Chickpea and courgette curry.

This a good tasty and fast curry dish that is easy to make and very good to eat.  As long as you have the spices to make this in your store cupboard then you should be all right.  If you are missing one or two of the, it will not be then end of the world. Also I have been thinking of things that are coming up such as Halloween and Christmas and forgot that Diwali starts soon.  Diwali or Divale , I do not know if that is how you spell it as there seems to be two ways to spell it  the festival of light this is my recipe for that .  I Hope that it is authentic.

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 bunch coriander roughly chopped

3 green chillies, chopped

3 garlic cloves

½ tsp ground fenugreek

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground cloves

½ tsp salt

½ tsp caster sugar

400ml/14fl oz coconut milk

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cinnamon stick

4 green cardamom pods

5 curry leaves

½ tsp mustard seeds

3 courgettes, chopped

400g/14oz chickpeas cooked

1 tsp garam masala

Now to start with you have a choice you can either get dryad chickpeas and soak them over night, strain off the water and then boil and simmer till cooked .  Or you can open a tin of them.  Both ways are just as good for this it is up to you.

After you have done that you need to make your curry paste , get  half of the onion, chillies, garlic, ground fenugreek, ground coriander, asafoetida, ground cloves, salt and sugar all in a  food processor  and blend them together.

Now get a little oil in a pan and heat on a low to medium heat.  Take your cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, curry leaves and mustard seeds and bash them a little with a rolling pin and add them to the oil.  Stir it a few times then add the blended spices from the food processor and the rest of the onion sliced.  Cook for about 2 or 3 minutes to get the flavours out of the spices.

Add the courgette, sliced thick or in a chunky dice, and let it cook for about 2 or 3 minutes. Sprinkle in the garam masala and add the coconut milk.  And finally add your chickpeas.  Just cook for a little so it reduces down and serve straight away with some pilau rice.