Kitchen sink vegie curry and random moments.

Term 2 started this week.  It is hard to believe that the school holidays have whizzed by.  I had even less time at home during the holidays thanks to my new job.  I am lucky that my parents are always happy to help out and took Sylvia for a few days in the first week.  I made a huge pot of curry that meant I could relax over leftovers for a few nights.

I originally planned to make a Cauliflower and Butter Bean Curry that I found in Cook Vegetarian February 2009 when cleaning up my magazines.  As so often happens, I looked at the recipe, then I looked in the crisper in the fridge.  I just went with my instinct rather than what was in the recipe.  It was so good that I decided to blog it.  After all, this is one of my basic sort of stews.  I haven't made it for ages but I am still quite surprised not to have this sort of recipe on my blog.

The curry was the sort of stew I enjoyed as a child.  I made this for dinners when I was first out of home and learning to cook.  It is easy and comforting.  I put it on and left it for E to simmer and make rice while I went out.  We had this around for a few nights.  It saw us through book club, a quiet night, Dave O'Neil at the Comedy Festival and a night out at the pub after work.  Unfortunately I was too busy to organise to take photos in natural light.  Shorter nights are not keen to food photography.

Before I leave you, I have a few random moments from the holidays.

• Sylvia was cross with Shadow one night.  Suddenly she came to me and said, we are friends again.  Then she took some recipes in to discuss with our cat.  I guess that is a food blogger's child's idea of being friends.

• I had a puncture in my bike on the way to work last week.  Luckily there are a few bike shops along the bike path.  I had it repaired in about 20 minutes.  While the woman in the shop fixed my bike, I held her baby who had been crying.  It was a strange way to start the day.

• We went to see Beauty and the Beast at the cinema in a shopping centre.  I was so proud that we got out of the house early.  I got a great car park.  We were in the queue to buy tickets when I dug in my bag for my wallet.  I had left it at home!  So we had to drive home and back past an accident, listening to a sad story on the radio and it took so long Sylvia fell asleep.  An hour later we were in the queue again and were thankful the film was showing once an hour.

More early stews from Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Chickpea, peach and pumpkin curry (gf, v)
Chickpea, potato and tomato stew (gf, v) 
Chilli non carne with lager (gf, v)
Coconut black-eyed bean stew (gf, v)
Minestrone (v)
Sausage curry casserole (v)

Kitchen sink vegie curry
By Green Gourmet Giraffe
serves 4-6

1-2 tsp oil
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, finely sliced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp  mustard powder
400g tin diced tomatoes
400g tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained
400g tin butter beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cup water
1/2 to 1 tsp salt
1/2 cauliflower, chopped
1 generous cup frozen peas
2 small potatoes, diced
Rice, to serve

Heat oil in a stockpot and fry onion, carrot, celery and garlic until soft (I add these in this order as I chop them so it can be 5-15 minutes).

Stir in curry powder, cumin, turmeric and mustard powder.  Fry for a minute.

Add remaining ingredients.  Bring to the boil and cook for 20-30 minutes.  Serve with rice.

On the stereo:
Native Place: The Railway Children