Easy Curry - Part 1: Morroco

Curry 1 - Morocco Style Curry

I dearly love my slow cooker purchased from the local Asda for a poultry £9 (it was on offer at the time) it's 14 quid now but still a bit of a bargain! It's just a really easy way to knock up some very tasty dishes, curries in particular work well, especially tomato based dishes where the extended cooking brings out all the flavour. So long as you can chop you're pretty much there, just mix and match ingredients and away you go.  I find that cooking a vegetable curry as a base works as you can freeze in batches and add meat/fish as and when you want.
One such curry which I think really works well is my Morrocan type effort.  There's quite a few ingredients but it feeds a medium sized army for a week and if you freeze in meal sized pots you have one amazing back up meal.

Ingredients

Serves: Alot

Vegetable Base

1 Courgette
1 Aubergine
4 Cloves of Garlic
Tin of Chickpeas
Tin of Tomatoes
2 Carrots
150g Flaked Almonds
1 Red Pepper
Couple of Celery Sticks
1 Lemon
Stick of Cinnamon
2 Chillies
2 Tablespoons of Morrocan Seasoning
150g of Chopped Apricots
150g of Chopped Dates
1 Small Butternut Squash
Tablespoon of Bouillon 
Pepper
Salt
Turmeric
1 Bunch of Coriander
3 Bay Leaves
1-2 inches of Ginger Root
Teaspoon of Tomato Paste
Celery Salt
Olive Oil
Half a pint of boiled water

Meat Part

Add onions, garlic and a pinch of Cumin to appropriate meat (You're not going to use pork in this one obvs), lamb works really well (stewing lamb or lamb neck) brown meat, add a small pot of sour cream before covering in curry sauce and popping in the oven.

Method

Chop up all the curry ingredients and pop in the slow cooker, the smaller the pieces the more you can cram in there.  Turn the cooker to "Low" setting and forget about it for around 8-10 hours.  The cooker uses the same electricity as a small light bulb, so you won't break the bank cooking it!

Once you cook the curry base blitz it with a hand blender and allow to cool.  While the sauce is cooling brown meat of your choice in garlic, onions and cumin in a pan.  If you're brave add a few chilli flakes. Stir in a small pot of creme fraiche or sour cream and then add the cooled sauce, pop in an oven dish with the oven preheated to about gas mark 5-6 and leave for about an hour.  

Serve with Nik's flatbread and some rice, boom your done.  Btw you'll make a lot of sauce as this picture demonstrates. 

Enjoy!