A recipe for vegan Vietnamese mock duck curry

You know that local place you go to? The one that's near your house, and it's not super fancy, but you've been there a million times? That's the one. The one where you go and you know without looking at the menu exactly what you're going to have, because that's what you always have, because you know it'll be delicious?

My local place is a Vietnamese that's about 15 minutes on the bus from my house, it's cheap, the food's good, and you can bring your own booze if you fancy.

I always have the lemongrass tofu noodle salad, and Mr Flicking the Vs unfailingly has the curry. Maybe some days we take in bottles of beer, some days we get some fancy tea from the menu, but the dishes never change.

Having had these dishes so many times in our local neighbourhood place, I thought I'd try making a version at home.

The end result wasn't too close to the version that they serve at my local neighbourhood place, but it was great all the same so I'm sharing it with you here. I'd suggest serving it with rice - when I made this at home, the only rice I could find in the house was sushi rice, and that worked just fine. Maybe it's not the most authentic dish in the world, but it's not short on tastiness.

Vietnamese mock duck curry
Makes 3-4 portions

Ingredients
Paste:
One onion
Two cloves of garlic
One chunk of galangal, one of ginger
One lemongrass stick
Two teaspoons of garam masala
One teaspoon of tumeric
One tablespoon of vegetable oil
Pinch of chilli powder

Everything else:
One small potato, cut in large dice
One medium carrot, peeled and cut in large dice
One small section of squash, peeled and cut in large dice (about the same volume as carrot and potato)
One tin of Granovita mock duck, drained
Half a head of broccoli cut into florets
A couple of handfuls of greens (I used chard, but spinach, kale, or anything like that would be good)
Two kaffir lime leaves
50g of coconut cream
350mls of water or vegetable stock
One and a half tablespoon of soy sauce

How you do it
Using a hand blender or food processor, blend the paste ingredients until smooth
Put the paste into a saucepan and heat over a medium heat for a couple of minutes until the raw onion smell has gone.
Add the potato, carrot, squash, and stock, bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
Add the mock duck and broccoli and cook for another five minutes.
Add the greens, soy sauce, and coconut cream, and cook for five minutes more.
Serve with the rice of your choice. Even sushi rice, I won't tell.