Seasonal local food recipe No.392 – Maxine’s green tomato curry
Avoiding food waste is an incredibly important aspect of being a community supported agriculture scheme. We’ve already made many of our leftover end-of-season green tomatoes into chutney to go in our Christmas boxes.
The very last of the green tomato glut are going in the weekly veg boxes alongside this delicious recipe that Camel CSA member Maxine has provided for us.
She says: “This recipe has been stolen and merged with a dozen or so others, so none of it’s original, but this is my take on it. It does tend to be different each time I make it according to what veg I have in the cupboard.”
Sometimes she serves it with a side dish of fried green tomatoes, immortalised in the southern US film Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
Serves: 6
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: one hour
Ingredients
1 cup of yellow split peas or lentils
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp cayenne pepper
4 cloves of garlic
4 shallots or medium sized onions (the more flavourful the better)
1 large thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
2 lemongrass stems
1 tsp ground cumin
4-6 medium-hot green chillies – finger type (according to taste)
2 tbsp fish sauce (or vegan equivalent)
2 tbsp oil
1 x 400g tin of coconut milk
250 veg stock, or boiling water with 1 veg stock pot pod, pouch or cube
500g green tomatoes
300g potatoes, roasted squash or roasted sweet potato according to taste (or combination) carrots, sprouts or any other veg you fancy
To serve:
fresh coriander
lime wedges
1 handful of roasted and salted peanuts Method
Add the split peas to a pan and cover with water, add turmeric and cayenne pepper and simmer until cooked but still nutty.
Peel the garlic, onions and ginger. Remove the tough outer leaves of the lemongrass and discard.
Chop everything finely (leaving half the onions aside just roughly chopped into chunks) and add to a food processor along with the cumin and chillies and half of the coriander leaves and all the stalks.
Blitz until it makes a paste, then add the fish sauce and whizz again.Heat the oil in a wok or pan and gently fry off the blitzed green paste for about 5 minutes, stirring gently.
Add coconut milk and boiling hot stock and allow to boil. Turn down and simmer for 10 minutes until thickened.
Add tomatoes and other vegetables and allow to cook through without going mushy. Stir in gently the yellow split peas or lentils and heat gently to combine the flavours.
Sprinkle with remaining coriander, peanuts and a squeeze of lime juice.
Serve with rice or any flat bread.
