This has been a long long winter as far as Greek island winters go. Last year was our first winter on the island and we couldn’t believe what these guys here call winter. The weather was stunning most of the time with a few ferocious storms thrown in for good measure, but you don’t mind a few storms when you can get some tan in the middle of January! I remember it very well as both Duncan and I were racing in a local 10 km race and it was almost 20° C.
This year was very different. We’ve had so many storms that I’ve lost count and they were all very angry, each one angrier than the last. The most recent one lasted two days and had wind gusts reaching 50 miles per hour. It felt like the house was going to blow down. We bolted all the doors and windows and didn’t leave the house for two days eating lots of curry to warm up. This South Indian coconut curry is my favourite kind of curry. A lingering chilli kick is contrasted by soothing coconut that runs throughout the dish. It uses quite a few spices to achieve its complex flavour, but don’t panic, you probably have most of them at the back of your cupboard. I made a handy diagram for you (below) showing all the spices you need at a glance. They’ll transform any humble dish into an addictive one. If you are missing any of the spices, go and get them. If I managed to get them here, on a tiny Greek island in the middle of Aegean then I’m sure they sell them somewhere where you live too. In terms of vegetables, I used my two favourites – chickpeas and aubergine, but I’m sure that other veg should work equally well. My recipe is based on this great recipe for Southern Indian Chana Masala . Both Duncan and myself fell in love with these flavours and I wanted to share my discovery with you.
2 tbsp vegetable oil ½ tsp mustard seeds 1 medium onion, finely diced 2 garlic cloves, pressed 1 tsp grated ginger 1 large tomato, skinned and diced ½ tsp ground turmeric 1 bay leaf 1 aubergine, cut into slices and then quarters ¾ cup full fat coconut milk 1 cup / 160 g cooked chickpeas (½ cup dry) 1 level tsp salt 2 tbsp lime juice chopped coriander, to serve
