A Night as a Sous Chef

Sometimes you’re the cook and sometimes you’re the helper. 

We’ve been making our way through this years garden bounty; cucumbers, beans, peas, tomatoes, tomatoes and did I say tomatoes? Now we’ve moved into peppers, eggplant, cabbage, beets, kale, collards and in the not to distant future - squash; acorn and butternut. 

We’ve made 3 batches of tomato sauce; regular, spicy and super spicy, I can’t wait to use them over the winter months. It will be like brining a bit of summer to those cold and stormy days. And making collard greens stuffed with a tofu and veggie mixture is just around the corner; another dinner to pull from the freezer on a night when cooking doesn’t sound fun - although I don’t that will happen for a while. 

We were at the farmers market last weekend - a little crazy I know - but we don’t have everything in the garden. We were searching for okra to make bhindi masala. Then we got home life got in the way (ok well all that other produce got in the way) and finally last night it was  okra night but we had so many other things to use like eggplant, peppers, onions all begging to be cooked up and eaten.

So we took pity on all those veggies and started chopping, sautéing and simmering up a batch of curried eggplant and okra, this time I was the chopper and Dan was the cook. 

Ingredients:

4 Japanese  eggplants, sliced on a bias

2 c. okra, stems sliced off

2 yellow onion, chopped 

1 1/2 bell peppers, cored and sliced - I used a mixture of red, yellow and green

1 tsp minced ginger

1 tsp minced garlic

1 - 2 tbsp red curry paste

1/2 c. coconut milk

1/4 c. water

Juice of 1/2 lime

Sea salt, and pepper to taste

2 tbsp coconut oil, separated

Instructions:

This is essentially a stir fry so having all ingredients chopped in advance makes the cooking time shorter and keeps the veggies from getting over done. 

Over medium high heat, melt a tablespoon of coconut oil. Add the okra and cook until just beginning to brown (be careful to not over cook the okra or it will get slimy). Remove the okra from the pan to a bowl and set aside. 

Fry the eggplant until golden brown, remove from the pan and set aside. If the eggplant has absorbed the oil add a little more to pan and add the garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add the onions and saute until softened. Add the curry paste (if you like things a bit spicy you can add additional curry paste) and cook until the onions are well coated. 

To the onion mixture add the bell peppers and stir fry until crisp tender 1 - 2 minutes. Slowly add the coconut milk, water and lime juice scraping up any browned bits. Reduce heat to low and add the okra and eggplant into the pan. Simmer for 3 - 4 minutes and serve over brown rice. 

It was delicious - thanks to Dan for being the saute to my chop. 

Thanks for stopping by!