Damn delicious accidental, fake mutton vegetarian curry

Sometimes, I can concoct recipes in my mind. I guess if you read too many recipe books, you tend to have that instinct. I bought a packet of dried meat alternatives or fake mutton which I need to soak in warm water before cooking. I am not sure of the brand but I bought it from Tesco. A lot of Hindus are vegetarian and hence, they do have many of such soy products to provide the protein. The next time you go to Little India, do ask those shops selling spices to recommend some for you. I love going to those spice shops in Little India because they have such a huge myriad of spices that I have never heard of.

Anyway…here’s what I did and got myself a delicious bowl of fake curry of fake mutton. 😛

Ingredients and method :

2 large onions
1 bulb garlic
1 huge piece of ginger

Blend all of the above

Mix a paste of cummins,coriander,fennel and poppy seeds powder with oil. Just one teaspoon of each will do. You can easily buy 20 cents packet of such spices.

Heat oil and fry some curry leaves and cloves/cinnamon,cardamon or whatever you can get your hands on. Usually, these spices are sold whole in a mix packet and meant to be added to curries. Trust me, you will get an ‘Indian smelling curry’ with them. Just a little pinch of everything will serve the purpose. Add the blended ingredients and continue frying until fragrant.

Add your meat alternatives. Add milk and simmer. Do not put too much milk as a drier curry is much preferred.

Add lots of chillies, capsicums and a whole bunch of coriander leaves which have been cut finely.

The coriander leaves and ginger gave a very, very appetizing flavour to the otherwise bland meat alternative. Meanwhile, the milk provide the lemak taste.

That was my dinner last night. A portion of the curry, some dou miao and egg.

So, basically, what you need to store in your kitchen are :

1) Packets of spice powders
2) A packet of mixed spices which are in whole like cinnamon sticks, cloves,cardamons,poppy seeds, fenugreek etc
3) Curry leaves (you can buy a bunch and it doesn’t matter if they are dried after standing too long in your fridge, they smell as great)

And you can make ‘fake curries’ like the Indians already.