Curry in a hurry - cashew nut korma

It's time to lash out away from all that rich carby pasta and rice and move into the wonderful world of Indian flavours! I have Indian neighbours, all the way from downtown Bangalore. Often I have to close my balcony door to drive out the smell of South Indian spices drifting up from downstairs (not to mention the shrieks from their kid, but that's another story). This recipe is fairly easy to make. It is tasty and improves over time. High leftover potential too.

Ingredients

75g (3 oz) creamed coconut, sliced into flakes (Hard to find in the shops! Try a health food shop or food co-op as my local fresh food corporatised supermarket did not sell it. It comes in chunks.)
30 ml (2 tbspns) sunflower oil (olive oil is OK too)
2 onions, chopped
2 fresh green chillies, deseeded and finely sliced (greens one are mild)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 ground coriander
125g (4 oz) unsalted cashew nuts, pureed in a food processor
salt n freshly ground black pepper
250g (8 oz) long grain rice (white or brown - I used white)
1/2 medium sized cauliflower, split into florets
125g (4 oz) okra, with ends cut off (see photo - you should be able to buy okra in a supermarket)

125g (4 oz) zucchini (courgettes), sliced
125g (4 oz) frozen peas
2 - 4 tbspns chopped fresh coriander

Method
1. Place coconut in a bowl and pour over 450ml (15 fl oz) boiling water. Stir and leave to melt completely.
2. While that is melting, warm oil in a saucepan over moderate heat, adding onion. Cover and cook until tender (5 - 7 mins).
3. Add chillies, garlic and spices, stir well and cook for a further 1 - 2 mins. Remove and set aside.
4. Stir pureed cashew nuts into the bowl with melted coconut. Add this mixture to the onion and spices in the pan. Season with salt n pepper. Cover and set aside again.
If you are after a more intense flavour or if you are pre-preparing it, you can now leave it for up to 24 hours. Cover it and keep in the fridge.
5. When you are ready to eat, cook the rice (I always just use a microwave).
6. Cook the veggies by pouring 1cm (1/2 in) boiling water into a largish saucepan. Add cauli and okra, cover and half-boil, half-steam for 1 min. Add zucchini (courgettes), cover and cook for another 3 mins. Drain the veggies.
7. Stir veggies into the creamy cashew nut mixture, along with frozen peas.
8. Warm entire mixture over a gentle heat. Add more salt and pepper, to taste.
9. Serve on rice, sprinkled with chopped coriander.

Monica Trapaga's Mexican-style garlic prawns

Ex-PlaySchool host and purveyor of fine wares at Reclaim at Summer Hill (http://www.monica.com.au/reclaim), Monica Trapaga originally shared this recipe in the Australian Women's Weekly (now published monthly!) in March 1996. It's really easy to make, as the hardest part is actually going to the shops to buy the prawns! You can eat them by themselves, but also delicious on a bed of rice sprinkled with chopped almonds.

Note - you can prepare the marinade up to 3 hours in advance.

Ingredients
1 kg uncooked medium prawns (banana prawns or king prawns if you're rolling in it)
1/3 cup (80 ml) lime juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tspn sugar
2 small red chillies, seeded, chopped (the smaller, the stronger the flavour so go easy if you're not a red hot chilli fan)
1/4 tspn cracked black pepper
1 tabspn olive oil

Method
1. Peel and devein prawns, leaving the tails on. (This is vile and there is no easy way to it. Just don't forget to pull out the "shit shoot")
2. Combine prawns with all remaining ingredients in a bowl. Cover and put in fridge for several hours.
3. When you pull them out again, drain the marinade from the prawns and keep the marinade.
4. Heat BBQ or frypan, add prawns and cook on both sides until just cooked through (they go reddish ;))

5. Put marinade in with prawns and bring to the boil.
6. Serve prawns with marinade. You can also add rice and steamed snow peas.

I know this recipe isn't strictly veg (apologies to the vegans) but some of us eat seafood.