Recipe of the week: Jamie Oliver's stuffed curried aubergines
Up your veggie curry game with this delicious recipe.
There’s nothing more satisfying than a curry and having one up your sleeve that doesn’t involve meat is a game-changer for midweek cooking.
Ingredients (serves 6)
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
4cm piece of ginger
½ a bunch of fresh coriander (15g)
2 fresh red chillies
1tsp each of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, ground turmeric, garam masala, fenugreek seeds
1 big handful of fresh curry leaves
Groundnut oil
2tbsp (heaped) crunchy peanut butter
1tbsp mango chutney
2tbsp tamarind paste
12 finger aubergines (800g total)
1 x 400g tin of light coconut milk
250g ripe mixed-colour cherry tomatoes
Sea salt and black pepper
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375F/gas 5. Peel the onion, garlic and ginger, place in a food processor with the coriander stalks and chillies (deseed if you like), and whiz to a fine paste.
2. Put the spices and curry leaves into a 25cm x 35cm roasting tray on a low heat with two tablespoons of oil and fry for one minute, or until smelling fantastic, stirring constantly. Tip in the paste and cook for five minutes, or until softened, stirring regularly.
3. Stir in the peanut butter, mango chutney and tamarind paste, season with a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper, then scrape into a bowl, add a splash of water to loosen to a paste, if needed.
4. Leaving them intact at the stalk, cut the aubergines into quarters lengthways, rub and stuff them generously with all the paste, then arrange them in the tray (if using regular aubergines, simply trim then cut into 1cm-thick rounds and sandwich the paste between them).
5. Place the tray on a medium heat and fry for five minutes, turning halfway. Add the coconut milk, roughly chop and sprinkle over the tomatoes, season well with salt and pepper, and bring to the boil.
6. Cover with tin foil and roast for 40 minutes, or until thickened and reduced, removing the foil halfway. Season to perfection and scatter the coriander leaves.
Serve
Use good fluffy rice, poppadoms, yoghurt and extra fresh chilli for this tasty dish.
