Japanese Curry with Fried Eggplant

Ingredients

• 2 large eggplants, cut into 1 cm slices
• 1 large onion, sliced thinly
• 4-6 carrots, diced
• 5 potatoes, diced
• 3-4 stalks celery
• 4 tbsp S&B curry powder (in the Asian foods aisle at Safeway)
• 8 oz butter
• 1 cup white flour (1/2 C for roux, 1/2 C for breading)
• maybe 1 or 2 cups panko
• 2-3 eggs, beaten
• rice
• maybe 1 cup neutral oil (grapeseed works well)

Procedure

As the name implies, the threads can be done in parallel if you have enough cooks and kitchen space.

Thread 1: Eggplant

Bread the eggplant slices in flour, egg, and panko. Fry until tender - not more than a minute or two per side.

Thread 2: Veggies

1. Saute the onions in a large pot until they are completely caramelized, 20-30 minutes.
2. Add the curry powder and cook 30 seconds more.
3. Add water, carrots, and celery, and bring to a boil.
4. After several minutes, add the potatoes, adding more water as necessary to cover all the veggies.
5. Simmer 20-30 minutes.

Thread 3: Roux

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.
2. When hot, add the flour and stir to form a roux. Keep it gently bubbling, stirring constantly, until it turns golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes.

Thread 4: Rice

Cook the rice.

Thread#join

When the potatoes and carrots are cooked, add the roux to the pot with veggies, and bring to a boil briefly to thicken.

Serve in layers - rice on the bottom, eggplant in the middle, curry on top.

Notes

Noah and I made this on 2015-03-01. We considered baking the eggplant after frying it, but ended up deciding not to, and I think it worked out well. The eggplant ended up firm but not rubbery, and had an interestingly vegetal taste.

A silicone spatula works well for stirring the roux.

Made this 2016-02-28, accompanied by miso soup with tofu to add some protein. Noteworthy: if you use whole wheat flour for the roux, the color change is much harder to observe. The wheat germ quickly turns dark red, but that doesn't mean the roux is done. You need to look at the color of the froth. I recommend using white flour for this reason alone; whole wheat flour didn't affect the taste.