Wednesday, January 07, 2009

January 4, 2009: Spicy eggplant and potatoes

Our first installment with a new recipe calendar! An eggplant and potato curry is just our kinda meal, this one made easier than our usual efforts since it involves a jar of Kan-Tong. Unfortunately this is where we got a little too blasé in the supermarket. Firstly, our can o'curry included some extra potato chunks. Second and worse, we discovered once home that it contained shrimp paste. We forged on, but won't be repeating this dish with that brand. As an aside, dear reader, is there a brand of vegetarian curry paste that's won your loyalty? I think we need to adopt one... or two. Maybe four.

With all that canned curry going on, this was probably the least spicy such dish we've ever made. But it was enlivened by my spontaneous addition of some leftover fried tempeh. I'm usually not a big tempeh fan, finding it a bit dense and dry, but here it really came into its own - it willingly soaked up the sauce and supplied a nutty new texture. Though this meal didn't blow our minds or our mouths, it's a promising launching point for some fine future meals.


Spicy eggplant and potatoes

1 medium eggplant
2 large potatoes
2 onions
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
360g jar massaman curry
1 tablespoon fresh coriander, to garnish

Chop the eggplant and potatoes into 1 inch cubes; peel the onions and slice them into eighths.

Heat the oil in a wok and stir-fry the potatoes, onion, garlic and ginger for 5 minutes. Add the eggplant and stir-fry for a further 5 minutes. Pour in the curry and stir it all together. Bring it to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Garnish with coriander leaves.

6 comments:

  1. oh yum, sounds good, sorry the curry paste was a disappointment.

    I can barely stand plain tempeh but I love it when I buy flavored tempeh (i'm so fickle!)

    Have a great night

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  2. I am quite wary of shrimp paste in curry pastes but have found some thai style pastes in the supermarket - some days it seems a bit of a trial though! And that is annoying when it distracts you from the main event! will try and remember to have a look at home at the brand name

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  3. re your request for curry paste brands - the thai green curry paste we have is Thai Gourmet which we got at coles - and I like pataks when it comes to Indian curry pastes

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  4. Amira, I can understand your tempeh fickleness! I've been disappointed by it and loved it in equal parts. :-D

    Thanks very much for your recommendations, Johanna! I reckon Michael and I could be making weeknight dinners a lot easier for ourselves if only we can hit on the right spice pastes. :-)

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  5. i'm not sure about their other flavours, but any time i make a laksa i use a jar of yeo's laksa paste. it's vegan - totally shrimp free! and i make damn good laksa!

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  6. Yeo's, got it. Thanks Philippa!

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