Sunday 28 February 2016

Pork and Aubergine Curry

I'm not one for food fads, but I am a sucker for a good cookbook.  I read them like novels sometimes, and it's a rare thing indeed for me to regularly cook several recipes from one author's books.

My favourite cookery writer at the moment is Jack Monroe, who essentially writes delicious budget conscious recipes that don't use ridiculous ingredients.

I've got some great ideas from Monroe's books and blog. On a very chilly walk home this afternoon, I found two wrinkly aubergines for 35p each. Instead of pork chops for tea, I thought an adaptation of Monroe's (or Jonaki's) Baba Gosht was in order.

This recipe can easily be made vegan by replacing the pork with mushrooms, and the pork can obviously be replaced with any other meat. It would be good for using up leftover roast!

0 point on WW if using chicken/mushrooms instead of pork and if leaving out the potatoes.

Ingredients
2 diced onions
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
3 pork steaks (about 300g), diced
1 aubergine
1/2 tsp each of ground ginger, cinnamon and tumeric
1 tsp ground cumin
2 bay leaves
a pinch of salt
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin new potatoes (optional - 8 points a tin)
200ml water
fresh coriander

Method
Spray a large frying pan with frylight. Add bay leaves and cook until fragrant.

Reduce heat and add spices. Add a splash of water so it looks like curry paste, then add the onion, chilli and garlic. You may need to add a little more water at this point. Cook on a low heat for 5-10 min and stir now and again.

Add the meat (doesn't have to be pork - anything you have to hand: quorn or chunks of mushroom) and the aubergine. Cook on a low heat until meat is sealed, then pour over the tomatoes and half a tin (200ml) water. Bring it back to the boil for a minute, add the tinned potatoes (sliced) then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 30min or so.



Serve sprinkled with coriander.

Serves 3