Vegetarian Massaman Curry with Burnt Garlic Rice

There is this really nice cookery show called 'Good Food', hosted by the very elegant Seema Chandra which is telecast on NDTV, and now NDTV Good Times. Its also shown as part of a package called 'Active cooking' which is provided by one of the leading DTH service providers here in India. It features 6-9 new recipes everyday and runs thru the day, which is a big help for me !!

I always enjoyed this show and was hooked to it - am sure the guys noticed and they quickly made it into a pay channel, and like you can imagine, I promptly subscribed to it.
They have interesting recipes from all across the globe and I love the ones hosted by Seema Chandra. She visits interesting people, the ambassadors of various countries in India, celebrities, authors of cook books, even politicians, and asks them to cook up something



On one such show, I saw this Massaman curry, which looked pretty much Thai, but I thought it sounded more Indonesian, perhaps because of the 'Massaman'. It had spices and coconut milk and that totally suits my palate. The recipe is from the show - this was by a chef from a leading restaurant in Delhi, and this little info here is from Wikipedia, when I googled to confirm if it was actually Thai or, Indonesian like I imagined.

"Massaman curry is a Thai dish that is Muslim in origin. It is most commonly made with beef, but can also be made with duck or chicken.

The flavoring for Massaman curry is called Massaman curry paste (nam prik kaeng masaman). The dish usually contains coconut milk, roasted peanuts, potatoes, bay leaves, cardamom pods, cinnamon, palm sugar, fish sauce, and tamarind sauce. Muslim, and later Portuguese, traders brought spices such as turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, cloves and nutmeg from the Middle East and India to the south coast of Thailand.
The name Massaman is thought to be derived from the word "Musulman", the older form of the word "Muslim"."

It really has an interesting combination of spices - I made a vegetarian version with yellow capsicum and broccoli and I made a burnt garlic basil rice with it.

Update: Asha said I could send this to the Vegan Thai event being hosted by Priya this month. This event features cuisines across continents every month, all Vegan, and is the brainchild of Vaishali of Holy Cow.
Thanks Asha. Priya, this is all yours...

What you need -

Massaman Curry Paste

5 red chillies
rind of 1/2 lemon
1 onions
6 pods garlic
2 tsp chopped ginger
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 stick of cinnamon
2 cloves
4 peppercorns
2 tbsp coriander seeds
seeds of 2 black cardamoms
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

Massaman curry

2 yellow capsicums / bell peppers
1 medium sized broccoli
(You can use baby corn, potatoes also)
2 cups coconut milk
rind of 1 lemon
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp jamarind juice
1 black cardamom
1 cup roasted and crushed peanuts
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1.5 tsp salt
2-3 tbsp oil

Burnt garlic and Basil rice

1.5 cups rice
5-6 pods garlic
2 tbsp basil leaves
1 tsp salt
2 tsp oil

What you do with it -

For the Massaman curry paste, just grind all the ingredients in a blender

Chop the capsicum into bite-sized pieces and the broccoli into florets
Heat oil in a large pan and add the massaman curry paste and turmeric powder
Fry for 2-3 mins and add the capsicums and broccoli and stir fry for another 3-4 mins
Add coconut milk and all ingredients except peanuts and the lemon rind
Cook on low heat for 3-4 mins and then add the crushed peanuts and lemon rind
Stir and allow to cook for 2 mins

Chop the garlic lengthwise
In a deep bottomed pan, add the oil and fry the garlic in it till it turns brown
Add basil leaves, rice and salt
Stir for 2-3 mins
Add water, cover and cook on a medium flame till done
Should take about 15 mins