The same thing happened here that happens to me every time I make a curry recipe. I always hope for the sweet/savory intensity of the curries I’m familiar with at Indian restaurants, and I am always disappointed. The Tomato Curry with Coconut Rice from Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson (Hyperion, Oct.) was fast and easy and colorful, but not something I’d make again. It was fine, and I liked the sweetness of the tomatoes and the spices present, but I felt like something was missing. Maybe it needed some cumin or coriander or ghee or cream, or to be simmered for a longer time. It’s an interesting way to use up a bunch of cherry tomatoes, though. The coconut rice was good perked up with scallions and lime juice, but black mustard seeds were difficult to find, and they didn’t contribute much flavor, just color.
Tomato Curry with Coconut Rice
Serves 4, as a main course with the coconut rice that follows
2 tablespoons cold-pressed canola oil or regular olive oil
2 large onions (approx. 12 ounces total), peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt or ½ teaspoon table salt
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
3 ½ pints cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon English mustard
1 teaspoon hot chili powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 ½ cups frozen peas
Heat the oil in a wide Dutch oven or saucepan that comes with a lid, and add the chopped onions, sprinkling with salt, and stirring frequently as you cook them over a low to medium heat for about 7 minutes.
Stir in the chopped garlic, then add the halved tomatoes, before stirring in the spices, and cook for 20 minutes with the lid on over a low heat.
Cook the peas in another pan (in boiling salted water as usual), drain, and add to the tomato curry for the last 5 minutes’ cooking time. By all means cook the peas directly in the tomato curry, but be prepared then to sacrifice both the vivid red of the tomatoes and the bright green of the peas.
Make ahead note: The tomato base (not the peas) can be cooked 1 day ahead. Transfer to a non-metallic bowl, then cool, cover, and refrigerate as quickly as possible. To reheat, return to saucepan and heat gently until piping hot. Cook and add peas as directed above.
Freeze note: Cook and cool the tomatoes as above, then freeze in airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat, adding the peas, as above.
Coconut Rice
Serves 4, with the tomato curry above
1 tablespoon garlic flavored oil
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons nigella seeds or black mustard seeds
1 ½ cups Thai or basmati rice
14-ounce can coconut milk
2 ½ cups freshly boiled water
1 teaspoon kosher salt or ½ teaspoon table salt
juice of 1 lime, or to taste
Warm the oil in a heavy-based saucepan that has a lid, add the scallions and nigella seeds (or black mustard seeds) and cool for a minute or so, pushing this way and that with a wooden spoon.
Stir in the rice, letting it get slicked with oil and thoroughly mixed with the black-dotted green shreds.
Pour the coconut milk into a measuring jug and top to the 4 cup (1 quart) mark with freshly boiled water, then add this to the rice, stirring it in with the salt.
Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and put on the lid. Cook for 15 minutes, by which time the rice should be cooked and the liquid absorbed.
Fluff up with a fork as you pour in the lime juice, and taste to see if you need either more salt or more lime.
Notes: Nigella seeds are made by Dean & Deluca, but when I called the Soho store, they said they didn’t have them. For the garlic flavored oil, I heated the oil up in a pan with a smashed garlic clove and let it infuse.
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