Potato and Broccoli curry, a light and tasty recipe

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Potatoe and Broccoli Curry

This is a stalwart Cantonese style vegetarian dish that should also be fine for Vegan's and Carnivores alike.

We give this recipe as found in all good Cantonese vegetarian restaurants, but it would be simple to add some meat, if this is your thing. Unusually this dish is delicious without any meat, so please try the recipe below before making personal alterations.

This is a light creamy curry, which can be hot or not. It is Vietnamese in style, so leave your Indian spices in the cupboard for this one.

Recipe Source:

	Jonno, China Expats, Foshan, China

	Websites:China Expats.com
	Jonno is a keen chef for friends and family. He has cooked and interpolated many dishes over the years, and invented ones of his own: Most notably 'Splodge', which is vaguely based upon Italian cuisine

Let's get started:- Potatoe and Broccoli Curry

Ingredients:

• 1 massive or several small potatoes. • 1 Calabrese style Broccoli. • 1 dozen colourful capsicum chunks of your choosing. • 4oz Chinese Straw mushrooms, whole or halved. • 4oz Chinese Black mushrooms, whole-crowns or sliced. • Use Button mushrooms as a replacement - excellent! • 1 or several, mild or hot chilli peppers = up to you! • 1 large or 2 small white onions, 2/3rds diced, 1/3rd chunks. • Sunflower oil. • 1/2 wardrobe of Garlic, peeled, trimmed, squashed and diced. • 2 inches cubed of fresh ginger, finely chopped • 1 jar Chinese curry powder, as found in any supermarket shelf - it is yellow. • 1 tin quality coconut milk. • Salt and Pepper. • Half teaspoon of turmeric.


Method

1. Empty the whole jar of Chinese curry powder into a bowl and mix with water to form a fluid paste. Set aside and leave to marinade, stirring occasionally. 2. Prepare the rest of the main ingredients, peeling and chopping potatoes, whilst washing and cutting up the Broccoli. Everything you are using needs to be in bite-sized pieces, except the chilli of course! I prefer to simply wash the Straw mushrooms and leave them whole, but you can halve them if you prefer? 3. Taking your favourite wok or large saucepan, add the oil, garlic, ginger and diced onions; and toss for a couple of minutes, ensuring everything is not burnt at all. 4. Add black pepper to taste, chilli's and turmeric, mixing well in. 5. Now put in the tin of coconut milk and return to a simmer. 6. Add your Chinese curry powder/paste next, and ensure this is worked well into the mix. 7. You may need to add water at any time during cooking. We need something quite fluid until time for final thickening. 8. Add the potatoes and simmer for up to 10 minutes. 9. Add the broccoli and simmer for 5-minutes. Stir very gently and occasionally, and notice how the colour and viscosity changes as this dish melds together. If the sauce of your main dish thickens too much during cooking, then add a little hot water from the kettle and stir-in thoroughly. You are looking for something with the constitution of whole cream milk (Shaken, not stirred). 11. Now add the sliced peppers and remaining onion. 12. Stir for 1 minute under a good heat and check the flavour. If it is OK, add the salt. If not OK, adjust and then add the salt. 13. Stir for a further 1 minute and serve on a bed of rice. Alternative Cooking suggestion: 14. You can add or replace items, like adding sliced carrots (sweet), sweetcorn (sweet), green beans (versions); but what we have given above is a great place to start for both Vegetarians and Vegan's 15. This dish could benefit from the addition of lemongrass - if you prefer a Thai or Malaysian taste. Lemongrass is usually not available in China Mainland. 16. One excellent and unusual ingredient are 'orlimons', or what I call sour oranges that taste like mild grapefruit. Simply slice wafer thin so you can see through them, and add near the end of cooking - or add chunks if you prefer. Works great! 17. Carnivores could add meat at stage 4 above. If I were to do so, which I consider to be totally unnecessary, then it would be of the form: 'Siu Juk' ('Siu Yuck' or small meat), or thinly sliced suckling pig - available from any wet market.