This is made with a fairly universal curry sauce, similar to the general sauce used in Indian restaurants. After step 3, you can use the sauce for any sort of curry – add some meat or fish instead of the egg and sweet potato, or pile some extra chillis for heat. You can also thin the sauce with water and then add lentils for a nice dhal dish, or omit the tomatoes and add sliced almonds and some double cream to approximate a korma… it’s very versatile!
Ingredients:
1/2 pint coconut milk, or 1/2 pint boiling water mixed with a sachet of creamed coconut
tin of chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 star anise
1/2 tspn ground cinnamon
1 large red chilli
1 large onion
thumb of ginger root
3 cloves garlic
3 hard-boiled eggs
1 sweet potato
handful of fresh coriander (cilantro), roughly chopped
sunflower oil
1. In a dry frying pan, toast the cumin, coriander and fenugreek seeds. When they’re smelling fragrant and popping intermittently, decant them into a mortar and pestle or spice grinder and grind to tiny bits.
2. Cut the onion in half. Cut one half into slices and set aside. Grate the other half with the ginger. Finely chop the garlic and chilli. Fry the grated half of the onion, and the ginger, in a little oil, then add the garlic and finally the chilli (The longer you fry the onion, the darker the colour of your eventuall curry sauce.)
3. Add the coconut milk, tomatoes and all the spices, including the ones you’ve ground up. Mix to combine, turn the heat down and simmer for about half an hour. Once the sauce has thickened, remove it from the pan and keep on one side.
4. Peel the sweet potato, and slice thickly. Fry it in a bit of oil until both sides are golden bown, then add the slices of onion you kept back at step 2.
5. Return the sauce to the pan, and mix the potatoes in. Reduce the heat to a low simmer, and cook for about ten minutes before adding the eggs. Cook for a further ten minutes.
6. Sprinkle over the chopped coriander and serve with rice, naan, pickles and all the usual curry acoutrements.
