Aubergine (Eggplant) in Tomato Sauce
"This dish comes from North India and makes a delicious first course or side dish. Serve it hot or cold, with naan, chapattis or pitta bread. If you serve this cold, make it a day in advance. The recipe calls for 300ml of sunflower oil, which sounds a lot, but some of this is drained off and you may find you can get away with using less when frying the aubergines, especially if you salt and rinse them first (not specified in the instructions). Draining time for the oil is included in the preparation time. This recipe comes from “The World of Spice” and is posted for Zaar World Tour 2005."
- Ready In:
- 1hr 15mins
- Ingredients:
- 13
- Serves:
-
4-6
ingredients
- 6 garlic cloves
- 1 1⁄2 inches gingerroot, cut into chunks
- 2 green chilies
- 1 kg aubergine
- 300 ml sunflower oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin seed
- 1 teaspoon fennel seed
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 2 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree
- 1⁄2 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 teaspoons salt
- cilantro, to garnish
directions
- In a blender, whizz the garlic, ginger and chillies with just enough water to form a thin paste.
- Cut the aubergines lengthwise into four thick slices, then cut across into 1 ½ inch thick chunks; heat the sunflower oil in a wide lidded pan and fry the aubergines in batches until completely tender and reddish-brown on both sides; when each batch is finished, lift from the pan using a slotted spoon and place in a sieve over a bowl; leave for 30 minutes to drain off the surplus oil.
- In the same pan, use 2 tablespoons of the drained oil and heat through; add the cumin, fennel and coriander seeds and fry for a few seconds; add the tomato, tomato puree, garlic/ginger/chilli paste, turmeric and salt; cook gently, stirring well, for about 10 minutes until the mixture thickens.
- Add the drained aubergines to the tomato sauce, cover the pan and cook gently for about 15 minutes.
- Serve at once, or leave overnight in the fridge for the flavours to develop; sprinkle with cilantro leaves before serving.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Mrs B
Worcester Park, Surrey
I live with my husband and 2 cats in Worcester Park; a quiet typical 1930s suburb (which no one has ever heard of!) about 12 miles South West of London.
I'm a fair weather gardener and as my husband is a vegetarian I grow a few easy vegetables, such as tomatoes and peppers, mainly in containers. My husband loves growing flowers, the brighter the better, and we have a pretty garden as a result. Our cats, Araminta and Purrl, like it too!
I do a lot of cooking and try to keep our diet as healthy and varied as possible. Although I work full time, I use very little in the way of pre-prepared foods. This is partly because of the limited choice of vegetarian meals, which I think are overpriced anyway; but mainly because I like to know what goes in my food!
I love using the Internet for all the great ideas it gives me. Last year I participated in the Zaar World Tour (under my previous public name Caroline Blakey), which was great. Mr B and I tried lots of new foods and discovered new favourite meals. Researching recipes for the Tour was really interesting, however as I didn't have time to try them all, some were posted untested. I'm still working my way very slowly through them. To make matters worse I keep seeing other recipes I want to save and have also participated in Zaar world Tour II. So many recipes, so little time to make them!
<img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/Banners/Animation3.gif">
My 'rules' for posting recipes are a) if I wouldn't make a particular recipe, I won't post it and b) if my husband wouldn't eat it, I won't post it. This means that all my recipes are vegetarian friendly.
As you will see from the number of recipes saved in my cookbooks, I particularly enjoy making jams and chutneys; I'd say it was one of my favourite hobbies. We always have a good supply of home preserves; my friends and work colleagues are well supplied too.
If we won the lottery (say £5m, as a good number) we'd like to give up work, move to the country and buy a place with a bit of land. In my dreams this would be a manor house or old vicarage, with a walled garden, an orchard where I could keep hens, a vegetable garden, etc, etc, etc! In my more realistic moments (the £1m win perhaps) I would like to run a B&B, perhaps offering Vegetarian taster weekends. Luckily it costs nothing to dream.......I’d also love more time to read, do embroidery, learn a language, see more of the countryside; and of course play on Zaar.
