Indian-Style Eggplant

Weekend Chef here. As mentioned in previous posts, I thoroughly enjoy cooking on inspiration, no recipe required. Without a net, if you will. I also enjoy buying new ingredients and then figuring out what to do with it. Our family recently made a trip to a local branch of a Korean supermarket, an international chain called Hmart. We may post some of the other cool stuff we did/ saw there in the future, but today I’m going to focus on our first purchase of Indian eggplant. Apparently there are several varieties of eggplant in different shapes and sizes and Hmart had a bunch of them. We’re all likely familiar with the big purple kind, but these were much smaller (approximately chicken egg sized, but still purple).  The flavors seem similar, but the texture was smoother after the eggplant cooked down. Sometimes large eggplants are fibrous and stringy. We will have to keep trying different eggplants and report back.

We’ve lost a few good Indian restaurants over the last few years so we may have to cook our own.  I just used some familiar flavors and attempted to get the spices to mellow and not overpower the dish.  The whole family ate this, although our son did so begrudgingly.  I think I was successful.  Please let me know if you agree.

Indian-Style Eggplant
Recipe from The Weekend Chef at NY Foodie Family

Makes 4 Servings

Ingredients:
6 Indian eggplants, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp Penzeys maharajah curry powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1 small can tomato sauce (8oz)

cooked jasmine rice (to serve with)

Directions:
Heat the oil over medium heat in a small round-bottom pan. Add the garlic  to the pan.  Once it starts turning a light brown color add the eggplant and the remaining ingredients. Cook the eggplant for 10-15 minutes or until very soft. Check spice level and add more if desired. Serve over jasmine rice.