Not all recipes go according to plan. I thought long and hard before posting this, but decided to go ahead in the end. I didn't want to look like an idiot for posting a recipe that I didn't think was any good, but then again we learn more from our failures than from our successes. I'm new to vegetarian cooking and if this sort of thing helps me to learn then maybe it will help you too.
I've mentioned recently that my girlfriend and I are trying to have a veggie day at least once a week, inspired by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's current campaign. While we make a great effort to only eat ethical meat, HFW makes the excellent point that ethical meat production simply can't sustain the rapidly growing population so the only solution is to eat more vegetables.
Indian cuisine is full of excellent veggie recipes, with a large proportion of Indians being vegetarian, so I'm starting my veggie journey with mostly Indian recipes.
When I go out for a curry I tend to order mutter paneer (peas 'n' cheese) as a side dish, so I thought I'd use paneer in this recipe. Cauliflower works well with spices, and I haven't had cauli for ages. Sugar snap peas suggested themselves for some reason, too.
If you're going without meat, pulses
make an excellent alternative source of protein. I haven't used them
very often in the past but I've really enjoyed my recent chickpea
recipes and they make an excellent store-cupboard staple so tonight I
thought I'd experiment with yellow split peas.
Here goes then - cauliflower, sugar snap pea and split pea paneer.
When cooking curry it's a good
idea to get your spice mix ready first, so prepare 2 teaspoonfuls
coriander, 1 teaspoonful cumin, 1 teaspoonful turmeric, 1 teaspoonful
mustard seeds and a cinnamon stick (or a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon,
if that's what you have).
Chop an onion, cut half a cauliflower into florets, and chop up a couple of chilli peppers.
Here's where I ran into trouble. According to the packet instructions, my split peas would only need 15 minutes in boiling water, so after ten minutes I added the cauli to the same pan, and started sweating the onion, pepper and spices in oil in a frying pan. It should have all come together at the same time, but the split peas just never seemed to get any softer.
When the cauli was done I fished it out, swirled it around with the onion and spices and turned the heat off under the frying pan, leaving the split peas to carry on boiling.
After half an hour they'd reached an edible texture, but they were still a bit hard - like slightly underdone pasta.
I asked my girlfriend for a second opinion. She agreed that the texture didn't seem right but they were edible and we were starving by this point so we agreed to press on.
Re-light the heat under the frying pan, remove and discard the cinnamon stick, and add the sugar snap peas, about 100g paneer cut into cubes and the sugar snap peas. Then pour a tin of coconut cream and some of the cooking water from the split peas into the pan. Drain the split peas and throw them in too. Heat it all through gently for about ten minutes.
Ideally you'd serve with naan bread, but we used pittas that we'd found lurking in the back of the freezer.
Taste verdict
Maybe I was harsh in the first paragraph. Now that I've written it up and thought it through I'd call it a flawed recipe rather than a failed one.
The Manicure Maniac and I both ate most of it but left the split peas. She didn't like the paneer cheese, finding it bland, but I love it - that's just personal preference. We were both happy with the spice mix.
Maybe the instructions on the pack of split peas were utterly wrong, or maybe it's just that neither of us like split peas. Maybe it would have worked really well if I'd used chickpeas or lentils instead.
Financial verdict
An onion - 20p
Half a cauliflower - 43p
100g paneer - 70p
100g sugar snap peas - 75p
Tin of coconut cream - 99p
Split peas, spices - pennies, from store.
£1.54 per portion.
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