Oct 9, 2010

thai curried coconut eggplant with noodles

Asian Night


Mikel requested this as a repeat. I had made it once before - last year. Having made it before, I felt free to experiment a a bit. The original recipe is from Buddha's Table, a vegan Thai cookbook, but whereas most of the recipes form this book have been a knockout, I had cryptically written "Find galanga next time?" as my note. Yeah, not too helpful regarding our thoughts of the recipe, I'm afraid.

Having made more than a few of his recipes, and realizing that while having the original-authentic ingredients is ideal, substituting appropriate equivalents is at least acceptable. So galanga became ginger and lemongrass became lemon zest. Also, the original recipe is a bit complicated so I simplified it.

The outcome was outstanding - even David loved it and asked if there was more.
I'm positive he didn't last time.

I salted my eggplant slices to remove a lot of the moisture so the eggplant would keep its shape during cooking. I stir fried my eggplant until golden and removed them to set aside. I repeated the same for any of the vegetables I wanted cooked.

I had made red curry paste for another recipe a few months ago and froze half. This was what I used as my red curry paste which I fried in a little oil. I added some vegetable broth and coconut milk, added back the eggplant slices and simmered the curry until the eggplant was tender.

As accompaniments, I had bean sprouts, tomato slices, yellow and green pepper slices, lime, green onions, the stir fried green beans, cabbage and garlic slices.

I poured the curry sauce over the noodles and added the accompaniments to the dish.

Cost Breakdown:
noodles: $2
peppers: $1
tomato, green onion, garlic: $1.50
bean sprouts, green beans: $2
lime, cabbage: $2
coconut oil: $1
red curry paste: $1
Total to feed  a family of 5:
$10.50



4 comments:

  1. what a gorgeous (and filling!) looking meal...Theresa

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  2. Your recipes are so adventurous! I have to give eggplant another try. I think I don't like it, but it's been so long since I've tried it that it's not fair to rule it out. This recipe might be a good place to start! :)

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  3. Thank you! Thank you!

    Kim, eggplant can be very different depending on how you prepare it. If you salt it and squeeze out the liquid it holds its shape and can be fried or sauteed. If not, you can cook it and it becomes a nice mush, like what is needed for a dip.

    Good for you for not giving up!

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