Curry your gran!

It's late(ish), you're tired, you left a bag of newly bought clothes on the train the night before, your football team is shit and you're hungry. There is only one thing that can help - a cuzza!!

Now on a night like this you'd be forgiven for dialling one in, but this is dippolicious we're talking about and so long as you have a few basic spices and ingredients to build your curry around, you'll have no problems in stirring one up in 30 mins or so. Seriously, you can pretty much use whatever you have available as almost all ingredients are interchangeable with other ones, just be sensible. I had no meat this eve so I used the vegetables I had to hand.

Serves 2 with loooooads left over for the next day:

1 and 1/2 tbsp of cumin seeds
1 tbsp of coriander seeds
2 cardamom pods (split and seeds removed)
2 tsp of garam masala
2 tsp of turmeric

mustard oil (vegetable oil will do)
2 medium white onions
1 garlic clove
2 carrots, finely cubed
1 hot green chilli (red is fine)
1 squash (peeled, deseeded and roughly chopped)
1 tin of chick peas (400g)
1 tin of coconut milk (400ml)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes (400g)
200g of spring greens (400g of spinach will work)
A handful of chopped coriander

Coarsely chop your onions and garlic and add to a tall pan. Fry these in a little mustard oil over a medium heat for about 8 mins. Meanwhile grind your spices in a pestle and mortar until you have a combined powder.

Add the cubed carrot and chopped chilli (I kept the seeds in), tip in your spices and mix well for a couple of minutes before adding the squash. Cook for just over 5 minutes or until the squash begins to fluff on the outer edges.

Stir through the chick peas, season, cook for a minute and add the coconut milk. Stir well.

After a minute or two pour in the chopped tomatoes, stir, cover and leave for 15 mins or until the squash can be easily pierced with a fork.

At this point roll up your greens like a cigar and run a sharp knife through them, you'll end up with nice ribbons that can be just dropped into the pan and left to wilt for a few minutes.

Ladle into bowls, scatter with coriander and add a squeeze of lemon to finish the dish. Serve with rice or a folded chapati like I did. Get stuck in!

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