Corn and Red pepper curry

My trip to the grocery store has been a couple of days overdue. I've depleted almost everything in the fridge except carrots, a ½ used red pepper, cilantro and green chilies. Made egg curry last night for dinner, and thats when I cleaned out the tomatoes! Since Naveen left last night, and I've been down with a cold/cough for a couple of days now, I'm in no mood to go grocery shopping.

I usually stock some vegetables in the freezer but this time around, even these didn't come to my rescue!! How on earth did I get the fridge so 'dry'??? :S

After rummaging through the coffee beans, and the cartloads of sambhar powder that my mum gave me almost 3 years back, I finally spotted a lonely packet of corn staring me in the eye from the back of the freezer. Ah....one battle won...another begins??

Now, how do you combine corn, red bell pepper, cilantro and green chilies in the same recipe and that too within ½hr ??(K decided to join me for lunch today!! ) Here's my concoction - with some basic help from various corn recipes obtained from the internet. Presenting *drumroll......*

CORN AND RED BELL PEPPER IN A GREEN CURRY....

Ingredients:
Corn - 1½ cups
Red pepper (diced) - ½ cup
Onion powder - 2 tbsp (if using fresh onions, chop and grind ½ a big onion with paste ingredients)
Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
Cloves - 2
Green Cardamom - 2
Kashmiri red chili powder- ½ tsp
Lite coconut milk - ½ can
Salt - ¾-1 tsp flat
Oil/ Ghee - 2 tsp

To make paste:
Garlic - 3-4 pods
Ginger - ½ inch
Green chilies - 4
Cilantro/coriander leaves - a fistful
Coconut - 1 tbsp grated
Khus khus or poppy seeds - 2 tsp
Cashews (optional) - 3-4 pieces

Method:

Heat some oil/ghee in a pan and add cinnamon, cardamom and cloves.

Add onion powder (if available). Let it cook for a minute.

Add the green spice paste now and cook till the oil separates.

Now add the corn (yellow preferably - for the aesthetic aspect) and red bell pepper.

Add salt and cook covered for 4-5 minutes and add the kashmiri chili powder and a tsp of garam masala if needed.

Now add the coconut milk and let it cook on low flame for another 5 minutes.

Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with hot chapatis, parathas or rice.

Myriad of colors - yellow corn and red pepper in a green curry