Aunty Winne's recipe

*yawn* this was great fun. Although it seems to have turned out too sugary. I tried to downsize the ingredients for 1kg of eggplants. Oh well, still taste pretty good and fairly close to the real thing. Was very yummy with my egg noodles the next day =)

i'll know better next time.

Pickled Eggplant (Ah Cha?) Aunty (Winnie/Mrs) Tan style (SUGOI!)

4 red chillies seeded and chopped
6 cloves garlic chopped roughly
2 small pieces of ginger
2 table mustard seeds
3 tablespoon tumeric
1 3/4 cup olive oil
1.5 kg eggplant cut into cubes
3 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup vinegar
2 tsp garam masala

1) In blender blend the chillies, garlic, ginger and mustard seed with a tablespoon of water until pureed.
2) Combine with tumeric powder.
3) Heat oil and fry blended mixture for a few minutes, then add egpgplant cubes.
4) Lower and cook over gentle heat until eggplant is soft, stirring occasionally.
5) Add salt, sugar and vinegar and stirring until thick, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
6) Last stir girm masala and turn into a sterlied jars, cover and store.

super veges

Unfortunately the range of chinese veges are very poor here in brisbane, with one of the main chinese supermarkets only stocking bok choy, which is nice but i could never consume a whole bunch without getting completely bored of it. I'd like to find a good source of spinach, and bean sprouts so i can try to make gado gado.

I've decided to maintain a list of veges that one should definitely keep around the house. The basis for entry into this list are a balance between taste, versatility and keepability.

At the moment the two most obvious entries are (roma) tomatoes and onions. Good tomatoes cooked with onions seem to the basis for a lot of curries in indian (not that i cook indian) or african curries. Good tomatoes are fantastic raw as well and they keep relatively long. So top of the list for tomatoes and onions. Oh and potatoes as well, sometimes I get sick of eating rice and they keep for yonks.

So to add to the obvious, i'm including eggplant and brocolli. Eggplant cos cut thin, fried up with a dash of vinegar makes it an awesome side not to mention i love it when its cooked really soft and gooey. Brocolli cos, well its a sauce absorber, keeps well and is very very healthy, apparently.