Pete’s "Indianish" Dish

Every once in a while I like to turn over the kitchen to the man in my life, who happens to love Indian food. We cooked together the other night since I wanted to add fried eggplant (you all know my obsession with using all the eggplant I’m now harvesting) to the menu. It turned out delicious, so here you go.

Ingredients

1/4 jar of Patak’s Biryani Sauce (find this at your local supermarkets in the Indian Section)
1 cup water
2 plump chicken breasts (cubed into 1″ pieces)
1 large onion roughly chopped
1 green bell pepper roughly chopped
1 Tbs. olive oil
cilantro (optional)

Heat oil and saute onions and peppers until tender. Add chicken and lightly brown. Add the Patak’s Biryani Sauce and 1 cup water and simmer until sauce thickens, approximately 15 minutes. Serve over eggplant. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro.

Eggplant

2 small eggplants or one medium/large, peeled and cut in slices 1/2 inch thick
1 tsp. hot madras curry powder
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. coriander
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup flour

Salt eggplant and let stand for 30 minutes. If you want directions on why and how to do this, search the blog for “salting eggplant” Mix spices in small bowl. Lightly flour each eggplant and sprinkle spice mix liberally on each side. Pan fry in hot oil until browned on both sides and tender if pricked with a fork. Remove and place on paper towels. Fry eggplant in batches so as not to over crowd the pan and bring the oil temperature down. If you need more oil, add it.