut into bite-sized pieces

1 teaspoon onion seeds

Method

• Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan or wok over a high heat. Add the onions and stir-fry for 3 minutes or until starting to soften but not brown. Add the ginger, garlic and chillies and continue stir-frying for 30 seconds, then reduce the heat to very low and leave to cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened but nothing colours.

• Stir in the turmeric, cumin, coriander, chilli powder and curry powder, and continue cooking very gently for a further 5 minutes. Don’t burn the spices – sprinkle on a few drops of water if you’re worried. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool a little.

• Put 125ml of water in a food processor or blender and add the contents of the pan.

• Blend until everything is smooth, then add the flour and blend again. Put the puréed mix back into the pan and simmer for 20–30 minutes (the longer the better in fact) over a very low heat, stirring occasionally. Add a little hot water if it starts to stick, but the idea is to gently ‘fry’ the sauce so that it darkens in colour to an orangey brown.

• Once you have a thick paste, gradually stir in the stock and simmer, add in whichever vegetables you wish and allow them to cook while the sauce reduces and thickens, for 30 minutes or so. (If using meat or fish, cooking times can be adjusted accordingly.) Add in the onion seeds – they make it look authentic!

• Serve with some rice, naan bread and chutney.