When I am short on time and need a fabulous and even decadent curry that everyone will love, I turn to this Sri Lankan Eggplant Curry. This is an extraordinarily flavorful dish, with spices like turmeric, mustard, coriander and cumin flavoring a creamy coconut sauce. Floating in that sauce are tender, juicy bits of perfectly cooked eggplant. Heaven. It’s a particularly wonderful dish to make and eat during this season because, with a bowl of rice, it screams comfort food. And don’t we all need some of that during these icy days of winter. Of course, the winter here in the D.C. area has not been much to write home about this year. It’s been coldish, but not as cold as it sometimes gets. I had neglected to bring my potted oregano plant inside when it started to get cold and usually it’d be frozen stiff by now, but when I looked at it the other day it looked quite alive. So I brought it in, watered it, and it’s sprouted lots of new green leaves. While I’m not crazy about having my toes and fingers feel like popsicles, I do miss the biting chill of winter, and Jay has been complaining because there’s been no snow. Back to the recipe, eggplant is one of my favorite veggies, so when I first found this recipe in a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook I was quick to make it. I loved it so, I’ve made it numerous times over the years. I’ve tweaked it a bit here and there over the years, and this recipe is almost exactly the same as when I first shared it with you many years ago. It’s a simple recipe so there’s not much to tell you by way of tips, but here’s one thing: you can use any eggplant you have on hand for it. I’ve made it with the large Italian eggplant, the small, round Indian ones, and Japanese eggplants, and all work well. You will need to cut the eggplants twice. And by that I mean you’ll first cut it in longish slices, broil it (or you can pop them in the air fryer for 10 minutes), and then halve them again into smaller bits before adding to the curry. This gives the eggplant a nice, chewy texture on the outside and keeps it creamy in. Check to get new recipe updates by email.
I hope you try it.
Serving suggestions
Rice is perfect. Plain basmati rice is great, but make this with my jeera rice or cumin rice for an even more special meal. You can also serve this curry with a flatbread like roti, sourdough roti or palak paratha.