Saturday 24 January 2009

Beetroot and Aubergine Sri Lankan curry


The World Food Cafe cookbook rightfully deserves credit for this dish, though the recipe here is slightly different.

This is one intense flavour experience, and is colourful the following day too. Serve with Quinoa, and with some additional coconut milk to hand. In the absence of Quinoa, lash yourself firmly with a bunch of celery in penance, and substitute a lesser grain of your pitiful choosing.

Needing to have in the larder:
  • 2 medium cooked beetroots - not preserved in vinegar. Lucky for The VegHead beetroot cooking day was yesterday and a big batch of cooked whole beetroot was in the fridge, soaking in its cooking water and a little salt. Actually...it wasn't that lucky as I had planned it that way.
  • 1 medium purple aubergine - cut into large cubes
  • 1 cup of cookd haricot beans
  • 1 small onion - halved and thickly sliced
  • 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon of black peppercorns
  • 1/4 teaspoon of fennel seeds
  • 1 stalk of lemongrass - chopped and ground in a mortar an pestle
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 2 teaspoons of light miso paste
  • coconut milk
  • sunflower oil or similar
  • 1/2 cup of crushed, roasted cashews
Oh...you're making that all up...
  • dryroast the spice seeds in a hot oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Then crush to a powder with a mortar and pestle.
  • fry the spices and the onion
  • add the aubergine and fry until cooked but still firm. Add more oil if necessary, by jitherers those eggplants have a thirst for the stuff don't they?
  • add the beetroot, beans, lemongrass and a little water. Simmer for 5 - 10 minutes allow the flavours to mix and mature
  • stir through about 1/4 cup of coconut milk. Allow the saucepan to come back to a simmer and then immediately serve
  • liberally sprinkle with cashew nuts
And here is one that I cooked earlier (before it was eaten)


3 comments:

kasbah said...

What happend to the miso paste? I added it during the simmer before the coconutmilk. Hope it wasn't a typo!

Anonymous said...

Kasbah - you guessed correctly. I will update the "method" to say that the miso paste should be added during the simmer. I usually dissolve it in the water anyway.

And...I need to give this blog CPR.

Thanks for cooking. It's an interesting curry isn't it?

The Veghead

kasbah said...

Yes, very tasty! Thank you for the recipe.