I'd always found aubergines a pain to prepare as they soak up any amount of oil and so are difficult to initially cook.

Trying to use them without an initial cooking (i.e. at a higher temperature than boiling) yielded indifferent results and on one occasion the damn things never cooked through.

Then one day I thought about what you were trying to do with the initial frying (assuming it was not to get them to soak up oil!) and came to the conclusion that it was largely to caramelise the surface and ensure that enough of the intercellular walls of the inside of the fruit have broken that it will cook through even if it is only heated to boiling point in a thick sauce (my failed cooking was in a vegetarian lasagna).

I decided to try grilling the sliced aubergine and have never looked back. The result (in the finished dish) is exactly the same as if they had been fried (although obviously they will add no oil so an adjustment may be necessary).

It's easy to grill them to a beautiful, even, golden colour and now I never put off making dished that I love but avoided because of the pain of trying to fry the aubergines without starting a global oil crisis.

One word of warning, though: If you forget to check aubergines have an unusual property that they can become burned to a frazzle without making any significant smell in the vicinity so make sure you watch them.

Hi , Muttley
Could you please tell me what is the advantage of adding Treacle.
Thanks
ghanna

I'm afraid I don't know.

It was in a recipe I obtained whilst in India and it seems to be very popular with people for whom I've made it - the treacle does definitely add to the flavour without making it actually taste of treacle.

well I'm glad to say that it's worked out great, in fact the sauce looks as near as d*mmit to this authentic one http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=347.0

Tastes & smells good too. I added a medium carrot to the mix and half a green pepper - tastes great on it's own, and I reckon even minimal spicing would produce a good resaurant style curry with this sauce.

Chicken Madras and methi gosht for supper tomorrow, will post the results.

Thanks Muttley

Gary

You're welcome.

I must admit that I haven't been here for quite some time , and it was rather freaky to see this thread had been added to so recently.

If you look at the rambling version, you'll see that I mention that I'm a little dubious about the need to add tomatoes, and I now always have some with and some without. Certain curries just don't need the extra redness that the tomatoes add.

I make this up in big batches and freeze it in coleslaw containers.

I've also tried adding a little celery with the onions at the start, and although it moves it away from authenticity, I like the (very small) difference it creates.

Nan (bought, I'm afraid).
Cucumber Raita
Onion and corriander salad
Basmati rice, into which I add the seeds from 2 cardamom pods, and about 5 corriander seeds with 2 vanes of star anise, the later two (i.e. not the cardamom) lightly crushed so that the pieces are about the same size as the cardamom seeds.
Mango chutnuy and hot lime pickle.

If you just add one thing, make it plenty of fresh corriander leaves.

Sometimes I like to have a very simple meal of rice and one dish, but more often I like to have a variety of differnet dishes, particularly vegetables.

It's obviously impractical to cook 5 or six dihes just for one or two people, so the technique I use now is to make a large batch of each dish and freeze portions in those non-stick 'muffin' tins you can buy (they are a little deeper than the 'fairy cake' ones.

Once the food is frozen, you can decant it into plasitc freezer bags, either having a bag for each dish, or making up meals by adding a 'lump' of each dish to a bag.

Then, when you fancy 'an Indian', you just place them around the edge of a plate and microwave. Add rice in the middle, and you have a fairly complex meal in around 15 mins.

Since no curry I have ever tried has been damaged by freezing, this is an excellent way to enjoy really good food even when you have little time for preparation.