Brinjal Curry - An English National Dish

What started as brinjal baji ended up as a saucy brinjal curry by lucky chance.....

By Kathleen Ghisletta

 

 Ingredients

• Spices: 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon fennel,  8 cardamon pods, 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon Pataks Madras paste
• Olive & grapeseed oil
• 2 medium onions
• One large brinjal
• Half a vegetable stock cube in 250ml hot water
• Tomato paste
• Almonds

Preparation

1.  Slice & salt the brinjal and place on a plate in the fridge to steep for 30 mins.
2. Peel and chop the onions and then fry in a Thick Bottomed pan in an equal mixture of olive & grapeseed oil on a low heat.
3. When the onions start to become translucent add all the spices and the madras paste and cook further for about 10 mins, adding a little of the stock when it becomes too dry.
4. Now add the rest of the liquid stock, stirring well and then pour off into a bowl to keep.
5. Rinse the salt off the brinjal slices and cut into pieces.
6. Now fry the brinjal in a heated oil mixture in the same pan until they start to brown and then add the stock & spice sauce and a tablespoon of tomato paste, and simmer very gently.
7. Just before the dish is ready to serve add a tablespoon of crushed almonds to thicken the sauce.

Voila!

We're jamming ...... Blackberry Jam - English Style

  Summer in England is jamming time. There is a huge variety of fruits growing wild in the english countryside, not least of all plums, damsons, apples, sloes and the best jamming fruit of all, BlackBerries!

Method  (in the Madness)

1. It's very easy ..... collect the Blackberries!
    .... but make sure they have many large segments rather than many small segments as these are exceedingly seedy and therefore inedible!

2. Wash thoroughly in a basin of water removing stalks and floating bits!

3. Drain and rinse in a large collander ..........

4. Weigh the fruit and chuck into a large Thick Bottomed jamming pot!

5. Cook the fruit on a Medium Heat until it goes soft, and at this point, check that the fruit is disolving and not forming hard lumps! If it is, it is no good and should be chucked away!

6. Now add the equivalent weight in sugar, the best being sugar with added Pectin as blackberries don't set very well.

  

 

7. Bring the jam mixture to a simmer on a Medium Heat stirring occassionally, until the sugar is completely dissolved and then let the beautiful black molasses simmer for about 20 - 30 minutes.

8. In the meanwhile, place your thoroughly washed and dried glass jars and lids into a heated oven set to about 120 degrees Celcius, Farenheit 250 degrees, Gas Mark 1/2.

The jars need to remain in the oven at heat for at least 20 minutes. This is an essential sterilisation process so that the jam can be stored for months or even years, without the fear of mould developing!

9. Begin the potting process with a hot jars and a hot jam mixture. A soup ladle is the best implement for getting the jam into the jars. As soon as the jar is filled screw the lid on tightly using a tea towel so you don't burn yourself. 

Note: Jam will get everywhere! Don't panic! It's all part of the fun!

Cook's Tips

• Add a squeeze of lemon juice for an unusual flavour and to improve setting.
•  Blackberries don't set well so a number of plums can be cooked with the jam to increase the pectin levels.

The Basics 2: The Tomato Sauce

The tomato sauce that I wish to describe here is a number of flavours taken from all over the world and combined into what I feel is a rich, flavoursome sauce that can be used for any number of dishes. Please experiment with any ingredients to obtain your own unique taste!

Ingredients

• tomatoes - tinned Italian plum, or fresh if you can obtain
• onions - a large white sweet variety
• garlic - large fresh cloves for crushing
• herbs - mixed, Italian or herbs de provence
• pimentón - dried smoked red pepper powder
• pepper, black whole peppercorns
• salt - a good coarse Atlantic sea salt 
• lemon, one half
  
• stock - fish, chicken or vegetable

 Method

1. Start with the onion preparation from Basics 1:  Preparing the Onions
2. Peel about 3 -5 cloves of garlic by crushing the clove beneath the blade of your knife using the palm of your hand. The garlic shell.is now easily removed.
3. Chop finely using a see-saw action with a large, sharp kitchen knife, using the blade to gather the garlic pieces into a heap for further slicing.
4. Leave the garlic to stand for at least 3 minutes so that the flavour can develop before adding to the pot.
5. Now saute the garlic with the onions and oil until it begins to turn translucent.
6. Grind in a dose of black pepper
7. Add 2 x 400g tins of peeled plum tomatoes to the pot. Tomatoes can be dessicated in the tin using a kitchen scissors or sliced in the pot using the sharp edge of a wooden spatula.
8. Stir in 1-2 teaspoons of mixed herbs.
9. Sprinkle a flat teaspoon of pimento into the pot.
10. Add the salt to taste and/or the stock depending on how salty the stock is!
11. Stir well and leave to cook on a Low Heat for at least one hour or more.

Cook's Tips

• Squeeze half a lemon's juice into the sauce for a very unique flavour.
• Add a teaspoon of good brown sugar if the acidity of the sauce is too high.

The Basics 1: Preparing the Onions

A basis for a lot of cooking around the world today is a sauce of tomatoes and the basis of that tomato sauce is the Onion. In order to offset the acidity of the tomatoes and without cheating by adding sugar, the onions need to be well cooked over a long period of time to crystallise the sugars and bring out their Sweetness.

So, take a number of onions, minimum 3 large ones, peel & chop or slice finely through using a good grade of white sweet onion or if affordable, red onions or a mixture of both.

Heat a mixture of Olive Oil & Butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan on a Medium Heat and add the onion. Make sure you use enough fat to coat the chopped onion properly.
The use of the butter and oil combination helps bring out the full sweetness of the onions.

Stir with a Wooden Spoon until the onions start to turn translucent then turn heat to Very Low.

Cover the pan with the lid but leave the spoon inside the pot so that a gap is maintained to allow cooking steam to escape. The onions should now be left to Slow Cook for as long as possible - 1,5 to 3 hours if possible, after which the remaining ingredients of the planned sauce can be added!

Muito bem!