[Mirabelle]

Thai continued.

Thai Squash & Pineapple Curry from BBC Good Food



Prep: 10 mins
Cook time: 30 mins

1 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil
1 onion , chopped
4 tsp Thai red curry paste
medium butternut squash (about 500g/1lb 2oz) peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
½ x 400ml / 14 fl oz can reduced-fat coconut milk
200ml vegetable stock
140g frozen green beans
237g can pineapples chunks in natural juice, drained
coriander leaves, chopped, and leaves to garnish

Heat the oil in a wok or pan. Fry the onion for 5 mins until softened. Stir in the red curry paste, then add the squash, coconut milk and stock. Simmer for 15-20 mins until the squash is tender. After 10 mins cooking, tip in the green beans.
Stir in the pineapple and coriander, cooking for just a few mins until the pineapple heats through. Sprinkle with the coriander leaves and serve the curry in bowls with noodles or rice.

Making it meaty or Indian

Fry 4 chopped chicken breasts or thighs with the onion. Or add shredded cooked chicken 5 mins before you're ready to serve. Or, switch the Thai curry paste for Indian curry paste and serve with rice.



Aubergine Curry

This aubergine curry could be classified as Thai as it uses Thai ingredients. This is quite hot and spicy. All of the ingredients can be picked up in a decent supermarket, though you may have to go to a Chinese or Thai shop for the fresh lime leaves. Dried are passable, but will have lost some of their magic. Serves 4 with rice.

for the spice paste:
5 small, hot chillies (bird's eye)
5 spring onions
4 cloves of garlic
a lump of ginger about the size of a golf ball
6 lime leaves
1 tbsp coriander seed
1 tsp cumin seed
2 green cardamom pods
1 tbsp groundnut oil
a small handful of coriander

for the curry:
2 large aubergines
6 medium-sized tomatoes
a can of coconut milk
more fresh coriander
to serve: steamed white rice for four

Make the curry paste: cut the chillies in half, scrape out the seeds and discard them, then put the chillies into the bowl of a food processor. Roughly chop the spring onions, discarding the darkest of the green shoots as you go, then add them to the chillies together with the peeled cloves of garlic.

Peel the ginger and cut it into thin slices. Remove the thick central vein from the lime leaves, roll the leaves up tightly, then shred them finely. Add them with the ginger, coriander and cumin to the food processor.

Crack the cardamom pods open and smash the seeds to a powder in a pestle and mortar, then add it to the chilli mixture with the oil.

Blitz till you have a rough paste, pushing the mixture down from the sides of the bowl as you go. Add a good handful of coriander leaves and stems. You can add 8 or 10 roots, too, clean and scrubbed. Blitz again.

For the curry, slice the aubergines in half, then cut each half into thick wedges. Cut each wedge in half. Grill the aubergines, without any oil, over a hot grill or on a ridged griddle pan until they are tender and marked black by the bars of the grill. Remove each one as it becomes ready. Chop the tomatoes.

Warm 1 tbsp of oil in a large pan or wok, then add the spice paste. Let it sizzle, stirring to prevent it colouring or sticking, then add the tomatoes and let them soften. You want them to be really squishy and collapsed. Stir in the grilled aubergine then the coconut milk. Simmer for 12-15 minutes, until tender.

Roughly chop a good couple of handfuls of coriander leaves and stir them in. Serve with rice.