Total Pageviews

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Chick-peas and Eggplant in Minted Cream

This curry is adapted from the recipe book Classic Curries, by Lisa Dyer. This has to be one of my favourite recipe books and one of my favourite vegetarian curries in this book, besides the Pumpkin Korma which I may add at a later date. I know it has been forever since I posted on my blog, but life just catches up with you and it's hard sometimes to just sit down and write. I think when you have sick kids, the world just stops and it takes a little while to catch up. Winter time denotes a yummy curry that you can soak up with some garlic naan if it suits. My kids love this one, even with the eggplant which isn't always kid-friendly. I think the eggplant soaks up the flavour of the curry and nicely disguises the sometimes bitter taste of this vegetable.

Serves 4
4-6 finger eggplants
2 medium size zucchini
6 Tbsp oil or ghee
1 large onion, peeled, quarted and sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1-2 fresh chillies, deseeded and chopped, or use 2 tsp minced chilli from a jar
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground garam masala
425g tin chopped tomatoes
300mls vegetable stock or water
salt and pepper
425g can chick-peas, drained and rinsed
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
150ml double cream
Plain or pilau rice, or parathas, to serve

Trim the leaf off the eggplant and slice. Trim and slice the zucchini. Heat the oil or ghee in a saucepan and gently fry the eggplant, zucchini, onion, garlic and chillies for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently and adding a little more oil to the pan, if necessary. Stir in the spices and cook for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, stock or water and salt and pepper to taste and cook for 10 minutes. Add the chick-peas to the pan and continue cooking for a further 5 minutes. Stir in the mint and cream and reheat gently. Tast and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Serve with plain or pilau rice, or with parathas if preferred.
NB You can easily omit the chillies if you would rather a milder curry. I just added one small green one, deseeded in the latest curry and it was just the right amount of heat for the kids.
Enjoy

No comments:

Post a Comment