Oh no! You have no meat! Is there a truly stellar vegetarian main out there?! Yes there is! It's called: Ghugni. | Also: simple pickled onions!

Over this holiday period, I've cooked English (every day food), Romanian (sarmale), and Italian (risottos/lasagne). However, my true love remains Indian cooking.

In the years during which I lived in India, the one thing that really surprised me was how damn good the vegetarian mains were. Usually, vegetarian food sounds (and is) boring. But in Asian cuisine, it is a whole different level. What I have here up my sleeve is something that'll change those of you uninitiated in awesome vegetarian food's lives.

Ghugni (I know, it doesn't sound right to the average English-speaker) is a many-faced meal. And even this recipe, while the one process, is capable of becoming four completely different mains. The basics of it are quite simple, but there are some specific spices which might not be readily available to all right off the bat for the other versions of it. I'll point out all of them as I go along.

And as promised, I'll be telling you a simple pickled onion process on the side as well!

And as always: Indian-style cooking should be something everyone should know, since it's going to be a lot of food per visit to the kitchen. One shouldn't bother with amounts as much (I'd say this goes for most forms of cooking). Use whatever you're comfortable with and play around with it all.

That said, let's take a look at

What you'll need (costs included where possible)

• Motor | Story time! Motor refers to white/yellow peas. You can just straight-up substitute this with chickpeas. Since we're going for a cheaper version, use chickpeas out of a can. The original recipe calls for these hard-to-find-peas to be soaked in salted, warmed water overnight first. Just buy pre-cooked ones out of a can. Cost £1.00/450g (with water) That was what I spent, anyway.
• A large potato (about 500g, however much you want, really) cost: under £1
• Some tomatoes (I get eight vine tomatoes for £1) I used two for the curry.
• Two large red onions (£0.79 per kg, I only used two of about 500g) effective cost £0.40 Other types will do, but red is the best.
• Dried chillies and fresh birds eye chillies (however much you want) costs negligible
• Four large garlic cloves effective cost: £.015 or so.
• A spice mix (see below) costs negligible, cumin seeds, bay leaves.
• Oil, warm water, vegetable stock, garlic and ginger paste, chilli powder, butter/ghee (the latter is recommended), turmeric, sugar, black salt, and salt and pepper costs negligible (Mustard oil is the best thing to use, to be honest, but any oil can be used as a substitute)
• A lime/tamarind paste.

The spice mix

I used a mix of my mum's home-made spice, chilli powder, and garam masala. To emulate the taste of my mum's spice, mix together cumin powder, bay leaf powder, turmeric, red chilli powder, black pepper powder, and coriander powder.

Utensils needed: A large, deep saucepan, a frying pan, a knife, a fork, a straining spoon/ladle, a spatula, and a plate.

What to do?!

• Skin and cut up your potato into 1-2" chunks. Stab them over, and soak them in warmed water with a pinch of salt, and a tablespoon of oil for at least 15 minutes.
• Quarter your tomatoes.
• Drain the potatoes, and fry them on a frying pan with some oil (use any generic oil you have at hand -- no need to be fancy). Add some salt, pepper, turmeric, and chilli powder while you turn them.
• Drain the potatoes free of oil when they're done, and leave aside on a plate with paper to soak up any excess oil.
• Chop up your two onions into varying sizes. Dice one finely, chop 3/4^ths of one into slices, and the rest into chunks.
• Slice up some chillies, and smoosh up some garlic into a fine paste.
• Get your saucepan nice and hot (over a medium heat). Drop in half a handful of cumin seeds, some dried chillies, and after half a minute, top it all with a generous helping of mustard oil.
• Drop in your bay leaves (note: never leave bay leaves in while cooking for more than 10 minutes!), stir, and carefully add your bitty bits of onion with a pinch of salt and some flavouring spice.
• When the onions start to soften, top up with a generous helping of garlic/ginger paste, some chillies, and take out your bay leaves.
• Add some varying sizes of onion to mix things up, your smooshed garlic, and stir aggressively together. Add some sugar and stir it in as well.
• Add your tomatoes, and mix together with some flavouring spice.
• Cover and cook until your tomatoes are smooshed down. Mash them with your spatula a bit to help it along if they're taking too long. Feel free to add some stock if things are taking too long and going too dry.
• Remember to keep your heat at medium. This will take a while. Be patient. Have a flavoursome drink while at it.
• Now, add your soaked & pre-boiled chickpeas. Drop them in with a pinch of salt, and stir them nicely in. That water they came in? warm it up, add a pinch of salt, and the rest of your stock. Reduce it by half for later.
• Cover, and cook the main curry for ten minutes.
• Now this is where we need some elbow-grease. Open it up, stir it, and start mashing the chickpeas down. They won't mash easy, but you're going to do this every time I tell you to stir from now on. Again: cover and cook for 5 minutes.
• Now, add your potatoes to the mix, stir and mash, and top up with the warmed stock/water/chickpea brine. Stir and mash and cover again.
• Five minutes later, stir and mash. Check to see if the chickpeas are tender. If yes: move to the next step. If not: add some liquid, cover, and continue to cook.
• Add your sliced onions and some chillies (optional) to the mix, stir and mashmashmash. Try to get 1/3^rd of the chickpeas split and mushy.
• Bring to a boil, and reduce the heat to low and simmer until thick. Mash now and again.
• Top with ghee, stir, mash, and rest for 10 minutes*
• Garnish with roughly chopped coriander (optional), and serve! ^{Remember to salt to taste!}

Serving options!

• Main-style: serve up topped with a sprinkle of lime juice on some bread (ruti/roti/chapatti is the best option, but fuck it: have it with what you want).
• Roadside chaat-style: serve warm (not hot) with a dousing of tamarind-water/lime juice, a sprinkling of freshly chopped onion bits, chillies, and chaat masala or black salt (optional) on a small bowl. Serve with crispy, toasted thin bread/potato chips/nachos.
• Sandwich-style: Press between two slices of buttered, warmed bread with a lacing of tomato ketchup and freshly-sliced onions.
• Rice-meal: Reheat the leftovers (always mash every time you touch the main saucepan/container), and stir in some cooked rice. Top with pepper and any other condiments you like, and nom away!

Pictures!

• Process (slightly different from what I've said)

And there we are!

Remember: this recipe isn't hard-and-fast. Feel free to play around with it and customise it to your tastes (just don't go too far for fear of missing out on the "authentic" taste).

Have fun, and enjoy!

Submitted December 31, 2016 at 12:41AM by ionised http://ift.tt/2hBMJhh