Zombie Brains Revamped!

I made Jamie Oliver's Zombie Brains a while ago, and although it wasn't very popular I was keen to try and give it another go.  In our house we have agreed that we should try everything ten times before we decide whether we like it or not.  There is a scientific study out there somewhere which suggests that we can't actually know until we've done that.

Anyway, although I wanted to try celeriac again, and I thought the kids and my Husband should, I thought I'd need a revamp to make them interested.  

We all like curry, so it seemed sensible to mix the two.  I make my own curry pastes as a base for the curries we eat and this is another Jamie Oliver recipe, well loosely at least, I think I added some cashew nuts to the Jalfrezi paste for this one.  I love these curry pastes so much and this has encourage me to cook so much more curry than I would have done using jars from the shops.

I started by roasting the celeriac - the smell of this roasting is lovely, and it is so easy to cut once it is roasted.

Then I fried the paste and onions and added a tin of tomatoes and a good splodge of mango chutney.  I think the sweetness this provides is one of the reasons that my kids love curry.  We tried a lentil curry at a farmers market once, and they really enjoyed it despite never eating any of my previous efforts, and that one tasted sweet.  Since then I've always added a little chutney (or if I'm out of that cranberry sauce, or jam) and they have always eaten it.  I love the slight sweetness it provides too.  

Once the curry  had been simmering for a while I added half a roasted celeriac and a tin of chickpeas along with a little cream and then it was ready to serve.

The kids did eat it, though they pointed out they prefer it with other vegetables (I normally use whatever veg is unused at the bottom of the fridge, or a couple of tins of chickpeas or a cup of lentils).  I didn't tell them it had celeriac in it, but they both twigged very quickly.  I preferred  Zombie Brains this way,  and so did my Husband.  Still a few more times to taste celeriac before the kids can decide for sure whether or not they like it!