TOMATO CURRY

If I were forced to become vegetarian, I suppose it would not be the end of the world – as long as I had access to those Indian restaurants where some of the finest vegetable dishes are prepared. This is a homage to the tomato curry at Kastoori’s in Tooting, London. It’s fantastically good, creamy yet oily and refreshingly sharp and fragrant. I hasten to add that the following is a humble effort to reproduce the dish.

Serves 4

40g butter
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
50g fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 large hot green chilli, chopped (remove the seeds if you like)
6-7 curry leaves (optional, but they make a huge difference, so try to search some out)
1 tsp ground cumin
Seeds from 5 cardamom pods
10 tomatoes, cored and split in two widthways
Salt
75g creamed coconut dissolved in 5-6 tbsp boiling water
Squeeze of lime juice, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
Fresh coriander, chopped, to garnish

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed shallow pot or frying pan. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli, curry leaves (if you have them), cumin and cardamom. Allow the spices to stew gently before laying the tomatoes on top, skin side down. Lightly salt their surfaces and spoon over the coconut cream.

Loosely cover and set over an extremely low heat. Much of the juice from the tomatoes will form a sauce, helped along by the creamed coconut. When this is coming along nicely, baste the tomatoes with the sauce to amalgamate the coconut cream.

When the dish is ready – after about 30 minutes – the tomatoes should still have their shape and the sauce will be slightly separated but creamy in parts (if it seems too dry, add a little water). Squeeze over the lime juice, grind on the pepper and sprinkle with coriander. It’s best served at room temperature as a first course, or with devilled chicken, perhaps.

Extracted and adapted from Week in Week Out by Simon Hopkinson, photographs by Jason Lowe (Quadrille £20). To order for £16 (inc p&p), call The Sunday Times BooksFirst, 0870 165 8585

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