The Best Vegetable Curry

Photo: Bing

Ingredients

1 large eggplant – about 3 cups worth

1/4 pumpkin – about 2 cups worth

1 cup of french beans

2 large onions

8 cloves garlic, peeled

1/2 cup canned chickpeas, drained

1 cup canned pineapple pieces, drained

7 tablespoons red curry paste

1 cup water

1 can coconut cream (425ml)

1 tablespoon Asian Oyster Sauce

2 tablespoons Asian Shaoxing Huatiao Rice wine (or use sherry)

1 tablespoon sugar

2 cups vegetable oil

2 tablespoons fried shallots to garnish

Preparation

Cut off the skin, remove the centres of the pumpkin, and cut into chunks.

Lay the pumpkin pieces on a baking sheet lined with cooking/parchment paper. Toss with some extra virgin olive oil, and pop the baking sheet into a pre-heated oven of 220 deg C for about 15 mins or until golden brown.

Cut the eggplant into large chunks too. They will shrink when they are cooked.

Cut the onions into big chunks and roughly chop up the garlic cloves.

Trim off the ends of the french beans and cut them into half.

Heat 2 C of vegetable oil till smoking hot in a pot. Add the eggplant and fry till they are brown and about 70% cooked. Stir occasionally. When they are ready, remove the fried eggplant pieces from the oil, drain well and set aside.

By now the pumpkin should be done. Remove from the oven, and set aside.

Pour away the oil in the pot and return the pot to the stove. Add the onions and garlic and stir fry for a minute.

Add 6 to 7 tablespoons of curry paste to the onions+garlic mixture, which should by now smell really wonderful. Stir fry for a minute.

Add 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce and 2 tablespoons of Shaoxing Huatiao rice wine. Mix thoroughly with the other ingredients in pot.

Add 1 cup of water. Stir it in and allow the mixture to simmer for a few seconds.

Add the coconut cream. I used Kara Coconut Cream. Cream, not milk. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Allow the mixture to come to a boil. Then add in the vegetables in this order - french beans, pumpkin and the eggplant that was set aside earlier.

Drain the chickpeas and pineapple. Add 1/2 cup of chickpeas to the mixture. Add 1 cup of pineapple. We really like pineapple in this curry. I usually add in the whole lot from one can.

Stir the mixture gently and cook in medium heat for about 5 minutes or until all ingredients are heated through and cooked.

Garnish with fried onions and serve with rice. Yum!