A new blog and a curry - in one day?!

So, I thought it about time that 'The Stripey Shed' had a blog.  There are lots of goings on at 'The Shed' and my twitter and facebook pages aren't really suitable for a lot of it, like recipes and patterns that I would like to share, so I needed a new outlet...and here it is!

Last night was 'End Of Month Panic' for dinner.  It's not really a panic this month as there was plenty to choose from, but some times it is.  Payday is on the 28th of each month, so as a general rule the 26th is 'EOMP' and the 27th is 'use up all the bits and pieces'.  I like the 27th as it often means simply chucking the dregs of bags of fish fingers/potato wedges/oven chips/crispy chicken in the oven for 20 minutes and then bunging it on plates - nice and easy.  Tonight, however, I wanted curry.  I made one curry from scratch using this recipe from the BBC (which was really really good, even if I couldn't puree the onions quite as much as the recipe said I should), but I have never found a decent recipe for Bombay Potatoes just the way I like them (i.e. quite distanced from the real thing, probably!) and every knows you can't have a good curry without Bombay Potatoes...not in this house anyway!  So this is cobbled together from various recipes over the years, and is quite delicious, even if I do say so myself!

Bombay Potatoes

serves about 6-8 as a side dish, possibly with leftovers for picking at all evening!

cost per serving approx 20 pence (as at today's date)

A brilliant side dish for any curry, with enough leftovers for lunch the following day.  You could also use leftover cooked boiled potatoes for this recipe, making it even more economical.  Very very easy to prepare and delicious to boot! Any leftovers freeze well if you aren't likely to eat this much in one go, although it rarely makes it to the freezer in this house.

Ingredients

• approx 1kg/2.2lb peeled potatoes.  I cut them into roughly walnut sized pieces or so.  Accuracy really not important, but they all need to be a similar size to cook evenly.  You could of course use new potatoes and leave the skin on for all the lovely vit. C and goodness in the skins.
• 2-3tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil.  
• 1 large onion, sliced.
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• large pinch cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground garam masala
• 1 tsp hot chilli powder
• 3 tsp minced garlic and ginger paste or 1 tsp garlic puree and 2 tsp minced ginger
• small knob butter, about 1tsp
• 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 2 tsp mango chutney
• Some fresh coriander (optional - I often forget, as you can see in the picture!)

1. Parboil the potatoes until you can get a sharp knife in them with ease, but not quite all the way through.  This takes about 10-12 minutes for most potatoes, but will obviously depend on the size of them!  Drain them and leave them to one side.
2. Heat the oil in a good sized pan, preferably one with a lid.  A saute pan is the ideal size, but a large saucepan would suffice.  When the oil is hot add the onion and cook until it starts to go transparent, stirring occasionally.  
3. Add to the onion the black mustard seeds, cumin, turmeric, coriander, garam masala and chili powder.  Stir until the mustard seeds start to pop, then add the ginger and garlic, tinned tomatoes, butter and the mango chutney.  Do not be tempted to leave out the mango chutney - it makes all the difference!  Turn heat down to medium-low at this point and stir until combined and simmering gently, then add in your potatoes.  Stir carefully, trying not to break up the potatoes, until they are coated in the deliciousness that you have just made.  Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are cooked through and any watery juice from the tomatoes has evaporated.
4. At this point, you could just scatter over the fresh coriander and serve, but if curry night in your house is anything like in ours you will be doing about 30 things at once and anything you can do in advance is a god send.  So, I make these potatoes a couple of hours before dinner, put the lid on the pan and turn the heat off rather than cook the potatoes completely, then about 15 minutes before the rest of dinner is ready, I put the pan back on medium-low and stir them through.  When the rest of dinner is ready, just sprinkle over the fresh coriander, if you remember, and serve.

Using MySupermarket and Spices of India, I cost this recipe at approx £1.47 in total, so around 20 pence a serving.  Bargainous for such deliciousness!

So there goes The Stripey Shed's first post on it's fresh, new blog, which I shall no doubt fill with inane ramblings and, hopefully, some useful bits and pieces I find along the way.