Isolation curry

Fresh curry leaves and fresh turmeric can be hard to find but New Loon Moon (support Chinatown!) and massive Sainsbury’s stores have them. Your local Asian supermarket might have them too (support Asian businesses! Trade is massively down due to Corona-related racism. Here’s a list of my faves).

DISCLAIMER: this is not a Filipino dish, it just features some of my favourite ingredients!

Serves 4 

1 red onion, finely sliced

5-8 fresh curry leaves 

1 tbsp coconut oil

Thumb sized knob of fresh turmeric, finely grated

Thumb sized knob of ginger, finely grated 

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped or crushed

3 green chillis, finely chopped

Tin of coconut milk 

1 tbsp coconut oil 

250g red lentils 

1-2 tsp salt, to taste

1 tsp freshly ground pepper

10 cherry or baby plum tomatoes, sliced in half 

1 veg stock cube dissolved in 250g hot water 

1 and 1/2 tsp coriander seeds

1 and 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tbsp ghee or oil

10 oyster mushrooms, torn in 2-3 pieces (equal sizes)

1/2 tsp salt

Place pot on high heat and toast coriander seeds and cumin for one minute, then grind in a pestle and mortar.

On medium, heat coconut oil and fry onion slices till soft, about 4 mins. Add curry leaves, salt and pepper, grated ginger and turmeric, fry for another minute.

Stir in garlic and chilli and fry for 1 minute then add tomatoes, coriander, cumin, and red lentils then fry for 3 minutes till a bit transparent (as with risotto) and the tomatoes have broken down a bit.

Stir in coconut milk, plus stock cube/hot water combo. Simmer on low heat for 25-30 mins.

In a frying pan on medium-high, heat a tbsp of ghee (or oil to make it vegan) and fry mushrooms till golden.

Serve lentil curry in bowls and top with fried mushrooms with a squeeze of lime juice. Tada!

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Option to up your greens: Add 200g roughly chopped green beans to lentil mixture 8-10 mins before you want to serve.

Substitute: instead of mushrooms, use 1 aubergine. Place diced aubergine in a bowl and toss with 1/2 tsp salt and tsp ground turmeric, then fry till golden. 

Lockdown store-cupboard alternative: ground turmeric / ground ginger / tinned tomatoes / sans curry leaves will do too. Top with toasted almonds or crumbled nachos for texture.