Sweet Potato Curry

We've heard it all before - but there really is no excuse to go about buying ready made curry paste or sauce when you can make curry this good this quickly. Don't be shy on coming forward with the garlic in this one as it really adds to its glory. Boiling the sweet potatoes in water with a spoon of honey stirred in takes away the starchy edge to sweet potato and draws out a beautiful, delicate and sweet flavour of this orange yam type creature. Blending the chilli's, garlic, onion and lime in a paste beforehand is a great way of getting the rich creamy texture within the sauce which will coat the vegetables beautifully. If you haven't already got a hand-held blender go out and get one immediately as it makes life so much easier. This really is a cook-by-colour recipe; the vivid orange and yellowy texture of the vegetables and sauce make it a bit of a common sense composition more than anything else and this usually works as a way of improvising when cooking.

Ingredients:
7 cloves of garlic
1 medium white onion
2 red chillis
1 lime
2 tbsp olive oil
Sea Salt
3 medium sized sweet potato
1 tbsp honey
100g / 3 and half oz Organic Creamed Coconut
300ml of boiling water
3 medium vine tomatoes
1tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
1 can organic chick-peas (400g)
2 tablespoons single cream
Handful of fresh coriander

Prep all the vegetables. Peel and finely chop the garlic and the onion. De-seed and chop the red chillies. Whizz the garlic, chilli, onion, lime juice and olive oil into a fine paste with either a hand held blender or a food processor. Season well and set aside.

Peel the sweet potatoes and roughly chop them in to cube shape pieces about 2cm x 2cm. Get a large pan of boiling water on the hob and stir in your spoon of honey and some sea salt. Then add the sweet potato and let them simmer for about 8 minutes. Drain when the potatoes are tender enough to push a knife through easily.

Get another large, heavy bottomed, pan and add the turmeric, cumin seeds, and coriander and dry fry over a low heat for a few minutes until they become really aromatic. Rub a pestle over the top of them in the pan whilst they are cooking to break up the seeds a little to release the flavours.

Tip in the garlic paste and give it a good stir. Don't rinse out the bowl you need it again. Chop the creamed coconut roughly then add it into the paste jug and add 300ml of boiling water and stir together so the creamed coconut melts through. Now stir this into the curry paste.

Fill a large bowl with boiling water and sit the tomatoes in for a few minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain, their skins should pop off pretty easily now.

Peel and remove any stalks, whizz with a handheld blender to make a tomato puree; add this to the curry sauce. Leave on a low simmer for 10 minutes. After 5 minutes add the drained chickpeas and stir into the sauce to warm through.

Add the cream and the remaining half a lime juice. After about 3 minutes fold in the cooked sweet potatoes. Cook together for a 3-5 minutes more.

Season to taste, sprinkle with the fresh coriander and serve with some plain boiled rice. Serves 4.