Aubergine, Peanut & Tamarind Curry with Anna Jones
“This curry is unreasonably delicious. It’s all cooked in a tray in the oven so it’s simple and pretty quick. Two perfectly wonky aubergines were what got me thinking about this curry, I love how the butteriness of aubergine stands up well to lots of spice. I used surplus vine tomatoes and spring onions from my box too, as well as some garlic, ginger, red onion and cucumber from my box the previous week.
You could use squash or sweet potato in place of the aubergines if that’s what you have and vegans can use firm tofu instead of the paneer.
I made some quick pickled red onions to go on top, finely sliced a couple of red onions then scrunch them with a pinch of salt and the juice of ½ a lime (or lemon). They will keep in the jar in the fridge for 10 days or so. I also made a quick raitia by mixing roughly chopped cucumber with yoghurt, lime juice, chopped coriander and a good pinch of salt.”
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes
Total time: 70 minutes
Servings: 5
Ingredients:
2 Aubergines (washed and cut into 3cm pieces )
2 tbsp Coconut oil (or ghee)
tbsp Cumin seeds
1 tbsp Fennel seeds
1 tbsp Black mustard seeds
1 tbsp Garam masala
1 tsp Turmeric
1 a bunch of Coriander
6 Spring onions
4 Garlic cloves
Ginger (a thumb of ginger, peeled and chopped into pieces )
400 ml Coconut milk (cooking coconut milk )
2 tbsp Crunchy peanut butter
2 tbsp Tamarind paste
4 Vine tomatoes (roughly chopped )
200 g Natural firm tofu (cut into 2 cm pieces ) / Paneer
100 g Natural Yoghurt / Vegan yoghurt
50 g Cucumbers (cubed)
½ Lime (juiced)
Recipe:
- Heat your oven to 200C fan. First, roast your aubergines. Put them onto a large baking tray with a couple of tablespoons of coconut and a good pinch of salt. Put into the oven to melt the coconut oil for a couple of minutes, then remove and toss until all the pieces are coated. Roast for 20 minutes until golden.
- Meanwhile, toast the cumin seeds, fennel seeds and black mustard seeds in a dry pan over a medium heat until they smell fragrant. Put them into a food processor with the garam masala and turmeric.
- Add the toasted seeds to food processor with the garam masala and turmeric, half the coriander (including the stalks) and the spring onions (use the white and the green parts to minimise waste).
- Add the garlic, ginger and pulse to a paste, then add the coconut milk and blitz again before stirring in the peanut butter and tamarind, taste and season with salt if needed.
- Once the aubergines have had their 15 minutes, add the chopped tomatoes and paneer to the tray and pour over the peanut and coconut mixture. Toss to make sure everything has been introduced to the sauce and carefully (it will still be hot) cover the tray with foil and put back in the oven for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, remove the foil and put back into the oven for another 15 minutes.
- While that's cooking, put your rice on to cook and warm your bread. You can also make your raita. Chop up the rest of the coriander and add it to a bowl with the yoghurt, cubed cucumber, lime juice and a big pinch of salt. Mix it all together, then leave to one side.
- Once the curry is cooked, serve it on top of the rice and with your bread. Spoon some of the raita on top, and serve with any chutney or pickles you like. Enjoy!
