Coconut Eggplant Curry
In a pot add
1/2 cup of desiccated coconut, dry fry it until golden coloured and pop in to another bowl.
In your pot add
vegetable oil, diced garlic, onion, knob of ginger, dried coriander, cinnamon, cumin, tumeric.
Cook it up until it smells fantastic.
Now add a diced eggplant, a can of tomatoes, a can of coconut milk or cream, your dry fried coconut and 8 kaffir lime leaves.
Leave the lid on and let it simmer until the eggplant has cooked down. Salt to taste.
Serve it with rice, a squeeze of lime or flat bread.
This recipe was originally a beef curry from The Real Food Companion. I’ve morphed it quite a bit now though so it barely resembles its parentage. The key to the curry is the kaffir lime leaves. I’m lucky enough to get them fresh from my dads tree, which I then stock in the freezer so I always have them available, (they last for months.) If you don’t have access to these wonderfully fragrant leaves, lime zest could be substituted, or perhaps some other citrus type leaf (?)
cityhippyfarmgirl 
What a super easy and yummy sounding vegetable curry.
🙂 Mandy
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Super easy Mandy and still good a couple of days later.
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That looks amazing and beats my dinner of leftovers hands down.
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There is something about Fridays and leftovers isn’t there 🙂
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Sounds superb, yet so simple! Thanks Brydie! I recently bought kaffir lime leaf granules from Herbie’s Spices, it would be good to try them in this!
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Oooo, I haven’t seen the granules before. I’d be interested to see what they are like.
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Now I feel really guilty that I talked chef into making a plate for me to take home because yours looks so much yummier, and simple & much better for me too.
Note to Anna: Stop being so darn lazy 😉
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Friday night dinner is lazy by default Anna. If I had someone else cooking for me I would have taken the plate too!
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Not from this chef you wouldn’t….., think he got a special on pork or a pen full of pigs were going cheap, staffies have been some form of pork since Xmas. I don’t know what I was thinking 🙂
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Yummy I’m going to try this! I adore coconut and I have a crazy kaffir lime tree in the backyard ( which ants seem to love?!). I like to put the actual wrinkly kaffir lime into the curry as well and tear the leaves up and throw them into the rice as it’s steaming. Thanks for this recipe!
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I haven’t put them in the rice before, what a great idea.
It must smell fantastic.
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This looks delicious. I love all these ingredients. Some of them are a bit difficult in Italy though.
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Enjoy all that wonderful Italian produce while you can Debra. Kaffir lime leaves can wait 🙂
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Oooh yum, I’ll definitely try this. Thanks for sharing.
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Your welcome! Let me know if you like it.
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Looks and sounds perfect for a cold winter’s night!
I’ll try substituting lime zest.
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See how you go Heidi, I haven’t tried the zest, but it should work.
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Oh wow, I bet that does smell fantastic! Delish frugal recipe.
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Dead easy and the kaffir lime leaves give off a wonderful aroma along with the fried coconut 🙂
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Oh wow … wish I had a kaffir lime tree! I’ve tried sev times to get one growing, but no luck. Over here, they want $50 for an established tree, and you can’t buy the fruit (’cause then you grow your own tree!). Consider yourself fortunate.
I love coconut – and now, after years of telling us how bad it was for us, they now tell us it’s a health food. I’m trying to use it for cooking – even tho it’s an oil, it’s hard at room temp – at least my room temp – it melts at 78 degrees F. I adore smelling it heat up – great stuff.
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Coconut oil is good stuff isn’t it. I used to use the extra virgin oil for lots of things but have got out of the habit recently. (It’s great in a banana smoothie.)
I do consider myself lucky to able to get the lime leaves. They can really make a meal.
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As every1 else has said Brydie, it sounds delish! Eggplant is one of my fav vegies, but the dh won’t touch it!
Is this what you would call freestyle cooking? I’m so very used to recipes with all the amounts of the ingredients listed! :))
Do you eat around the knob of ginger? Take it out? Would one of those spices totally overpower the others if I was a little too heavy handed with it!? Or in the end does none of that matter? Just go with the flow?
Sorry about all the ???! :^)))))
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Hack cooking I call it Pam 🙂
Now for the ginger dice it up along with the garlic and onion. For the spices…go with your taste buds. I’m quite heavy handed with my spices, so I whack a fair bit in. As a general guide I would do a teaspoon of all the dried spices though. See what your taste buds tells you though after the eggplant has cooked through…(if you cook it down enough maybe you could even tell your husband it was zucchini or something…or maybe just a generalized curry 🙂
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Lovely food!
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Ah ! That’s where I saw it.
Had my eggplant at the ready on the weekend, but do you think i could recall where i’d seen this recipe!
xo
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Ooh, yes! I could make this!! I really could! We have ONE eggplant growing away happily..it’s getting pretty chubby, plus we have a kaffir lime tree! YES. I will have this for dinner this week, thanks Brydie! 😉
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I made this tonight! Everyone loved it. The only thing i added was fresh curry leaves from my mum’s enormous plant! Thanks!
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I’m really pleased you liked it Mrs Bok, and even more pleased that the rest of your family liked it as well. Curry leaves are a great addition!
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