Peanut Butter Curry

I made this curry a couple of days ago and it was unbelievably delicious, as well as being very nutritious and protein-heavy.

Like an idiot, I was so busy stuffing it in my face I failed to take a single picture, either while I was making it or when it was finished.

So - imagine it! Think creamy, fatty, with orangey-pink colours, pops of chilli slices and the little black specks of mustard seed, poured over fluffy brown basmati.

TIP:
You don't have to include the sweet potato, plain spuds will do, but you could stir any robust vegetables into it.

To make the paste:

2 tsp coriander seeds (toasted)
2 tsp cumin seeds (toasted)
1 tsp sesame seeds (toasted)
2 tbsp dessiccated coconut (toasted)
1 inch ginger
6 cloves garlic
4 tbsp peanut butter (crunchy or smooth, doesn't matter)
1/4 cup vegetable oil

To make the rest:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 large onion (finely chopped)
2 tsp salt
1 green chilli (finely chopped) 
2 tsp fenugreek powder
2 tbsp tomato paste
4 tomatoes (chopped)
1 tin coconut milk

handful green beans
handful kale
handful mangetout 

3 sweet potatoes (roasted & cubed) or one massive one

To Serve:

Basmati Rice

Garnish:

Coriander
Crushed peanuts

To make:

1 Put toasted seeds in a food processor & whizz them u into a powder.

2 Add the garlic, ginger, peanut butter, vegetable oil & whizz it all up into a thick paste.

3 Warm the vegetable oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds & wait until you hear a light popping sound.

4 Add the onions & cook them until they’re well done (not burnt). 

5 Add the salt, chilli, fenugreek powder and stir it together.

6 Add the tomato puree & stir that in too. 

7 Add the chopped tomatoes & stir that in so they’re softening and losing their structure. 

8 Add the paste you made a little earlier and cook it until the aromas from the paste are well released.

9 Add the coconut milk & stir it in so you have a lovely creamy sauce.

10 Add the spring greens, stir them in & then stir in the sweet potato chunks.

11 Serve immediately over basmati rice and finish with crushed peanuts and coriander.

It's especially good a couple of days later - put a lid on and keep it in the fridge.

Cocoa Gravy

This version of our classic Vegan Gravy was created after a tip-off from Pete Gardner at Cocoa Amore, Leicester's independent chocolate boutique.

You will need:

- 1 teaspoon of oil
- half a medium sized red onion, finely chopped
- 5 finely sliced medium sized mushrooms (you don't want big slices)
- a healthy pinch of freshly ground pepper
- half a pint of cold veg stock, preferably kept over from veg cooking
- one Kallo mushroom stock cube
- two heaped dessertspoons of fine cornmeal
- 2g 100% pure cocoa/cacao* (no added sugar, milk etc. - pure cocoa) - more if you want, after you've tasted

Do this:

Add the finely chopped red onion and mushrooms to the oil, and sautée gently till the onion's going clear and the mushrooms floppy and cooked through. Add the black pepper.

Crumble your Kallo mushroom stock cube to the (cold) veg stock, mix thoroughly.

Stir in the cornmeal, and pour gently into the onion and mushroom mix. Stir well.

Bring to the boil till it starts to thicken, then turn down and simmer gently.

Break the cocoa/cacao* into pieces and add to the gravy, stir till it melts, and stop cooking when it's as thick as you like it!

Turmeric and Ginger Tea with Coconut Milk

When Leigh recently had a bit of inflammation about the shoulder (a lot of wood-cutting for our woodturner and some hard gym sessions), I turned to this recipe I'd seen a friend talking about online a few weeks before.

This is my own tweaked version of what turned out to be a very nice drink indeed. It doesn't taste anything like you'd expect - it's creamy, soothing and rich with just a tang of turmeric and the knowledge, that comes with this delicious golden herb, that you're easing those inflamed tissues every time you sip.

Despite it feeling like a very wintry drink, I shall most definitely be making it again. Whether I am inflamed or not! And don't let my photos put you off - it was really hard to photograph! (all that yellow).

Makes 2 mugs.

YOU WILL NEED:

1 x 1-inch knob of fresh turmeric

1 x 1/2-inch knob fresh ginger

2 x teaspoons almond oil or coconut oil

1 x cup full-fat coconut or soya milk

1 x cup coconut water OR powdered ground coconut

1 x generous tablespoon maple syrup

DO THIS:

Wash the turmeric and ginger, then grate them finely into a mortar (don't bother peeling, if you grate well enough the tiny skin bits will only add to the roughage!)

Put the coconut oil into the mortar, and grind the oil into the turmeric and ginger with your pestle until they form a fine paste.

Pour the coconut milk and coconut water into a saucepan, and put in the paste made with turmeric, ginger and oil. 

Turn the heat up to medium-high and warm the ingredients together until it's bubbling a bit. Turn off the heat and cover the saucepan, allowing the turmeric and ginger to steep for about 3 minutes.  Stir in the maple syrup until it dissolves.

Strain the tea through a fine-mesh strainer or strainer into a tea pot, or pour into mugs.  

Serve warm.

If you can't get fresh turmeric (which comes in nice yellow strange-shaped blobs), substitute 2 teaspoons of organic powdered turmeric.

SOLID EGG 2015

We’ve made our solid easter eggs twice before (you may even have eaten one) but our versions for 2015 are fabulously evolved beasts!

The eggs are a labour of love that, quite frankly, we make because we can, and because we should, and because the world has been crying out for a solid - like, actual SOLID Easter egg - since Easter Eggs were invented. Easter usually comes right in the middle of an annual busy period, so there is always a late night or two as packaging is designed and photographs are taken…samples eaten...eggs collected…but somehow we do it, for the love of sinking one’s teeth into a bed of praline or gnawing on three inches of chocolate into the night.

Hand-made for us this year by Leicester chocolatier Pete at  Cocoa Amore, whose shop sits right in the middle of the current Richard III activity in Leicester, Solid Egg 2015 has a girthy 70% cocoa shell filled with either solid chocolate or incredible soft praline. Now coming as one solid egg (rather than two halves), we’ve made these in Solid Chocolate, Praline, Salted Chocolate or Ginger (the latter in limited supply). Every egg comes wrapped in a chocolate-brown signed screen print of cocoa-loving artwork by me, printed in Factory Road, just a few doors down. Which is fully washable and can be used for any purpose after the egg is long gone!

This year we’ve made 20 available as a special edition snuggled in a hand-woven nest by international willow artist Tom Hare. If you’ve been to any of the RHS gardens, or Kew Gardens, or latterly to Bishopsgate, the Bellagio in Las Vegas or to Macau...you might have seen his work. He too was in the middle of a super-busy period when we commissioned these nests from him, so we’re grateful to have them - each one will be different from the last.

As usual the eggs are 100% vegan, gluten and dairy-free, with the emphasis on flavour and quality. Oh, and size. And…weight - over 500g per egg.

Watch one being cut, and listen for the chocolate crack!

http://host.inkymole.com/SolidEggBeingCut.MOV

And you can buy one here:

https://factoryroad.net/shop/products/solid-egg-2015/

Check the photographs for proof of the existence of this magnificent celebration of bunnies, greed and re-birth!