Madhur Jaffrey’s\u00a0“Curry Nation”<\/a>, a very interesting collection of Indian and in general South-Asian\u00a0recipes from UK-based bars, restaurants, also from home cooks who live in Britain, but originate from this part of the world. I have already bookmarked many pages, but \u00a0when I saw this aubergine stir-fry by Saumya Singh, a banker from\u00a0London, I almost jumped with joy, not only because it’s such an unusually quick dish, but also because nigella (aka onion seed\/black seed\/kalonji) is one of my favourite Indian spices.\u00a0Even though the recipe is unbelievably easy, I have managed to add it my tiny personal touch: the addition of\u00a0my beloved coconut oil. It has\u00a0added\u00a0a wonderful, somewhat buttery aroma that seems to suit perfectly\u00a0the aubergine. (I have also slightly changed the\u00a0ratio of the ingredients).<\/p>\nAs a mildly flavoured dish, it\u00a0is fantastic with just anything, not necessarily Indian. I like to have it with meat in any form\u00a0and a yogurt-based dip\/sauce (such as raita or tzatziki).<\/p>\n
TIPS: You will find nigella seeds in every Indian (or other\u00a0South-Asian) grocery shop (also easily on internet), but some vendors will call it by different names (onion seed\/black seed\/kalonji). The seeds are small, black and when cooked they resemble black mustard, though\u00a0they are not round. I was also told nigella can be found in North-African shops, but I have never checked.<\/p>\n
You can use any aubergine here, but I prefer either the small Asian ones or the “zebra” variety you see above and which has a thinner skin, as well as lighter, almost white flesh.<\/p>\n
Preparation: about 10\u00a0minutes<\/em><\/p>\nIngredients (serves three as the only\u00a0side-dish):<\/em><\/p>\n1 medium Western aubergine\/eggplant or 2 Asian ones, cut into 1cm (about 1\/2 in) cubes<\/em><\/p>\n2 tablespoons coconut oil<\/em><\/p>\n1 tablespoon nigella seeds<\/em><\/p>\nsalt<\/em><\/p>\nHeat the oil and stir-fry the seeds and the aubergine at medium heat (if you have a heavy pan, such as cast iron or steel, you might want to lower the heat even more) for maximum ten minutes (or less, depending on the aubergine and the heat).\u00a0Make sure you stir constantly and don’t burn the aubergine.<\/p>\n
Add salt and serve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One ingredient, one spice\u00a0and ready in ten minutes. I would never expect to find anything similar among Indian dishes, so obviously it was the first…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[35,125,133,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18643"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18705,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18643\/revisions\/18705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"auber_nigellap\"](\"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/auber_nigellap.jpg\")
One ingredient, one spice\u00a0and ready in ten minutes. I would never expect to find anything similar among Indian dishes, so obviously it was the first recipe\u00a0I tested from a recently bought cookery book. After several meals served with this delightful side-dish, I am still\u00a0in awe at its\u00a0simplicity.<\/p>\n