Sparrows.

At my favourite Curry place with the best and most interesting vegan curries ever are always a lots of sparrows and they will accompany you while eating. One of them picked a bit of rice off my hand and he was talking to me, too. The bird was sitting on the back of a chair, looking at me and the conversation went a bit like this: 

Sparrow: ChirpChirpChirp

Jess: ChirrpChirrp

Sparrow: ChirpChirpChirp

Jess: ChirrpChirrp

...and so on...

I guess he wanted more morsels from my food but I'm not quite sure.

Sweet Curry Hoummous.

Recently one of my favourite flavour combinations is curry with a sweetener like sugar or syrup. The sweetness enhances the diverse curry flavours.

Today I made a hoummous variation with this:

- 1 big can chickpeas

- juice of 1 lemon

- 2 tblsp olive oil

- 1 tsp paprika

- 1 tsp cumin

- 2 tsp currypowder

- 1 tblsp agave syrup

- dash of salt

- pepper

- fresh koriander

Mix chickpeas with spices, lemon juice and olive oil in a big bowl and puree with a hand blender and add some water bit by bit if necessary. When the hoummus is a smooth paste add the agave syrup and mix once again for a few seconds.

Stir in some fresh koriander leaves (and/or parsley) with a fork and serve. Fill leftovers in a airtight container or glass and it will keep for a few days if you really can resist this pretty tasty hoummous for so long (which I don't believe actually, but just for your information).

Curry colour and total cat sweetness.

Easy-peasy curry.

I was really craving for a curry but actually I was way too lazy to cook. So I forced myself to peel and cut a few poatoes and cooked them. As they were done I drained the water and added half a can of coconut milk, vegetable broth, curry powder, fenugreek, gomasio and pepper. I cooked it for another three or four minutes and that was it. No frying onions, garlic, spices, curry paste - just throwing a few things together. Totally yummy, though!

Potato-Carrot-Curry w/ Green Tomatoes

- red onions

- garlic

- carrots

- potatoes

- TVP flakes (or big chunks cut into strips)

- apricot-peach jam 

- green tomatoes

- corn starch

- cinnamon, paprika, curry powder, cumin, sugar, salt, pepper, vegetable broth

Like most of the time, I can't give you measurements. I used a big pot and I know that I used 2 litres of water, we had about 4 big portions (with rice).

Fry finely diced onions in 2 tablespoons oil until trunslucent. Add smashed garlic and spices and stir well for about 1 minute, make sure not to burn the spices.

Add a small cup of water and let boil this mixture for 2 minutes, stir occasionally.

Dice carrots and potatoes. Add 2 litres cold water to the onion mixture and immediately add carrots and potatoes, stir well and let cook.

When the water is boiling, add the TVP soy and green tomatoes ( I had quite small ones and just cut them into halfs, if yours are bigger ones cut them into quarters) and let cook for about 20 minutes. Add vegetable broth and maybe a bit more spices, as the TVP soaks a lot of flavour.

Add the apricot-peach jam and stir well. Mix 1 tablespoon corn starch with water and add to the boiling mixture while stirring well. A lot of stirring, hm? The mixture will thicken a bit and gets creamy, lower the heat and stir for another 5 minutes.

If you don't have green tomatoes, leave them. Red tomatoes are much sweeter and would add a totaly other flavour and might be to sweetish. On the picture you see my version without the green tomatoes, was also quite good, but I liked it much better with the green tomatoes. I had a tomato plant and the last fruits wouldn't turn red and as was end of October I thought that I maybe should use them and this curry was the result.

Serve with rice.

Scrambled tofu day aka Sunday.

This time with a roughly grated carrot, a hint of curry, salt, a dash soymilk, a teaspoon olive oil.

Sweetheart cabbage ♥

Fried tofu dices, oyster mushrooms, sweet cabbage and chick peas in coconut  sauce, a bit curry-ish and yummy as hell. With lots of garlic and fresh savage leaves.

Mock Duck with gingery curry and basmati rice.

Fried mock duck from Vantastic Foods with a very gingery curry and basmati rice alongside.

Curry:

- garlic

- ginger

- onions

- coconut milk

- yellow curry paste

- 2 carrots

- bamboo sprouts

- 2 leaves sayoy cabbage (or other cabbage)

- broccoli

- light soy sauce

Fry finely chopped garlic, ginger and onions until lucious and tender. Add curry paste, diced carrots and coconutmilk. Cook for 10 minutes, then add finely chopped savoy cabbage and broccoli, cook for another 5 minutes. Season to taste with light soy sauce and add bamboo sprouts in the end.

In the meanwhile fry mock duck in margarine for about 5 minutes each side, cook basmati rice. The mock duck was one of the best I've had so far and the gingery curry was a dream.

Coco-Curry

- 200g tofu

- handful of white mushrooms

- broccoli

- glassnoodles

- coconut milk

- garlic

- red curry paste

- light and dark soy sauce

Cut tofu into small cubes and fry in walnutoil for a few minutes until golden brown. Add garlic and broccoli and fry for another 2 minutes, then add coconut milk to your taste.

I used about a third of a small can and added a little water. Cook with mushrooms, 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon dark sweet soy sauce and a little red curry paste. While preparing the curry put glass noodles into hot water and let them soak for about 10-15 minutes. Drain water and put on a plate, with curry on top.