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Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Vegetable Biryani Stuffed Tomatoes and Mushrooms

It's National Curry Week 8th-15th October.  When I went to Glasgow as a student, I went for a curry with a group of friends, I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was just off George Square in the centre of town. It was the first time I had had a curry in a restaurant and I chose a Biryani.  It was a great introduction to curry and started a lifelong love of spicy food.


To celebrate National Curry Week I was sent a hamper of curry products by Pataks. I often use Patak's curry pastes for speed and a consistently good result.   Unfortunately two of the jars in the package were broken and they spilled all over the bespoke recipes that have been created especially for National Curry Week this year by Anjali Pathak.


  One of the jars which survived was this 'Pataks Oven Bake easy Biryani, hot & spicy'.  Although I use the Patak's curry pastes regularly, I had not tried this ready made sauce,  so I thought I would create my own bespoke recipe just for National Curry Week.



Vegetable Biryani Stuffed Tomatoes and Mushrooms

For the stuffing
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 green peppers, deseeded and chopped
6 spring onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 x 400g tin chickpeas
1 jar Patak's Oven Bake easy Biryani (hot & spicy)
500g basmati rice

4 beef tomatoes, insides scooped out
4 large field mushrooms, stalks removed

1. Heat the oil in an oven proof casserole dish, add the garlic and spring onions and cook for 1 minute over a moderate heat.
2. Add the peppers and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
3. Drain the chickpeas and add to the pan.
4. Add the Patak's Biryani Sauce, the pulp from the inside of the tomatoes and the rice.
5. Put in the oven at 180C for 30-35 minutes until the rice is cooked.


6. Place the hollowed out tomatoes and mushrooms in a shallow ovenproof dish.
7. Fill the tomatoes and mushrooms with the cooked Biryani  mix, add a couple of tablespoons of water to the base of the dish and return to the oven for 20 minutes or so until the tomatoes are softened and the mushrooms have shrunk and released their juices into the water in the dish.


 

If you bake the tomatoes and mushrooms without any covering the rice on the top will be slightly crunchy with softer rice underneath.  If you would prefer all the rice to be soft, then cover the dish with foil before baking.

I would serve these with a curry sauce (not shown) and some natural yogurt or raita. You could also add some chopped coriander leaves to the mix before stuffing the vegetables.

I was supplied with a hamper of curry pastes, sauces and accompaniments by Patak's for National Curry Week.  Any opinions expressed in this post are my own.

What is your favourite curry?


10 comments:

  1. Look really delicious! I love them!

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  2. I love stuffed tomatoes, but never tried them with the curry flavours, sounds lovely

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  3. What a GREAT idea Janice - I LOVE your recipe, and guess what? I also had BROKEN Jars in my hamper too, only left with three jars, and lost my naan breads and popadoms as the glass pierced the packets! I don't think there was enough bubble wrap, but never mind, I do LOVE Patak's curry pastes! Lovely recipe! Karen

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  4. what an excellent idea!... I too received a hamper but was lucky enough not to have lost any of the sauces... and i've been wracking my brains for a creative solution to use the lovely sauces... yours is an excellent one and feels very natural... it looks very very nice too... just shown them to The Viking and I think he's feeling peckish and slightly like he may have to get on a train and come visit!

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  5. I love Curry, too, but I'm not able to say which kind of curry it is. I bought it in a spiceshop, where they sell only spices from Oriental countries and choose the 'light' one. They infact have 'strong curry' and 'light curry', maybe considering we're not so used to eat spicy as they do in Thai, for instance! :-)

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  6. Oh yum those look seriously good Janice.

    I was sent a pack and my coconut milk was spilt all over the package. They might want to rethink their packages.

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  7. Great that you linked in, thanks. have a good one

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  8. Biryani is one of my favourites, love the look of both the mushrooms and tomatoes!

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  9. Super that you linked in, Janice. Have a great day.

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I love to read your comments and try to reply when I can. I have had to enable comment moderation due to high levels of spam, so it may take a little time before your comment is visible. Please let me know if you make one of my recipes or if you have any questions I will try to answer them. Janice