Thai Curried Aubergine (Eggplant)

This recipe is adapted from one in the (now, sadly, defunct) BBC Vegetarian Good Food magazine. With this amount of curry paste, and using the number of chillies specified in my Red Curry Paste recipe, this isn't an overly hot dish. To spice it up a bit, make a hotter curry paste rather than just adding more. You should really use Thai basil in this, but ordinary basil is good too.

Serves 2 as a main dish

• 1 large aubergine (eggplant), prepared as below
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp red curry paste
• 1 large red, orange or yellow (sweet bell) pepper, deseeded and sliced
• 2 tsp black bean sauce or 1/2 tsp black beans, crushed
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 20 medium-sized basil leaves (optional, but nice)

1. Halve the aubergine and slice across the other way; halving lengthways gives half-moon slices, which are easier to eat, but halving widthways first gives rectangular slices, which look nicer. The larger the slices, the longer they need to cook in step 3.

2. In a heated wok, sauté the garlic in stock made with the cube until golden-brown (or use oil if you prefer).

3. Stir in the curry paste and add the aubergine, along with a little more water if needed. Mix well and continue to cook for about 3 minutes.

4. Add the peppers, black bean sauce, soy sauce and sugar, along with 6 tbsp water. Simmer for 5 minutes until vegetables are cooked. Stir in the basil and serve at once.

Kake's (Vegan) Cookery Site - http://www.earth.li/~kake/cookery/
This page added 7 September 1998 (last altered 13 July 2004) - comments and questions to Kake L Pugh (kake@earth.li).