Incredible Aubergine Madras Using Indian Restaurant Curry Base

This delicious aubergine madras brings memories of takeaways and Indian restaurant dinners with it's rich aromatics and thick sauce. It has less oil and salt than traditional curry house curries but doesn't skimp on flavour. Oh, and it happens to be vegan and vegetarian!

Check out my previous Instructable on how to make the curry base; it's the secret to the huge range of curries you can get in an Indian restaurant at a few minutes notice; https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Indian-Restaurant-Curry-Base-the-Secre/. It's surprisingly simple and a revelation if you are a curry fan.

Preparation time; 20 minutes

Cooking time; 1 hour 40 minutes

Serves; 2

Large aubergine

Tin of tomatoes

Medium onion

Handful of fresh coriander

Heaped teaspoon of ground coriander seed

Heaped teaspoon of turmeric powder

Heaped teaspoon of ground cumin seed

1/2 - 1 teaspoon hot chilli powder, depending how hot you want it

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

Vegetable oil

900mls curry base

4 fresh green finger chillies

Dessertspoonful of fresh chopped coriander

Chop the aubergine into roughly 2-3cm cubes. Put in a pan, cover thinly in salt, stir, resprinkle and restir. Make sure all the surfaces are lightly covered. Leave for 10-15 minutes whilst you prepare the other ingredients. The salt reduces the bitterness by drawing out a brown liquid from the aubergines. This significantly improves the flavour.

Cut the onion into large pieces. Add 2 dessertspoonfuls of vegetable oil to a pan with a fitted lid and fry over a medium heat. Stir until brown around the edges, about 3-4 mins.

When the onions are starting to brown, add the spices and fry for another 3 minutes. Adding the spices to the onions protects them from burning. The flavour may be better if you fry the spices first but it is easy to burn them so, unless you are confident in frying dry spices, I would start with the onions.

Wash the aubergines thoroughly with copious water in a colander to remove all the salt and bitter liquid, add to the pan with the tin of tomatoes and curry base. Bring to the boil.

Put the lid on, put in the oven at 160 degrees for an hour and a half and serve with rice. Garnish with fresh chillies and finely chopped coriander for a proper curry-house effect.