Saturday, September 16, 2023

Cooler on Friday and Eggplant Curry

Friday's Harvest

Only one green bean plant is producing any green beans, but, I was able to pick five green beans, today, as well as five blueberries!  

It was cooler today, with a high of only 80F and the house stayed a cool 70F.  I know that's hot for some of you, but, for me, that was rather cool. 

Dancer was very well behaved today and didn't make any extra work for me!  I was thankful for that!

I did a little bit of kitchen cleaning, today, and ran the dishwasher after many weeks of not using the dishwasher at all.

Gardener friend M had given me an eggplant from his garden, about a week or so ago, and I decided to cook it, today, to share it with him.  I'm posting my "how to" here for anyone who wants to try it.  

First, I cut the eggplant into small pieces and sprinkled the cut pieces with salt and turmeric powder:


Cut Eggplant Pieces with Salt and Turmeric

 Then, I left it in a bowl for a couple of hours to allow the salt to draw out the water from the eggplant:

After A Couple of Hours

I drained out the water and then, fried the pieces of eggplant in oil:

Eggplant Pieces Being Deep Fried 

Afterwards, I drained the fried eggplant pieces on some paper towels.  The turmeric has colored the oil a bright yellow!

The Fried Eggplant Pieces Draining on Paper Towels

Once I had finished frying the pieces of eggplant, I sauted some sliced onions, a handful of fresh curry leaves, a few green chilies that I had cut in half, length-wise, and a handful of mustard seeds.  Then, added the fried eggplant, sprinkled a heaped teaspoon of curry powder and a little garlic powder, and added just a little bit of milk to it.  I didn't add any additional salt because the eggplant had been salted before and it was salty enough for me.  One could add a little lemon or lime juice, too, but, I didn't.


Eggplant Curry

We would serve this as a side dish to accompany rice and other curries.  I served a small amount for M to try and offered to serve more to a container to take home with him; he asked if he could just eat his portion right away and I said, "Of course!"  I am assuming he liked it!  LOL.


Pink Rose

Today, I am grateful for:

- Dancer seems fine and didn't make more work for me
- Whatever I am able to harvest from the garden
- M's help with the garden
- Working appliances
- Phone calls from friends and family

Today's joyful activity was spending time in the garden.

No special plans for the weekend.  Maybe I'll do some more tidying and cleaning; maybe not!  LOL.

How was your Friday?  What are your plans for the weekend?

16 comments:

  1. Thank you for the eggplant (UK =aubergine) recipe. I am currently trying to use more turmeric in cooking. It seems to have many health benefits - esp for aging bodies like ours! Last week I put it in our porridge (topped with a spoonful of thick yogurt and golden demerara sugar) it was a sunny golden start to the day. But Bob wasn't keen! I made a big vegetable curry this week using garden produce, including green tomatoes which refuse to ripen! Have a lovely weekend. Hope Dancer continues to be cheerful ❤️

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    1. You are welcome, Angela. Yes, turmeric is supposed to have anti-inflammatory properties. It is also an antiseptic. I'm not a big fan of porridge, but, your vegetable curry sounds good. :)
      Thank you, Angela; hope you and Bob have a good weekend, too.
      Dancer says he's trying to be cheerful, but, it's hard when Mummy doesn't open a new can of tuna every time he wants a spoonful!

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  2. I didn't know what an eggplant was but it is aubergine here in the UK and not something I've ever cooked, yours looks an interesting recipe. I'm glad Dancer is much better and your pink rose is beautiful.

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    1. Yes, they are known by different names in different parts of the world - eggplant, aubergine, brinjal, wambatu (in Sinhala). Eggplant is not something I eat often, but, this is about the only way I like it.

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  3. Eggplant is not my favorite, but that looks like a good way to have it. I'm sure M appreciated it. Next I expect to see a project where you dye something with turmeric. :)

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    1. To be honest, it's not my favorite, either, but, I do like it cooked in this way. It's important to drain the eggplant well once fried, otherwise the resulting dish is very oily and you don't want that.
      Ha, ha, turmeric tie dyed T-shirts! According to Buddhist lore, the first robes worn by the Buddhist monks were dyed yellow with turmeric. Probably due to the antiseptic qualities of turmeric - the original robes were made from the white cloth that corpses used to be wrapped in. Once washed clean and dyed yellow, the pieces of fabric were pieced in a particular pattern based on the way rice paddies were laid out. These days, the robes are still pieced, but, the cloth is regular yellow colored fabric.

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    2. Very interesting. Did they unwrap the fabric from the corpses or just use the same kind of cloth?

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    3. Actually, they were required to scavenge for cloth that no one else wanted - whatever they found in rubbish heaps that people might have thrown out or on cemetery grounds (the corpses would have been wrapped in a shroud prior to being cremated or buried and there might have been some partially burned fabric or, if the burials had been in a shallow grave that wild animals might have dug into, there might be some torn pieces of fabric strewn about).

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    4. You can add that to your collection of trivia for future reference! :D

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  4. I think I would like your eggplant curry but I don't think I would like to cook it! I just haven't taken to deep frying, although I enjoy eating deep fried food. I bet it is delicious when curried after it is nice and crisp.

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    1. It was a multi step process, wasn't it? According to my cousin, you can pan fry/saute the eggplant instead of deep frying it. Maybe I'll try it like that, next time. :)

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  5. Your curry looks delicious. I'll definitely be giving this recipe a try. Xx

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    1. Thank you, Jules; hope you enjoy it when you make it. :)

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  6. My that looks so good! No wonder M wanted to eat his right away.
    I probably couldn't have waited either.
    I like eggplant parmesan. But it's quite a production breading and frying it etc. I will keep your method in mind and give it a try.

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    1. Thank you, Debra. This is one of the few ways I like eggplant!

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