This recipe was made with the Chef’s Pan & the Stockpot from the MEYER Cinder and Smoke Collection.
I’ve been craving a warm and comforting bowl of aromatic curry during this extremely cold winter spell! This delicious savoury curry is made with simple pantry ingredients you can find in your home, and is unbelievably easy to make!
The Spices
I chose to incorporate some pepper, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, Ceylon cinnamon, cloves and cumin seeds for this recipe. It gives this curry a comforting aroma and these spices have amazing benefits for your health. Fresh spices are always better to use than store-bought curry packets because you can taste the difference in freshness and flavour in your food.
Making traditional Thai curry paste is cumbersome, so this is a shortened, easier way to make a flavourful curry in a quarter of the time. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a replacement for the amazing Thai green or red curry, but this will certainly add to the list of curries you will want for some comfort food.
Why Ceylon Cinnamon?
I have recently discovered that Ceylon cinnamon is far safer to use than Cassia cinnamon. Why? it comes down to the coumarin content in the Cassia variety. Coumarin is a natural plant chemical that acts like a blood thinner. If you’re going to undergo a medical procedure, are at a higher risk of bleeding or have liver damage, consuming larger doses of Cassia cinnamon or consuming it daily can lead to negative health circumstances.
Ceylon cinnamon also has a higher antioxidant content, and also contains antimicrobial, and anti-parasitic properties.
The Lemongrass Infused Coconut Milk
To make this aromatic coconut milk, I added about four stalks of lemongrass to a stockpot of coconut milk, and let it simmer for 30 minutes. You can even go a step further and add some Thai sweet basil in this coconut milk for extra flavour. You can infuse anything in coconut milk.
The Curry Base
I’ve used a mixture of caramalised onions, garlic, ginger, Arabic curry powder (I got this from Dubai, you can use Indian curry powder instead) and tomato paste. I could have used fresh tomatoes, but I wanted a highly concentrated base. The larger tomato variety contains a lot of water, which would have diluted the flavour and taken longer to cook. You could use cherry tomatoes to solve this (if you’re really keen on fresh ingredients).
Spicy Lemongrass Coconut Curry (Vegan)
Equipment
- 1 Stockpot from the MEYER Cinder and Smoke Collection
- 1 Chef's Pan from the MEYER Cinder and Smoke Collection
- 1 Sharp knife
- 1 Colander
- 2 Wooden Spoons
- 1 Pestle & Mortar
- 1 Tablespoon Measurement
Ingredients
Vegetables
- Handful of broccoli florets
- Handful of baby corn (sliced)
- Handful of carrots you can choose any other vegetable you like to make this. I chose a variety of colours to enhance this dish.
Lemon Grass Infused Coconut Milk
- 4 lemongrass stalks snipped/trimmed to the purple tender part
- 800 ml coconut milk
Curry Base
- 2 tbsps tomato paste
- 3 tsps curry powder
- 1/2 medium onion diced
- 3 tsps garlic minced or shredded
- 1 tsp ginger minced or shredded
Spices
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 3 cloves
- 2" Ceylon cinnamon 1/2" wide
- 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp Coriander seeds
- 1/4 tsp Fennel seeds
Seasoning
- 1 tbsp organic low-sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp Chinese black vinegar
- 1/2 tsp maple syrup or a sweetener of your choice
- 1/4 tsp chilli oil
- 1/4 tsp chilli flakes
- lemon zest as you like
- lemon juice as you like
- salt as you like
- 1 cup fresh coriander chopped with the root
Accompanied Carbs (essential)
- 1 cup steamed rice OR
- slices of toasted buttered sourdough
Instructions
Lemongrass Infused Coconut Milk
- In the Stockpot, add the coconut milk and lemongrass. Set the heat to high, and once the mixture reaches a bubbling boil, turn the heat down to a very low fire. Cover the stockpot with a lid, and let this simmer for 30 minutes or until you finish cooking the base of the curry.
Spices
- In a large pestle and mortar, add in all the spices (except the fresh coriander leaves) and grind it into a powder. I like placing this on the floor so there is more space. You can chose to toast these spices before you grind them as well. Once you've finished grinding this into a powder, set this aside.
Curry
- In the Chef's Pan, pour in some macadamia nut or avocado oil (these have high smoke points) and heat it up over medium heat.
- Add in the onions and cook this until brown, and caramalised.
- Add in the garlic and ginger. Stir for a minute until fragrant.
- Add in the tomato paste, and curry powder. Stir this in thoroughly.
- Add in the spices (except the fresh coriander leaves), and mix everything together once again.
- Release the lid of the Stockpot, and turn off the gas. Remove the lemongrass pieces.
- Gently pour the coconut milk into the Chef's Pan, and combine everything together. This curry should be a beautiful & vibrant orange colour now.
- Slip in your veggies, and let it cook for about 3 minutes with the lid on.
- Release the lid from the Chef's Pan, and season your curry using the ingredients and measurements above ^
- The final step is to add the cup of chopped coriander leaves. Gently mix this in before turning the gas off.
- Garnish the curry with some chopped pistachios and saffron.
- Serve this with warm buttered sourdough bread or rice!