Tandoori Carrot Korma

Roast carrots in a hot oven until they are soft and a little burnt in places and you have a vegetable that can sit happily in any of your favourite Indian curries. Serves 4 Prep 20 mins Cooking 2 hours

1.5kg carrots, cut into

3cm-long barrels 60ml (1/4 cup) peanut or vegetable oil

3 red onions, halved and thinly sliced

3 blades of mace (no mace?

Use star anise instead) 3 garlic cloves, crushed 3cm knob of ginger, peeled

and finely grated

2 tsp brown sugar, plus

extra to taste

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground cumin

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1½ tsp soy sauce or tamari

1 tsp sea salt

400g can diced tomatoes freshly squeezed lemon juice, to taste

125g raw cashews, ground in a food processor to a fine meal

2 green cardamom pods, crushed

1 tsp curry powder

150ml vegetable stock

(optional)

To serve

steamed brown rice coriander leaves grated raw cashews

Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced.

Place the carrots on a baking tray and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the peanut or vegetable oil. Toss until well coated, then roast for 1½ hours or until soft. Transfer half the carrots to a plate and set aside.

Increase the oven temperature to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Return remaining carrots to the oven and roast for a further 20 minutes or until golden and even a little burnt in places. Turn off the oven and leave the carrots inside until cooled slightly but are still warm. This will dry them out a little more and make them almost chewy.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan over low heat. Add the onion and mace and cook very slowly, stirring occasionally but more frequently towards the end, for 30–40 minutes or until the onion is nicely browned and caramelised. Add the garlic and ginger to the onion and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes or until starting to caramelise. Add the sugar, ground coriander and cumin and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes, then add the vinegar, soy sauce or tamari and salt and cook, stirring, for 1–2 minutes or until reduced and you have deglazed the pan. Add the tomatoes and season with salt, sugar and a little lemon juice to taste. Cook, stirring, for 15 minutes or until thick and pulpy. Remove the mace and stir in the cashew meal, then cook for 5 minutes or until heated through. Remove from the heat and set aside for 5 minutes to cool.

Transfer the tomato mixture to a food processor and blitz until smooth. Return the tomato mixture to the pan and stir in the cardamom pods and curry powder. Add all the carrot to the pan (for a thinner curry add the vegetable stock at this point), return to medium heat and stir for 2–3 minutes or until heated through.

Serve the carrot korma on brown rice with coriander leaves and grated cashews sprinkled over the top.