Mom's Vegetable Curry

This morning we took a break from gardening to make a vegetable curry.  Mom cooked and I peeled, chopped and took notes so we could get a record of Mom's potato and eggplant vegetable curry that we have been eating all these years.  There is room for lots of variation here; vegetables used and exact quantities can be very frangible and in garden season could be based on availability but what we used today was:

Potatoes          8 small or 6 medium            1004 g
Carrots            5                                             199 g
Eggplant          2/3                                         302 g
Onion              2 cut coarse                            201 g
Green beans    38 oz can
Onion              1 chopped fine                       112 g
Garlic              2 cloves, minced
Ginger             ~1 inch fresh minced or 1/2 tsp dry
Butter              1+ tbl
Salt                  1/2 tsp
Gnd Mustard   1/4 tsp
Coriander        1/4 tsp
Turmeric          2 tsp
Cumin              3 tsp
Allspice            1/8 tsp
Curry Powder   1+ tbl
Hot red pepper  A little bit, to taste (see below)
Black pepper    Touch it with love
Lemon juice      2 tbl

Cut potatoes coarse - in quarter if small, in sixths if medium, or eighths if large - cut carrots, eggplant and coarse onions - slice in sixths - and place in large pot with green beans, including water/juice, and add water to nearly covered.  Place on heat to cook.

In a separate skillet, melt butter, add fine chopped onion and saute gently.  Add garlic, cook slowly.  Add spices, adding water as needed to maintain a paste.  Add fresh ginger last (if using dried ginger, add with other dried spices).

When veg come to boil, reduce to simmer and add spice paste.  Let simmer until potatoes are cooked through.  The eggplant will "disappear" into a thickener.  At the end, add the lemon juice and adjust salt and "heat" to taste.  You can make this anywhere from completely mild to flamin' hot depending on your preference and choice of pepper.  I like to use African bird pepper, which takes just a small pinch to put some heat in a dish, and prefer enough heat that the yogurt serves to cool it off when served. 

Like all spice based dishes this will do better if prepared ahead, maybe not cooked all the way through, left in the 'fridge, then reheated to complete cooking. Given time, the flavors blend.  We made this in the morning to eat for dinner, but frankly, I have always thought this curry was better left over the next day, so if you are making for company prepare a day in advance if you can work it into your schedule.

Serve with long grain rice, plain yogurt, raisins and peanuts.  I suppose you could try basmati rice, but I have been eating this with long grain rice so long that I would see it as a break with tradition.

A while back, I had some left over vegetable curry and some left over gohbi and channa masala on the same day and heated a little of both up for lunch.  As two components of a rijsttafel, they complement each other really well.  We should all get together for a great curry/rijsttafel cook-off some day soon.

Lindsey