Baby Eggplant Coconut Curry

There were more beautiful eggplants at the greengrocers this week. Teeny little baby ones! So sweet.

I searched through my cookbooks to find a suitable recipe. I was a bit worried, because I have worked out the tongue-bitey-ness I find in eggplants is in their skin, and I have taken to peeling them as much as possible. But how could I peel these sweet little things? Their gorgeousness would be gone!

I found a recipe that specified baby eggplants (and was sugarfree). I had made it before but with large eggplants and almonds instead of cashews, and noted it as YUM! Time to try again with all the right ingredients.

Here is the recipe from Tyler Florence:

Baby Eggplants in a Curry Coconut Sauce

and HERE and HERE are a couple of blogs from people who have made it.

It worked really well! 

The sauce is so tasty and so thick and creamy and the eggplants get so smoky and sticky charred, so that when the two come together the result is fantastic! I just cut the little ones in half. And once cooked there was no tongue-bitey-ness!

I wish I had taken a picture of the eggplants frying as that would show the two parts that come together. O well. 

In fact, I added some cauliflower towards the end because it seemed by eggplants were even babier than the original, and I could have had twice as many. The cauliflower was a good addition though! And I lucked out with the timing so that it was cooked perfectly by the time the eggplant was done.

I used oil for frying the onions, but kept to the ghee for the eggplant.
Even with the tablespoon of curry powder, this is a very mild curry.

Thinking about serving this in a YamDaisy Cafe... well, the smokey and creaminess is fantastic: but it could be confronting to some tastes! It is also quite rich, and so better as a smaller potion. So while it is a lovely vegetarian curry and a complete meal served with rice and green leaves as suggested, I have added a piece of roast chicken so the curry serves more of a side dish and could be easier for people to try.

 (not the best photo ~ sorry)

Once they try a couple of mouthfuls, of course, I'm betting they will love it as much as I do!

Chickpea Curry

Here is another delicious curry to share with you.
I have three Chickpea Curries I make often, and another couple to try if I fancy them!
In some ways this is the most inappropriate one to share because it includes ingredients like asafoetida, tamarind and chaat masala, that aren't so well known in the West. But O it is a delicious curry. The first time I made it I wrote 'Such yummy sauce!' beside the recipe in my book.

Also, this is the one I made recently, so I have a photo! And another good thing to share is that I froze half of it, and it defrosted and warmed up scrumptiously. This makes it precious in my household where there is only me to feed!

It is also good to consider what a treat it might be on a YamDaisy Menu, a delicious curry that you might not make yourself, but would be delighted to eat every time it is served at the YamDaisy Cafe.

CHANA MASALA (That pretty well means Chick Pea Curry!)

250g chickpeas, soak and cook, reserving liquid (= 2 cans of chickpeas)
2 tsp tamarind paste soaked in hot water and when cool put through a sieve to get a thick puree

Roughly chop and then blend to a paste:
1 large onion
2 garlic cloves,
2-3 cm fresh ginger
1 green chili
Now heat 2/3 cup of oil and gently fry the onion mixture until golden brown

Add
1 tbsp ground cumin,
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp chili powder
a pinch of asafoetida
stir for a minute, and then take the pan off the heat and carefully add
2 tbsp of thick yoghurt,

1 tbsp garam masala,
stir until it is completely mixed in and then back on the heat gradually add
3 cups of reserved water from cooking the chickpeas (or just water!) and bring to a simmer

Add the tamarind paste,
the chickpeas
half a lemon (the whole thing, not just the juice!)
3 green chillies (also whole)
Simmer 30 minutes and remove the lemon. If the sauce isn't thick, keep simmering until it is.

Stir in
2 tsp chaat masala
1/4 tsp garam masala

I have adapted the recipe from a book called "Food of India" and this day I served it with rice, beans (a favourite lately!), chopped tomatoes and lots of fresh coriander. Absolutely delicious!

Curried Peas and Cheese

I found this recipe so many years ago that Charmaine Solomon knew Australians would generally have no idea what paneer is, so she made use of ricotta to make the cheese that goes with the peas.
This was the first curry recipe I made that wasn't bought curried powder fried up and turned into a vegetable stew with a few sultanas thrown in (this might give you a good idea of how old I am!!!!).

I loved this recipe so much, and I still get the same pleasure every time I make it. While most of my cooking has become more authentic as I have learned about Indian food and ingredients, and I can buy paneer at my local shops, I still make this recipe in the same way. It is just such a delicious dish. If you want to get more authentic, look up Muttar Paneer, but maybe you will love this recipe too!

Cheese and Peas
250g ricotta, drain on paper towels, form into small balls.
Heat 1 tbsp ghee and 1 tbsp oil together and fry the ricotta balls til golden.
Lift out and drain on paper towels while you do the next steps.


In the same pan fry
2 finely chopped onions,
2 crushed garlic cloves
2 tsp of grated ginger
until soft and golden.

Then add
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne powder (optional)
cook stirring for a minute

Add
2 firm ripe tomatoes, chopped
1/2 tsp garam masala
stir in and cook until the tomatoes are mushy

Add
750g shelled peas
cover and cook until almost tender (add a little water if too dry, but it should be right)

Add the ricotta balls and
1tbsp of chopped coriander leaves and
salt to taste
Cover and cook gently 10 minutes more

Sprinkle with another 1/2 tsp garam masala
and one more tbsp of chopped coriander leaves
and serve hot with rice or chapatis

and in my case with some strips of red capsicum!

Dal Makhani

When I come up with YamDaisy menus (for more info see here),  I try to make sure the soup and each of the main meals are quite different to each other ~ if one is dairy based, another will be dairy free, if one is spicy, the others won't be, and so on.

But I am having a little break from posting menus and thought I might do a little celebration of Indian dishes. I am thinking of how popular curry is as a meal and that maybe, in some areas, the YamDaisy Cafe would have customers who want curries on the menu all the time!

My last post was a delicious spiced vegetable curry, this one is a dal, and maybe the most comforting dal of all. Dals are cooked beans or lentil dishes and are the delicious, nutritious foods the YamDaisy Cafe is all about.

Dal Makhani is quite a rich dal, but balances out when served with rice and a fresh salad of tomato, cucumber and avocado. It is a bit of a procedure, but what a dish! It is made with a mixture of beans and lentils, and it took me a while to get this recipe just the way I like it. That is because I am not that fond of urad dal ~ it doesn't cook to the creamy softness of other pulses, but that does mean it gives this dal a bit of back bone, which is why it is such a classic. I do put less urad dal than some recipes, but I find this ratio perfect!

 DAL MAKHANI

Place 1/4 cup split urad dal and 3/4 cup black or red kidney beans in a bowl and cover with water and leave to soak over night
In the morning rinse 1/2 a cup of channa dal and put to soak for an hour.

Next put the urad and black beans in a pan with water to cover by a couple of centimetres. Bring to the boil and boil hard for 10 minutes. I have a tea ball that I fill with 6 cardamom pods, 4 cloves and a piece of cinnamon bark that I let boil along with the pulses. This adds a depth of flavour.

After the 10 minutes, remove the spiceball if you have put it in, and add the chana dal. Bring back to the boil and remove any scum foam. If I have removed the scum, and add a little oil, I find I can then pressure cook the pulses for 15 minutes, but you need to be sure of your cooker, most pressure cookers warn against cooking lentils under pressure.
It would probably take an hour and a half of simmering to cook in a saucepan. Stir occasionally and top up with water as necessary.
When they are cooked you can squish them with a wooden spoon to make a thick mash with each pulse giving its own texture.

Next stir in a big tablespoon of butter and a big tablespoon of cream and season with salt to taste. Then stir in a tin of diced tomatoes (or equivalent fresh if you are so lucky) and keep the pot on gentle heat while you fry the tarka.

Now heat a tablespoon of oil or ghee in a small frypan. Have all these 'tarka' ingredients ready to add in.
Add a tsp of cumin seeds and fry til crackling
Then add four finely chopped garlic cloves, and as they fry add a small finely chopped onion and fry til golden brown
Next add 2 sliced fresh chillies and 2 tsp of chili powder ~ you can add less ofcourse, but the cream softens the chili heat, so it can be surprising how much this dal needs
Add a tsp of turmeric powder and let it sizzle for another minute and then stir it all into the pulses.

You can finish it off with a tsp of cream in a swirl, and some chopped coriander.

Delicious!

Mixed Vegetable Curry

This delicious curry has been sitting in my files for several years. It comes from Margaret Fulton, one of Australia's National Living Treasures and Super Foodie.

I gave it a try because of the beans I had bought. These were lovely fresh green beans, but cheaper because they had been mechanically harvested, and this meant they would not keep as long. So I made up a big curry of veggies and then ate it in all sorts of lovely ways until it had gone. It is so easy and tasty! I must have had it with four or five meals and still wasn't sick of it.

It would be a great YamDaisy recipe!

It kept well in the fridge and warmed up to deliciousness on the following days.

I used corn chopped into pieces instead of the cauliflower in the recipe, chard from my garden instead of spinach, and the only other change I made was to use 1/3 cup of oil instead of 1/2 a cup, which was plenty.
O and I cooked it in the wok instead of a large saucepan. Now you know you can change those things back if you want!

MIXED VEGETABLE CURRY

1/3 cup of oil ~ heat in a wok and add

1 tbsp fresh grated turmeric (or 2 tsp ground)

6 - 8 curry leaves

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 cm grated ginger

pinch chili powder (cayenne)

Fry for a minute or two

Then add

2 fresh corn cobs sliced into rounds

250g green beans in short lengths

1 carrot finely sliced

And fry over medium heat until half cooked but still crispish

Add

6 chard leaves torn into pieces

And fry for about 5 minutes

Then season with salt, cover, and cook on low heat for 2 - 3 minutes. 

There is enough steam for the veggies to cook to perfection.

Isn't it easy! If you don't have curry leaves you could just make it without.
In the picture you can see it served with brown rice and a crispy fish fillet, but it is hard to think of something it wouldn't go with!

Yum, I will be making it again soon!