cookbook challenge #3

[About the New Years' resolution behind this]

From Perfect Thai, I made a 'courgette and cashew curry'. (For those who need the translation, courgette = zucchini.) I'm not sure why it's called curry, as it's more like a stir fry, but I'm not complaining - this recipe is really, really good and the result was delicious. Three down, fourteen to go.

Ingredients:
2 T vegetable oil
6 spring onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 fresh green chillies, deseeded and chopped [I have a flatmate who cannot stomach spicy food, so I put about 1.5 teaspoons of paprika in, instead, and a tiny 1/8 teaspoon of chilli powder, in the hope that I can slowly acclimatise her to chilli. This tasted good.]
450g / 1 lb courgettes, cut into thick slices [I actually used about 600g, to bulk it up a little.]
115g / 4 oz shiitake mushrooms [I just used ordinary button mushrooms. They were fine.]
55g / 2 oz beansprouts [Another thing I adapted! I probably actually used double the amount, or slightly more.]
75g / 3 oz cashew nuts, toasted or dry-fried
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
rice or noodles, to serve [I chose noodles and they were gooood.]

Heat the oil in a wok or a large frypan. Sauté the onions, garlic and chilli for 1-2 minutes, until softened but not browned.

Add the courgettes and mushrooms to the wok, and cook for 2-3 minutes until tender.

Add the beansprouts, nuts and both sauces and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.
Serve hot with rice or noodles.

This was seriously yummy. Lovely flavours, not too overpowering but definitely flavoursome. My favourite so far of my cookbook challenge recipes! Because courgettes are currently in season here, it is a very cheap recipe, but it's also very easy and very fast. I can imagine this being a very family-friendly meal.

It also happens to be vegetarian-friendly (oh, except for the fish sauce, I suppose), and it's not one of those vegetarian meals that feels washed-out and unsatisfying. I wasn't constantly thinking about meat while I ate it, for instance! However, if you need to cater to the demands of spouses, children, etc., I think some added chicken would go pretty well in this recipe.

It would feed three hungry people, but could manage four if you stretched it out with extra rice or noodles.