Tomatoes, tomatoes, everywhere...

It's autumn here in the UK (or Fall, as my American students would say) and along with the pretty foliage we are currently experiencing that wonderful end-of-summer treat, an abundance of tomatoes. My own tomato plants did admirably this year (considering how root bound the poor wee things were) but my friend Rosie's tomatoes have really gone crazy. I'm down staying at her place once a week, and everytime I go down there's a new pile of freshly picked tomatoes on the kitchen counter. While passata and chutney are all well and good, sometimes it's nice to do something a bit different too, I think. My mind immediately went to curry this week. In particular I had in mind that I wanted to try an eggplant and mushroom curry (not sure why those vege in particular, but that's what I fancied. Why question a determined mind?)

I did a bit of googling for tomato-based curries and came across one for a paneer curry which sounded really good. I tweaked it a bit (in addition to replacing the paneer with eggplant and mushroom, obviously) and the result was considered a big success by all of the willing taste-testers (namely Rosie and her sister, and myself!)

You could, of course, add paneer instead of - or in addition to - the vege, or use other vege or even pulses I'd say. And I think that if you're a butter chicken fan (butter chicken in the sense of NZ-style butter chicken which, as it turns out, is different to the butter chicken you get over here) you'll really like this sauce over chicken - or even over fish. Give it a bash - I hope you like it too!


Eggplant and Mushrooms in a Tomato Curry Sauce

1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp butter
4 green cardamom pods, seeds removed and crushed
4 cups fresh diced tomatoes (or equivalent in tinned toms)
1/2 cup whole (unroasted) cashew nuts
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 scant teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
4 bay leaves
1 inch fresh ginger root, skinned and roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed and roughly chopped
1 green birds eye chili, stemmed and split in half (remove the seeds for a milder sauce)
2 tablespoons dried fenugreek leaves
1/3 cup double cream (that's just regular cream if you live in NZ and probably Australia. Weirdest thing ever the ridiculous range of cream they have in the UK)
1 tablespoon honey (or sugar I'm sure would be fine too!)

Heat oil/butter to medium heat, add cardamom and cook for 30 secs or so. Add other spices, ginger and garlic and the chilli - stir to combine and start sizzling. Add cashews, tomatoes and salt. Bring to a boil, add the bay leaves and simmer until it has thickened and reduced - about 15-20 mins, depending on how watery the tomatoes are.

Once sauce has cooked down, put into a blender and blitz until quite smooth - this might take a couple of minutes.

Heat some more oil/butter and saute a chopped onion until soft. Cook some eggplant and mushrooms until soft as well (or chicken if that's what you're using, or other vege of your choice). Add the sauce back to the pan, add the cream, fenugreek seeds and honey. Bring back to a simmer and heat through (or cook until the meat/vege are cooked).

Enjoy! And if you do try this and use it over something other than eggplant/mushrooms, let me know how it goes!