Last Saturday, walking in the shop, I saw a can of coconut milk and immediately had the idea of making curry. Can you imagine Asian cuisine without the smell of coconut and turmeric all around? Well, I am a person who can’t!
One of the best things about curries is that they can be quite simple to make and it is possible to do it quickly too. So again fast, simple and tasty, the three things I love the most in the kitchen world.
Both of us like Asian food (Indian, Nepalese, Korean… ). If we made choices about what restaurant to eat at just from a practical point of view then the easiest way to choose would always be one with a curry smell from outside because we know that everyone will find something to eat (vegetarian, vegan or meat eater). Strangeely, we probably didn’t have any curry for the last couple of months, so my spontaneous idea, without any big preparation, turned out to be a delicious dish. Let’s call it ‘Rima’s vegan curry‘.
Before I write the recipe, I should confess that I never read any curry recipes, but according to my experiences in tasting others dishes, it would be right to call this a curry, at least I think so!
There is the list of ingredients I used:
- Organic smoked tofu – 150g
- Organic coconut milk – 200ml
- Any kind of mushrooms – 300g
- Rice – 250g
- Olive oil
- Flour
- Garlic
- Ground turmeric, ginger, coriander, curry powder and dried lemon zest
- Dried chillies
- Fresh dill
- Salt & pepper
We were in a small supermarket but always try to buy good quality ingredients, so we ended up with organic smoked tofu, the coconut milk, some local mushrooms and organic garlic. At home we already had dried chillies and dill from the garden. If we would live, for example in Sri Lanka, no doubt we would use everything local.
If you can’t find smoked tofu you could use any kind of firmish tofu, or even seitan would be good, but the smoky flavor is super nice so try it out!
So how to make my bursting with flavour mushroom curry?
- Pour a little olive oil into a pan and add sliced smoked tofu, fry it gently, adding some crushed garlic, while you chop the mushrooms.
- While the tofu is doing it’s thing, cut the mushrooms into slices and add to the pan. Season with salt and pepper and cook for about 5-7 minutes.
- Add 180ml of the coconut milk, ground turmeric, ginger, coriander, lemon and crushed dried chillies. How much spice depends on you, I would recommend to put a little to start with, tasting and adding to find the best amount.
- Bring it to boiling point and then turn the heat down so that it is just simmering.
- Put some water on to boil and cook the rice. This time I just used the rice we had at home, which was basmati and added a little turmeric to the water so it got a nice yellow color.
- Cook the rice for about 20 minutes and then take it off the heat. Now is time to mix the last 20ml of coconut milk with a dessertspoon of flour and stir it into the curry for a couple of minutes so it becomes nicely creamy.
- If you have some fresh coriander that would suit perfectly just add a bit and leave some for later. The last gesture is to sprinkle dill on the curry.
I hope you will try it and hope even more that you will love it!