We got back from a weekend at the beach and had a whole fridge full of slightly sad vegetables that had been left behind. I decided to make a curry. Rather than cooking the vegetables in the curry, I roasted them separately—making them deliciously caramelised and full of flavour. The curry base comes together in a flash, and an assortment of toppings takes it to the next level.

Although it’s winter here, you wouldn’t really know it by the produce. There are a few pumpkins here and there, but the rest of what’s available seems very consistent—tomatoes, potatoes, corn, onions, courgette, limes, chayote, avocado, etc. One thing I have seen a lot of are beautiful orange marigolds—overflowing in the back of beat-up trucks, stacked over shoulders in large bunches, carefully escorted by little girls in white dresses. I often find myself peeping into courtyards, searching for glimpses of a bright orange bouquet. They are so vibrant and joyful.

After some research, I learned that these flowers are also linked to Dia de Los Muertos. “Orange-colored marigold flowers, known in Mexico as cempaxochitl, are one of the iconic symbols which encircle Mexico’s Day of the Dead traditions. Cempaxochitl is the flower’s given name in Náuhuatl, and translates to mean the “twenty flowers” —cempa–xochitl— colloquially referred to as flor de muerto and is appointed as the flower-of-choice on every Day of the Dead ofrenda.”

Back to the curry— I was initially hoping to make a Thai green curry, but then realised I had no coconut milk left. I contemplated using almond milk but I thought that might be a bit unusual. I settled for a tomato-based curry similar to the one I learnt to make in India, using what I had at hand.