The ultimate lazy Sunday in my house would actually mean not cooking anything. This brings me nicely to my recipe for the month… If we are planning curry for dinner (at least twice a week!), I always try and make it the night before to allow the flavours to develop. This dish is no exception. There is relatively little prep and you can leave it simmering away nicely before adding the final few ingredients.
Back in the UK a typical Saturday night would involve an Indian take-away or going out to the local curry house for dinner with friends. The ritual of being given the poppadoms and condiments before being presented with your mains and sides – everyone commenting on the huge amount of food – the table ladened down with numerous dishes; all part of custom.
Then I travelled through Sri-Lanka and experienced so many varieties of curry. My. Mind. Was. Blown. Curry for breakfast, curry for lunch and curry for dinner – I just couldn’t get enough. In fact I pretty much ate my way around the entire country I think. I have spoken of my travels to this beautiful island before. It was my first travel destination and I was completely consumed with the culture, the people, the natural environment, the crowds, the history and the tea plantations – it was like nothing I had ever experienced before. I desperately tried to immerse myself in to Sri-Lankan life. My favourite memory was going to an elephant orphanage and feeding a baby elephant, before finding this amazing curry house (surprise surprise!) which overlooked a river where the elephants bathed; you couldn’t get a better vista in which to enjoy such a deliciously simple meal. It was here I tried my first pumpkin curry. Now this was back in 2007 when for the most part, pumpkins came out for halloween – no one really ate them, did they? On my return from Sri-lanka I set about trying to recreate this dish using butternut squash and a whole host of other ingredients. I don’t think I have ever got it right, but that was fine. Even if I successfully recreated the curry, I could never recreate the atmosphere around me while I ate – and surely that element contributes to the flavour of a dish?