Whole Turnip Curry, made with SN2

The sweet juices of turnip and the spiced sauce become one thing — a deep, comforting flavour.

SPICE CURRY SPICE PACK [Spice Curry Spice Pack Symphony No.2 / SN2] makes this Whole Turnip Curry.

We used the turnip skins, stalks and leaves, simmered gently with katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) into a stock, and built a spice curry on that base. The gentle sweetness of the turnip melts into the spiced sauce, and it really is very good. The juice that seeps out as you bite into the turnip makes the plate.
One of the fine things about curry is how easily it lets you use every part of the vegetable trimmings — the parts we tend to throw away, though they are full of goodness (we would rather not call them scraps).

When your spice curry turns out watery Are the whole spices in the starter bag meant to be eaten? Which spice do you add when you want more heat?

Ingredients (serves 4)

• SN2 / starter spices (the bag of whole spices): 1 bag
• SN2 / powder spices (the bag of ground spices): 1 bag
• Onion: 1/2
• Fresh tomato: 1
• Garlic: 1 tbsp (grated)
• Ginger: 1 tbsp (grated)
• Minced meat (chicken or pork): about 200–300g
• Turnip: 1
• Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes): 1 pack (about 10g)
• Soy sauce: 2 tbsp
• Sugar: 2 tsp
• Mirin (sweet rice seasoning): 1 tbsp
• Salt: 1 tsp
• Water: 300ml
• Oil: 3 tbsp (white sesame oil is our suggestion)
• Myoga (Japanese ginger bud): to taste (use as you like as a topping)

Preparation

• Grate the garlic and ginger
• Finely chop the onion. Keep the brown papery skins — they go into the stock.
• Cut the tomato into rough chunks.
• Cut the turnip off at the crown, peel the root and cut it into rough chunks. Wash the leaves and stalks you cut off well and chop them roughly. Keep the peel too — it goes into the stock.

Method

This time you use two pans to make the turnip stock and the spice curry separately, then bring them together at the end. Both take about the same length of time, so work on them side by side if you can.

Making the turnip stock

1. Put the white root of the turnip in a heatproof dish, cover it with cling film and microwave at 600W for 3 minutes.
   
   
   
   
2. In a pan, cook everything other than the turnip root — the peel, leaves and stalks, together with the trimmings from the onion and tomato — over medium heat. (Add no oil; dry-roast them.)
   
   
   
   
   
3. Cook them to the point shown below, thinking of it as scorching the vegetables just slightly.
   
   
   
   
4. Add 300ml of water and the katsuobushi: 1 pack to the pan; once it comes to the boil, lower the heat and reduce for about 15 minutes from that point.
   
   
   
   
5. Strain it through a sieve, taking only the stock, into the dish you microwaved earlier.
   
   
   
   
6. That is the stock done.

Making the spice curry

1. Put the oil: 3 tbsp in a frying pan over high heat, and once the oil has warmed, add the starter spices (the bag of whole spices).
   
   
2. When bubbles start to fizz up from the fennel (the green seeds), add the grated garlic and ginger and cook for about 30 seconds.
   
   
3. Add the onion and cook for about 12 minutes until amber, splashing in water as you go.
   
   
4. Once it is amber, add the minced meat and cook until it is done through.
   
   
5. Once the minced meat is cooked through, add the tomato and salt: 1 tsp, cook it down to a paste and stir everything together.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Once it has become a thick paste, add all of the powder spices and cook them in, thinking of it as cooking the powder itself through.
   
   
   
   
7. Add the turnip stock you made, together with the turnip root.
   
   
   
   
8. Add the soy sauce: 2 tbsp, sugar: 2 tsp and mirin: 1 tbsp, let everything settle together, and once you see it come to the boil, cover the pan, switch to low heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
   
   
9. That is it. Taste, and adjust the salt.

Finish with myoga or any other topping you like.

Inspice spice curry spice sets contain none of the chilli, cayenne or red pepper that usually carries the heat, so add as much as you like to suit your taste.