Yellow Courgette and Sweetcorn Curry – two ways

Autumn might feel like it’s arrived early, but I can’t deny that this is probably my favourite season for cooking. I love chopping big chunky autumn vegetables and chucking them in a pot to slowly cook down into something earthy and wonderful.

This is a really versatile recipe. You can pretty much chuck anything in, as long as you remember the yellow theme when you choose your ingredients. Add a carrot or two, toast some cumin seeds and add them to the pot, or some chilli powder. I made mine pretty mild, but it would be really good with some chilli kick.

The inspiration for this curry is our giant monster of a courgette plant. Early in the summer it quietly started to flower and we had a couple of pretty small courgettes to nibble on. Then we went away for a few days and it sprung to life, providing plenty of beautiful yellow vegetables for me to experiment with. Then we went away again and returned to this!

Around this time, of course, the markets are full of beautiful, sweet cobs of corn, and I figured it might be nice to stick with the yellow theme and make a soup for me and Sidney. I added turmeric and onion, a squeeze of lemon and a stick of celery, coriander being the only green allowed. It made a delicious summer soup, with an almost coconut flavour.

The soup reminded me of curries I’d had travelling in Asia, and here in Vietnamese restaurants, often accompanied by cashew nuts and chicken. So I made my own version, which is the second recipe here and which could be made with a variety of ingredients; it would be really tasty with mushrooms instead of chicken, for example, or with some chopped fresh chillies.

Thick Yellow Courgette and Sweetcorn Curry Soup

Serves 4

1 corn cob, leaves removed

200g basmati rice

a big knob of butter

1 onion, diced

2 carrots, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2cm piece ginger, chopped

4 or 5 yellow courgettes (or 1 giant one), sliced or chopped

1 celery stick, sliced

a small bunch of fresh coriander, chopped

1 tsp turmeric

50g mixed seeds, such as pumpkin and sunflower

100ml crème fraîche

a squeeze of lemon juice

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put a pan of boiling water on the heat and cook your corn cob for a few minutes until plump. Remove the cob from the pan and set aside to cool a little, then slice the corn off the cob. Cook the rice in the water in which you cooked the corn.

Put a large heavy bottomed pan over a medium heat and melt the butter. Add the chopped onion and carrots and cook until softened. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a minute, then add the courgettes and celery and cook until browned. Add the chopped coriander, most of the sweetcorn, scatter the turmeric over the top and season to taste. Stir the whole thing together and leave to cook down for about 10 minutes.

In a separate pan toast the seeds, then add half to the curry mixture and transfer the whole thing to a blender, or use a hand blender, and whizz up until smooth. Stir the crème fraîche into the soup with a squeeze of lemon.

Spoon the rice into bowls and top with the soup and a dollop of crème fraiched. Scatter the remaining sweetcorn and seeds over the top and serve.

Yellow Courgette, Sweetcorn and Chicken Curry

Serves 4

1 corn cob, leaves removed

500g free-range chicken pieces (or 400g boneless)

50g butter

1 onion, diced

4 or 5 yellow courgettes (or 1 giant one), sliced or chopped

1 celery stick, sliced

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2cm piece ginger, chopped

a large bunch of fresh coriander, chopped
1 x 400g tin coconut milk

1 tsp turmeric

50g cashew nuts

50g mixed seeds, such as pumpkin and sunflower

extra-virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

basmati rice, to serve

Put a pan of boiling water on the heat and cook your corn cob for a few minutes until plump. Remove the cob from the pan and set aside to cool a little, then slice the corn off the cob.

Put a large heavy bottomed pan over a high heat and melt a little oil. Add your chicken and sear on all sides. Transfer the chicken to a plate and lower the heat to medium-low.

Melt the butter in the pan and add the chopped onion. Cook until softened and then transfer to the plate with the chicken. Add the chopped courgettes and celery to the pan and cook until browned. Tip them onto the plate with the chicken and onions.

Add the chopped garlic and ginger to the pan and cook for a minute, then tip the chicken, onion, courgette and celery back into the pan along with the sweetcorn, half the chopped coriander and the coconut milk. Scatter the turmeric over the top and season to taste.

Stir the whole thing together, put a lid on the pan if you have one, and leave to cook down for about 10 minutes. (If you don’t have something you can use for a lid you can add a ladleful of water later on to thin out the mixture.)

Cook the rice in the water in which you cooked the corn.

In a separate pan toast the cashew nuts and seeds. If you have small children you can bash these up or put them in a blender.

Take the chicken pieces out of the mixture and set aside on a warm plate. Add half the toasted nuts and seeds to the curry mixture, then transfer to a blender, or use a hand blender, and whizz up to a smooth paste.

Spoon the rice onto a serving plate, top with chicken pieces and spoon the curry mixture over the top. Scatter the remaining coriander over the curry and top with the remaining toasted nuts and seeds.