Recipe: A sort of curry

I say 'sort of' because really I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to curry, despite having stacks of spices in the cupboard.

I made a mixture of spices with very small amounts of the following:
cumin
ground coriander
roasted garam masala
mild curry powder
chilli powder
cinnamon
two crushed cardamom pods
some crushed ginger
a squidge of garlic puree
mango powder

Ingredients
a third of an onion, peeled and sliced (3p)
a bit of butter and a few sprays of oil (apf)
the spice mix (apf)
a bit of carrot, peeled and diced (2p)
50g sweet potato, diced (5p)
25g sweetcorn and 25g mixed veg (5p)
half a stock cube (I used chicken but veg would be fine too) (2p)
35g home cooked chickpeas (4p)
10g red lentils (2p)
a sprinkling of porridge oats (to thicken)  - such a small amount it can't be costed
half tsp mango chutney, chopped small if necessary (mine was bottom of the jar so there were no big bits)  (4p)

Method
Heat the butter and the oil in a pan, add the onions and saute them very gently for ages until they go golden.  Don't let them catch.
Turn up the heat, add the spice mix and cook it out, stirring all the time.
Add all the other ingredients apart from the mango chutney plus a bit of boiling water, bring to a gentle simmer and let it slowly bubble away to a thick sauce.  When the veg and the lentils are soft, add the mango chutney.

I like to cook a curry in the morning and let it stand until the evening to develop the flavours.

I served it with 50g (uncooked) of rice, a dollop of natural yogurt (7p) and a home made sort of chapatti and it was very good indeed.

You may have noticed I do a lot of 'sort of' cooking!