Vegan Jamaican Patties

If, like me, you spend all winter dreaming of being in the Caribbean instead, you can do what I do and enhance your dreaming with delicious Caribbean delicacies.

Jamaican patties are quite different to what we call patties in Australia (and many other parts of the world). We use the word patty to refer to the meat or veggie fillings in burgers, but in Jamaica a patty is more like what we might call a pasty - a savoury pastry with filling. The pastry of a Jamaican patty is golden yellow from turmeric and curry powder, and the fillings can vary. They're most commonly filled with meats of various types, but can also be filled with vegetables or cheese. Tofu isn't a traditional filling, but the curried crumbled tofu and potato in these ones are so delicious, they were a huge hit (even with traditional tofu-phobes).

In Jamaica, it's common to eat a patty sandwiched in a bread roll as a full meal. I find that the pastry and bread together might be a bit of overkill, so just ate mine as they were. But if you'd like a traditional Jamaican lunch, grab yourself a bread roll (in Jamaica it would be coco bread).

Jamaican Curry Tofu Patties

Ingredients
Pastry:
3 cups plain flour
1 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g vegan margarine/butter
3/4 cup ice water (give or take a bit)

Filling:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
375g hard tofu, as much liquid pressed out as you can
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 scotch bonnet chilli (optional)
1 potato, peeled and diced into small cubes
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
2 tsp dried or fresh thyme
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 cup chopped shallots

To Make:
1. To make the crust: combine the flour, curry powder, turmeric, salt and baking powder in a food processor. Chop the vegan margarine up and add it to the food processor, pulse it until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Gradually add in the ice water while you're processing until the dough starts to clump together into a ball. Turn it out onto a bench and dust with flour. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. To make the filling - heat the oil in a large frypan (or wok) and add the onion. Sauté for about 5 minutes, until the onion is cooked. While it's cooking you can crumble up the tofu with your hands into a 'mince-like' consistency. Once the onion is cooked, add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds or so. Add the crumbled tofu, curry powder, chilli, potato, and the herbs and spices along with  1 1/2 cups water. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until all the liquid is gone and the potatoes are cooked through. Turn off the heat and allow the filling to cool and then stir though the chopped shallots. 
3. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. 
4. Get the dough out and divide it into 12 equal pieces. Roll out each piece to a circle about 1/8 inch thick. Each circle should be about 6 inches diameter. Place a generous amount of filling in the centre of each circle. Moisten the edges with a bit of water and fold them in half, crimping the edges together to seal them well. Continue with the remaining pastry and filling. Poke a couple of holes in the top of each one to allow the steam to escape while cooking. 
5. Line a baking tray with non stick paper and bake the patties for about 20-25 minutes, until golden. 

Makes 12 patties. 

Check out my other Jamaican recipe posts:

Jamaican Rum Punch

Jerk Tofu & Pineapple Skewers

Jamaican Peanut Punch

Gizzada (Coconut & Brown Sugar Tarts)

Old-time Jamaican Lemonade

Jamaican Ginger Cake

Pineapple Salsa

Callaloo

Jerk Sweet Potato Chips

[The Best] Curried Potatoes

Potato curry is such a perfect dish, the potatoes are superb consistency just waiting to soak up the delicious flavours of your curry sauce. These curried potatoes are genuinely some of the best I have ever eaten (that is a really tough call!). It's made here with potato as the absolute star, but you could adapt it to be a more general veggie curry by using a range of different vegetables. This is the perfect dish to make for a potluck or party though, just exactly as it is.

The chilli in it is definitely optional, in fact I think it's just perfect without it. But you can throw in the jalapeño if you really don't like your curries mild! This recipe makes a fairly large serving, perfect for taking to a potluck or serving up at a dinner party. If you're making it for a smaller crowd or as a side dish for a family diner, try just making half.


Curried Potatoes

Ingredients
1 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 onions, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 tbsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. allspice
1 lg carrot, diced
1kg chat potatoes, peeled and halved
3 medium tomatoes, diced
1 cup vegetable stock
1 jalapeño, finely chopped (optional)
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
Shallots (green parts only), to garnish

To Make
1. Heat oil in a wok and add the onion and garlic. Sauté for about 5-7 minutes, until translucent.
2. Add the curry powder and allspice and fry for about another minute. Then add the carrot and potatoes. Cook for a further 4 minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes, vegetable stock, jalapeño, balsamic vinegar and one cup of water. Bring to a boil and the reduce heat. Simmer, covered for about 45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and cooked through.
4. Serve with rice and garnished with fresh chopped shallots.

Serves 4-6.

Make Your Own Garam Masala

A little while ago, I had a kitchen epiphany. I had a lovely dish brewing in my brain, it was going to be gorgeous and spicy. I headed to my spice rack only to find none of the star ingredient I had in mind - garam masala. Much as I hate making a trip to the shops for just one item, down I went to get the all important garam masala, only to find the shelf completely bare. I was irrationally frustrated by this, and grumped my way back home. It took a surprising amount of time for me to realise that, of course, garam masala is just a blend of spices which are all present on my insanely well-stocked spice 'rack' (I use the inverted commas there because no one rack could possibly contain all my spices, so they are in fact in there separate clusters all around my kitchen).

I couldn't quite believe I'd been so silly. So I made some myself. I have not bought garam masala since that day, because making it was easy, fun and meant that I could tweak it to include more of the spices I love the most. Making spice blends also has the benefit of making your house smell ridiculously yummy. Plus - look how much darker and richer my home made mix is compared to the months-old stuff that has been sitting in the supermarket.

My Garam Masala Blend

Ingredients
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
3 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp black peppercorns

To Make:
1. Combine all spices in a frypan and dry roast gently until fragrant and just toasted. Allow to cool slightly and then grind into a fine powder using a spice grinders, a mortar and pestle or a food processor which has a spice grinding attachment. Keep in sealed jars and use generously.

NOTE - If you don't have whole spices and don't want to go out and get them all, you can combine the same quantities of ground 
spices in a jar and use that. However, roasting them yourself before grinding really adds richness and brings out the flavours, so it's definitely preferable.

Vegan Ohn No Khao Swe (Burmese Noodles) with Chickpea Tofu

The first dish I'm sharing for Burmese food month is Ohn No Khao Swe, one of the countries most common and popular dishes. It's traditionally made with chicken, but I've substitited another Burmese food staple, chickpea tofu. I made my own chickpea tofu according to this recipe from a blog called Girl Eats World. I followed the recipe to the letter when I made it, so rather than reproduce her hard work I've linked to her original recipe. It was delicious and surprisingly easy to make! If you don't feel like doing it, you can substitute some bought tofu, although it won't have the beautiful flavour of the chickpea tofu.

The soup that these noodles and tofu are immersed in - oh my goodness - I don't think I have adequate words to express it! It's the tastiest curry soup I've ever made, no exaggeration! Really something special! It utilises my lovely home made fish sauce, as does many of the Burmese recipes I'll be sharing over December.

Vegan Ohn No Khao Swe with Chickpea Tofu

Ingredients
2 tbsp peanut oil
1/2 inch fresh ginger, peeled
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 shallots, sliced
2 onions, 1 sliced and 1 diced
2 tbsp chickpea (besan) flour
3 cups "chicken" stock (use a veggie based chicken stock or substitute with vegetable stock)
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp paprika (optional)
2 tbsp vegan fish sauce (plus more to taste, if you like)
1/2 batch chickpea tofu
300-400g Thin rice or wheat noodles 
Lime, cut into wedges to serve
Fried shallots, to garnish (optional)
Fresh coriander, to garnish (optional)

To Make
1. Heat oil in a large frypan or wok and cook the sliced onion until golden. Combine cooked onion, fresh ginger, garlic and shallots and make a paste (i.e. in a food processor or a mortar and pestle, add 1/3 of a cup of water if using a blender or food processor).
2. Cook the diced onion in the remaining oil in the pan for 2-3 minutes and then add your paste and cook for a further 1-2 minutes. Mix chickpea flour with 1/4 cup cold water and add to the pan along with the 'chicken' stock, coconut milk, turmeric, chilli flakes and paprika. Bring to a simmer and then add the vegan fish sauce.
3. Cook your noodles according to the instructions on the packet. Once cooked, distribute evenly amongst four bowls (or, serve in one large bowl like in the picture above) and top with cubes of chickpea tofu. Ladle the hot soup/sauce over the noodles and tofu and garnish with lime wedges, fried shallots or coriander. Drizzle additional fish sauce over the dish to taste.

Serves 4.

This month I'm featuring vegan recipes from Myanmar (Burma).

Check out my other Burmese recipe posts:

Vegan Fish Sauce

Burmese Tomato Salad

Gin Thoke (Ginger Salad)

Burmese Sticky Rice Cake

Saag Tarkari (Easy Greens Curry) - using Brussels Sprouts Leaves & Kale

I love my veggie garden - I love planning what to plant, sowing the seeds, watching it grow and especially eating the spoils! But I'm not an amazing gardener; I don't have the experience, time or the money to have an incredibly productive garden. But each year I get better and better, I get more practice and I learn a bit of what works and what doesn't work (I learn a lot of the latter). Winter veggies are a challenge on my patience, because they grow so slowly! Last year I planted out a whole host of excited winter veggies. But I planted them too late in the season and didn't really water them enough, so I got virtually no rewards for my effort!

This year I had learnt my lesson (partly) and I made a better go of it. I planted (most) of them out nice and early, paid attention to the soil quality and made sure they got plenty of water. I planted out a whole variety of exciting winter vegetables and then I went overseas for 6 weeks (charging a friend with the duty of watering them!) and hoped that when I came back I would have lots of delicious vegetables to enjoy. Well - I did a little better this year!!

I got 2 lovely purple cauliflowers (although they were more like purple broccoli, but I wasn't complaining!), big bunches of Tuscan Cabbage (Cavolo Nero) and purple curly kale (both of which are still growing happily in my garden), lots of broad beans and some lovely English spinach. Not a bad haul, considering I neglected it for most of winter. I didn't have so much luck with some of my other veggies though - my broccoli were so small they were more like broccolini (we ate them anyway, of course) and I had no luck at all with my brussel's sprouts. It was very sad - but I know now to plant them much, much earlier! The plants themselves grew beautifully though and I had huge leafy plants - just no sprouts! As I pulled them up out of the ground I felt that it was a shame to let them go to waste, and they're essentially just like cabbage so I wrapped them up and put them in my fridge until I could decide what to do with them.

I'm sure you can see where I'm heading with this :) When reading up on Nepali dishes I came across a curry which is made with taro leaves or mustard greens, cooked up with chilli and spices in a simple but delicious dish. I don't have taro leaves or mustard greens - but I did have those brussels sprouts leaves bundled up in the fridge! I combined them with tasty curly green kale to make this dish of greens. You can use whatever greens you can get your hands on - spinach, chard, cavolo nero, kale, mustard greens, even Asian veggies like gai lan, choy sum and bok choy. It was delicious with the brussels sprouts leaves, so if you ever grow your own, don't let the leaves go to waste.

Ingredients
1 bunch kale
1 bunch brussels sprouts leaves (substitute any of the other greens listed above)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 green chilli, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp whole fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
2-3 tbsp lemon juice (you can do this to taste)

To Make
1. Wash the greens and tear or chop into medium sized pieces.
2. Heat the oil in a large frypan or wok. Add the chilli, garlic and fenugreek seeds and fry until the seeds are golden brown.
3. Add the turmeric and fry for another 15 seconds. Then add the greens and stir fry until they are just wilted (about 6-8 minutes should do it). Remove from the heat and stir through the lemon juice.
4. Serve immediately.

Serves 6 as a side dish.

This month I'm featuring lots of recipes from Nepal!

Check out my other Nepali/Nepalese recipe posts:

Tomato Achar

Aloo Roti (Potato Roti)

Semolina Halva

Vegetable Momo with Chilli Sesame Dipping Sauce

Chilli Grapefruit & Orange Salad

Sesame Chilli Fried Potatoes

Nepalese Vegetable Momo with Chilli Sesame Dipping Sauce

Nepalese Food Month has been a bit sporadic this month, but I've still got plenty of recipes to share with you - so you might be seeing quite a few go up between now and the end of the month. The good news is that the dreadful weather they were predicting for the fires has been milder than they expected. The temperatures have been moderate and today there is no wind at all. It's a relief, even though the fires are still burning and the fire fighters are working hard!

It leaves me a little more time for posting, though, so I'm bringing you a special recipe today. People who have spent time in South China or Tibet may have heard of Momo - steamed buns/dumplings filled with vegetables or meat. This recipe is a great example of Nepalese food - it's that mixture of Chinese and Indian influences. These very Chinese style steamed dumplings are filled with a very non Chinese filling of curried vegetables and then dipped in a delicious Sichuan style chilli sesame sauce. It's fantastic fusion, and honestly I've never eaten anything like it before. It's like a dumpling meets a samosa and they fall in love and have babies - momo babies.

Enough chatter - lets get the recipe going!

Nepali Vegetable Momo 

Ingredients

Dough
4 cups plain white flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Water, as necessary

Filling
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped finely
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp garam masala
1/4 tsp turmeric
3 cups vegetables, diced into small squares (I used carrot, celery, peas, potatoes and cabbage)
1 cup water (or more, as necessary)
1 tbsp flour
1/3 cup chopped fresh coriander

To Make
1. Start with the filling - heat the oil in a large frypan and add the onion, garlic and ginger. Once the onions are softened and translucent add the fenugreek seeds and mustard seeds and fry for a further 15 seconds or so until they are golden brown.
2. Add the garam masala and turmeric and fry for another 30 seconds, until the spices are fragrant. Then add the vegetables and water and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently until the vegetables are cooked through. If all the water cooks off before the vegetables are cooked, just add more.
3. Once the vegetables are cooked, add another 1/4 cup water and bring back to a simmer. Add the tbsp flour and the fresh coriander and stir until the mixture is thick and no liquid remains. Set the filling aside to cool.
4. While the filling is cooling make the dumpling dough and the dipping sauce.
5. To make the dough - combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the oil and a bit of water and start to mix with your hands. Add just enough water so that a dough forms, it should be enough water that all the flour sticks together in a ball, but not so much that the ball of dough sticks to your fingers when you knead it. If you've added too much water and it's too sticky, just add a bit more flour until you get the right consistency.
6. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it for 10 minutes (set the timer on your oven, to make sure you don't under estimate the time). Return to the bowl and cover, let it stand for at least 20 minutes. While it is resting you can make the dipping sauce (recipe below).
7. Once the filling is completely cool, it's time to make the dumplings. Flour a work bench and pull off walnut sized pieces of dough. Roll into a ball and then roll out with a rolling pin to form a circle about 3-4 inches in diameter. Place a tablespoon of vegetable filling in the centre of the circle.
8. Grab the four "sides" of the circle and bring them together in the middle, pinch together so they hold. You'll now have four "loops" of dough sticking out each side, fold the each of these loops in on themselves towards the centre to form a pleat. Pinch the top together well so that they don't split open during steaming. (NOTE - this is how I did it, but use any method you like to make little pleats in the dumplings as you fold them up).
9. Once each dumpling is made, place it straight into a lightly oiled bamboo steamer (I placed mine straight onto the lightly oiled serving plate and then steamed them in my wok). Repeat with the remaining dough and filling (makes 23-25 dumplings).
10. Just before serving, steam the dumplings for 10 minutes and serve hot with the chilli sesame dipping sauce.

Chilli Sesame Momo Dipping Sauce

Ingredients
4 tbsp sesame seeds
6 dried red chillis
2 tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp fresh coriander
1/4 cup water

To Make
1. Heat a dry non stick frypan or wok over a medium heat. Add the sesame seeds and toast for about 1 minute, stirring often, until lightly browned. Remove from pan and set aside.
2. In the same dry pan, place the dried red chillis and the whole tomatoes and heat for about 2-3 minutes, turning ever so often to ensure even roasting. Remove from the pan and set aside with the sesame seeds.
3. Combine the sesame seeds, chillis, tomatoes, crushed garlic, coriander and water in a food processor and blend for a minute into a sauce.

This month I'm featuring lots of recipes from Nepal!

Check out my other Nepali/Nepalese recipe posts:

Tomato Achar

Aloo Roti (Potato Roti)

Semolina Halva

Chilli Grapefruit & Orange Salad

Saag Tarkari

Sesame Chilli Fried Potatoes

Rendang Tofu

I have something to celebrate today - this is my 200th blog post! *Fireworks*

I'm so glad that I'm celebrating with this recipe, as well, because it was one of my absolute favourites from Indonesia Month. It's Rendang Tofu, with a few slight changes. Rendang is traditionally made with meat, cooked in a curry sauce thickened with ground coconut and cooked down until it becomes very dry. Clearly, I've made mine with tofu. I also replaced the toasted dried coconut with fresh coconut (because I had a fabulous coconut grinder) and because it was such lovely fluffy fresh grated coconut I just didn't want to grind it up in the food processor, so I didn't. Finally, I didn't actually cook this dish down as much as I could (as you can see from the picture it's not that dry). This was for 2 reasons, 1) I was impatient to eat it because it looked SO yummy and 2) cooked down and dry doesn't sound that appealing to me. But you could easily cook it down another 40-60 minutes to make it dryer if you want to.

Despite (or maybe because of?) all the changes I made, it was quite spectacular. It was definitely a highlight of my Indonesian dinner party and one that I will definitely be making again - although next time I'll probably be making it with the dried coconut so that I don't have to spend time grating a fresh one! However, if you are substituting dried coconut you will probably end up with a thicker dryer sauce without increasing the cooking time, as the dry coconut will absorb some of the liquid.

Ingredients

400g hard tofu, drained

2 tbsp vegetable oil

400ml coconut milk

2 cups vegetable stock

1 cup freshly grated coconut (or substitute 1/2 cup dessicated)

Curry Paste

2 fresh chilli

4 shallots

4 cloves garlic

1 onion

1x 2cm piece of ginger, peeled and chopped

1x 1cm piece of galangal, peeled and chopped

1 lemon grass stalk, while part only (tough outer layers removed)

2 kaffir lime leaves

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp tamarind puree, dissolved in 1/3 cup hot water

To Make

1. Slice the tofu in half both horizontally and vertically, so that you end up with 4 large pieces about 1.5cm thick.

2. Heat the oil in a large wok or frypan and fry the tofu slices, turning half way, until browned on both sides. Drain on some kitchen paper. Chop into bite sized cubes.

3. Combine all the ingredients for the curry paste in a food processor and purée until you have a smooth paste.

4. Reheat any remaining oil in the wok (if there is no oil left, add another tablespoon). Add the curry paste and fry for 2-3 minutes.

5. Add the coconut milk, vegetable stock and tofu to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. 

6. Add the coconut and cook, uncovered, for at least 10 minutes. You may increase the cooking time by 10-20 minutes if you want to cook down the sauce and make it dryer.

8. Serve.

Serves 4, over rice.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Indonesia!

Check out my other Indonesian recipe posts:

Gado Gado

Triple Threat Coconut Cake

Acar Kuning (Hot, Sour & Sweet Vegetables)

Lontong Paris 

Jus Alpukat (Avocado Milkshake)

Rujak (Spicy Fruit Salad)

Lawar Ayam (Coconut and Bean Salad)

Khmer Lemongrass Vegetable Curry

Super exciting news - on Monday I'm going to Sri Lanka! My aim is to get out of the country every winter because I don't cope too well with the cold, so we're heading off for a three week holiday in Sri Lanka!

The sad news is that you won't be getting many posts from me during July! The good news is that I'll be eating lots of amazing Sri Lankan curry and I promise to share lots of photos when I get back. I have to admit I'm very excited about all the curry! Whenever I'm picking places to travel I always immediately think about all the amazing food I'll eat while I'm there - I guess it just shows how food-oriented I am!

To celebrate me going to Sri Lanka and because I'm featuring Cambodian food this month, I'm giving you a delicious Cambodian curry. This is a super easy and really delicious curry, probably one of my favourites out of all the ones I've made (although I haven't been to Sri Lanka yet - so hopefully I'll learn a few new ones)!

Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil
300g hard tofu, cut in half lengthways
2 tablespoons minced fresh lemongrass
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
3 Asian eggplants (the skinny kind), sliced
2 cups vegetable stock
1 400ml can coconut milk
1/4 cup mushroom sauce (see note)
1 tsp sugar

To Make
1. Heat oil in a wok and fry the pieces of tofu until browned on both sides, remove and set aside on some kitchen paper to drain. Cut into cubes.

2. Add the minced garlic, minced lemongrass and onion and sauté until the onion is softened. Add the eggplant and saute until the eggplant is softened.

3. Add the paprika and curry powder and fry for another minute or two.

4. Add all the rest of the ingredients (including the tofu you cooked earlier) and bring to a simmer.

5. Simmer for about 20-30 minutes, or until the potato is cooked.

Serve with rice.

Serves 4 with rice.

NOTE: Mushroom sauce is generally used as a vegetarian alternative to oyster sauce, it is pretty widely available in Asian supermarkets and some regular supermarkets. If you can't find any, check the Asian section of your supermarkets for anything which is labelled as "Stir Fry Sauce" with no other specific descriptions. These generic sauces are usually vegan friendly (you will have to check the back to make sure) and are made from either mushroom stock or a soy bean product. It will have a very similar taste to mushroom sauce, so just substitute that.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Cambodia!

Check out my other Cambodian recipe posts:

Hot and Sour Mushroom Soup

Kho Manor Nung To Hu (Pineapple and Tofu)

Cambodian Spiced Eggplant

Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Parfait (Borbo Skor La-Pov)

Num Chet Chien (Banana Nuggets!)

Nem To-hu Sap (Vegetarian Summer Rolls)

Tirk Salouk Swai (Mango Chilli Salsa)

Cucumber & Vermicelli Salad

Chilli Free Black Eyed Bean, Pumpkin and Fennel Curry with Turmeric Couscous

It’s a fact that some people out there in the world think that they don’t like chilli. I know, it’s crazy, but there you have it. However, this shouldn’t mean that they can’t enjoy curry! Because curry is really delicious and super easy to make. So this recipe is dedicated to those out there who don’t like chilli, in a hope that they will love curry too! On the other hand, if you are a chilli fiend then feel free to add some dried or fresh chilli to this curry when you add the other spices.

Ingredients:

The Curry:

Olive oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp chaat masala (or substitute garam masala)

½ tsp ground roasted fenugreek (for instructions on making your own out of whole seeds see this recipe)

1 tsp turmeric

3 cardamom pods, whole

1 tbsp apricot jam

½ fennel bulb, diced

2 tomatoes, diced

3 cups vegetable stock

3 carrots, roughly chopped

2 potatoes, chopped

400g pumpkin, peeled and chopped

1 x 400ml tin of coconut milk

5 Brussels Sprouts, quartered

2 cups black eyed beans, pre boiled (ie. cover with water and boil for about 30 minutes or until softened but not mushy)

½ cup fresh peas or frozen peas

The Couscous:

2 cups instant couscous

1 tsp turmeric

2 ½ cups vegetable stock

2 tbsp slivered almonds, toasted*

2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted*

6-7 dates, chopped

Salt to taste

* Toasting! There are 2 ways to do this 1) Spread the almond slivers  and pine nuts on a tray and toast under a grill for 2-3 minutes until slightly browned – keep a close eye on the suckers because they are really easy to burn. 2) Heat a little bit of oil in a non stick pan and then slightly fry the nuts for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly.

To Make:

1.  Heat olive oil in a large saucepan, soup pot or wok. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute until slightly softened. Add all the spices and fry for 1-2 minutes until spices are very fragrant, stirring constantly.

2. Add the apricot jam and stir through until the jam has melted and begins to simmer. Then add the fennel and tomatoes and simmer for 4-5 minutes, stirring roughly to break the tomatoes down.

3. Add the vegies stock, pumpkin, carrots, and potatoes and bring to the boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes or until vegies are tender. (While it is doing this boil the kettle and get your vegie stock ready for the couscous).

4. Add the coconut milk, black eyed beans and peas and simmer for a further 10 to 15 minutes with the lid off. While it is simmering away prepare your couscous:

5. Put the instant couscous in a bowl with the tumerick and some salt and pepper and stir well. Then add the hot stock and stir with a fork. Leave it for about 5 minutes to soak up all the liquid and then go back and fluff it up with the fork. Stir through the toasted nuts and the chopped dates. Leaving it stand for about 5 minutes longer while your curry finishes. Serve together!!

Serves 4-5 (or makes great leftovers for less people!)