Jamie's 30 Minute Meals - Vegetable Rogan Josh Curry

I watched Jamie Oliver make this delicious curry on his television show last week and he made it look very easy and effortless and I have to admit that I was a bit suspicious, it couldn't be that quick. Well it might have taken me slightly longer (about 40 minutes) because I wasn't as familiar as he was with the recipe and I had to keep checking but I was very pleased with the finished meal. It was healthy, sustaining and could easily feed six. Jamie comes across as a happy go lucky type but here is a very knowledgeable and an accomplished chef and in my personal experience I found that his recipes are very reliable and more importantly tested. With the leftover butternut squash I had just enough to make a previous post  Pumpkin Pie with a Twist for dessert!

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
For the curry:
2 onions
1 medium butternut squash
1 small cauliflower
1 fresh red chilli (optional)
4 cloves of garlic
A bunch of fresh coriander
½ a 283g jar of Patak's Rogan Josh paste
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas
100g prewashed baby spinach
1 x 500g tub of natural yoghurt

For the rice
1 mug of Basmati rice
A few whole cloves

For seasoning:
Olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper


How to do it:
Get all your ingredients and equipment ready. Fill and boil the kettle. Put a large saucepan on a high heat. 

Curry: Peel and slice the onions and add to the large pan with a splash of water and a few good lugs of olive oil. Carefully cut the butternut squash in half across the middle (for speed I'm only using the seedless neck), wrap up the base and put in the fridge for another day.

Quarter the neck length-ways, then slice it into 1cm chunks – no need to peel them. Add to the pan. Trim the cauliflower and remove the outer leaves. Cut it into bite-sized chunks, and throw them into the pan.

If you want some extra heat, slice up the chilli and add it now. Crush in the unpeeled garlic. Finely chop the coriander (stalks and all). Reserve a few leaves for garnish and add the rest to the pan with a couple of generous splashes of boiled water. Add the Rogan Josh paste and the tin of chickpeas, with their juices. Season and stir well, then put a lid on. Cook hard and fast, stirring occasionally.

Rice: Put the mug of rice into a medium saucepan with a lug of olive oil and a few cloves, then cover with 2 mugs of boiled water (use the same mug you used for the rice).

Add a pinch of salt, then put the lid on and boil on a medium heat for 7 minutes. Fill and reboil the kettle.

Curry: Check and add a splash of water if it looks a bit dry. Stir, then replace the lid. (I covered my frying pan with turkey foil which acted as a lid)

Rice: By now the 7 minutes should be up, so take the rice off the heat and leave it to sit with the lid on for 7 minutes. This will let it steam and will give you beautiful fluffy nutty rice.

Curry: Take the lid off. Do you need to adjust the consistency at this point? If so, you can add a generous splash of boiled water, depending on whether you want it drier or wetter. Or mash up some of the veg for different textures. Taste and add a pinch of salt, if needed, then add the spinach and stir through.

To serve: Tip half the tub of yoghurt into a small bowl. Drizzle over a little extra virgin olive oil and take to the table. Transfer the rice and curry into large serving bowls. Spoon the remaining yoghurt over the curry, sprinkle with the rest of the coriander leaves and take both bowls to the table.