South Indian Vegetable Curry

This year has been a bit up and down for me health-wise, and so all things health have been on my mind of late. It will all be fine, but it's been a little emotionally and physically exhausting at times... In the spirit of good health I bookmarked this recipe in this month's Cookbook of the Month, 'Kitchen' by Nigella Lawson. It is a great way to pack loads of vegetables into a delicious curry.

Indian cuisines features regularly in the Ladybird household for two key reasons. First, Mr Ladybird and I both love indian vegetarian cuisine and all of its glorious diversity and, secondly, Mr Ladybird is Indian-Australian so indian food is close to his heart.

For me, dry roasting spices (cumin and coriander in this case) in a pan and then grinding them in the mortar and pestle is well worth the effort. It tastes so much better than packaged ground spices!

South Indian Vegetable Curry (serves 6)
Recipe adapted from Kitchen by Nigella Lawson - items in italics are either new additions, or ingredients where the original quantity has been altered.

2 x 15ml tablespoons canola oil
1 onion, peeled, halved and cut into half moons
1 large garlic clove, chopped
sea salt flakes
1 green chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
2cm chunk fresh ginger, peeled and cut into fine strips
1/4 teaspoon crushed chilli flakes
good pinch mustard seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin
1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 x 400ml can coconut milk
600ml vegetable stock
approx 2 teaspoons raw sugar
1 x 15ml tablespoon tamarind paste
350g cauliflower, broken into florets
100g fine beans, trimmed and halved
125g baby corn, halved
150g sugar snap peas
2 x 15ml tablespoons chopped coriander

Method

1. Heat the oil in a thick-bottom casserole or large saucepan and add the mustard seeds. Once they have almost finished popping, immediately add the sliced onion and garlic sprinkled with some sea salt and fry until it begins to soften, then add the chopped fresh chilli and ginger strips and stir every now and again while cooking for a minute.

2. Now add the crushed chilli flakes, the turmeric, and ground cumin, coriander and ginger. Stir well and cook for another minute or so before pouring in the coconut milk, stock ,sugar and tamarind paste. Stir to combine.

3. Bring to the boil, add the cauliflower florets and baby corn first and cook for 10 minutes, then add the other vegetables. Check the vegetables after about 5 minutes or so to see if they are almost done, letting them cook for longer if they need it.

4. Once the vegetables are tender season well to taste with salt (and sugar if needed). Sprinkle with the fresh coriander, in a bowl on top of some basmati rice or with some warmed Indian flatbread on the side for dunking.

The Verdict
I tweaked this recipe quite a bit because I felt that it needed a bit more 'oomph'... not that it wouldn't have been nice otherwise, but because I personally found it slightly insipid without the extras. Everyone's palate is different though...


Till next time...

Ladybird x

Sydney Food Bloggers Spring Picnic 2010

For a long time I had hoped to meet some of my fellow food bloggers. It's great to read one another's posts and leave comments, but I have often wondered who it was sitting behind the other computer, and what would it be like meeting them face to face?!

On Saturday myself and around 40 other Sydney food bloggers converged on a small pocket of Centennial Park for a 'mad hatter' themed Spring picnic. Many of the bloggers knew each other already, and many such as myself did not. But everyone was so friendly and happy to meet fellow bloggers that it didn't matter one bit.

I was grateful that the event was themed because it made the group so much easier to find - I simply had to look out for some mad hatters with awesome food!

Tammi wore a fantastic handmade, Gaga inspired hat (which I can't believe I don't have a photo of!).. needless to say it won hat of the day :)

The picnic was organised by Billy and Karen (thank you!, and was sponsored by a range of generous sponsors including Nuffnang Australia (thank you!). There were some fantastic prizes to be won, including a prize for the best blue dish (yes blue!) and a Kitchen Aid for the best dish overall.

With an unmistakable passion for food in common, it's fair to say that there was a lot of food at the event. There were scrumptious savouries and a very big spread of seductive sweets. I opted for a sweet option for my dish to bring along on the day, and I created this food bloggers picnic cake for the occasion.

 

It was a chocolate mud cake with three layers of chocolate ganache and salted caramel, decorated with fondant. It seemed only appropriate that the top of the cake be a picnic seen fit for food bloggers, complete with a laptop, digital SLR camera (I <3 my Canon :P) and an array of treats including... cake, macarons, grapes, sandwiches, watermelon and a hamburger. The cake was very well received by my new food blogging friends, and I was also awarded Best Sweet Dish of the day for my cake, winning me a beautiful dinner for two at Alio Restaurant! Hurray! :)

We ate, we talked about food and blogging, we ate, we laughed... and then we ate some more! Rather than boring you all to death with a written round up, let me simply tell the story with pictures... Believe it or not - this is only a small selection of the food on the day!

There's plenty more to come from the picnic, so keep reading :)

Breakfast on the Bridge, Sydney

It's 4:30am on a Sunday morning and I'm awake. I may be bleary eyed and fighting my body's desire for sleep, but I am as excited as a 4 year old on Christmas morning as I jump out of bed and declare, "Let's do this!" 'This' refers to 'Mission B.o.B', what Mr Ladybird and I have code named the event Breakfast on the Bridge, and we have planned for this moment with military precision.

Today was the second annual Breakfast on the Bridge as part of Crave Sydney International Food Festival. Normally a very busy freeway connecting the northern and southern parts of Sydney, the Sydney Harbour Bridge is closed for this event and converted into one extraordinary picnic spot! Mr Ladybird and I were two of around 6000 very lucky people fortunate enough to get golden tickets to this event. Tickets were allotted by ballot, thousands entered for a chance to picnic on this great Australian icon.

By 5:20am, we're dressed and ready to go, and we make our way to the train station under the cover of darkness. We arrive at Milson's Point by 6am and are greeted by friendly volunteers. We join the queue awaiting the opening of the bridge at 6:30am. There's entertainment for everyone waiting  including comedic acts, characters on stilts and live music. The mood is upbeat, and in no time at all the queue starts moving forward.

We make our way around the corner of Alfred Street and there she is, the beautiful bridge is in sight!

There are also coffee carts lined up to the left of the freeway for picnic goers to grab a coffee before going through the gates. Never before have I been so glad to have a morning coffee - some call it an addictive substance, I call it the elixir of life!

At this point the weather is a bit overcast but seems to be holding up, and the sun is starting to peak through the clouds as if to greet us all as we make our way onto the bridge. Then suddenly we see green - I can't believe it - they've turfed the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the middle of the night! And yes, it's real grass! I later learn from speaking directly to the NSW Premier that the grass is to be recycled by the Wentworth Council after the event to turf a park - now that's what I call green event management :P

There's plenty more to come - so keep reading :)