This chu chee eggplant, another restaurant recreation, is made of battered eggplant in a red curry sauce. Because I baked the eggplant instead of frying it as the restaurant does, it's not exactly the same, but it's as close as I can get for the moment, and closer than any other chu chee eggplant recipe out there.
We had this with the Masala Rice Noodles and Vegetables, but it was really too much filling food for one meal, and some simple stir-fried broccoli would have been a better choice. This dish is that rich.
This goes out to Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Graziana from Erbe in Cucina (Cooking with Herbs).
Chu Chee Eggplant
1 pound eggplant
1 cup rice flour (I used brown)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon oil
1 cup water
1 can full-fat coconut milk
1-1/2 tablespoons red curry paste (or 4 tablespoons if using homemade)
2 or 3 kaffir lime leaves, slivered, for garnish (optional)
Preheat oven to 375 F. Slice eggplant into 1/3-inch thick rounds.
Whisk together rice flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, sugar, oil and water. Dip each eggplant slice in batter on both sides and place on an well-oiled baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes and turn over the eggplant slices. Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes or until the eggplant is crispy and light brown.
Stir together curry paste and coconut milk and heat in a small sauce pan. Strain if using homemade curry paste. Dip the cooked eggplant in the curry sauce and serve on a large platter. Drizzle remaining curry sauce over the top and garnish with slivered kaffir lime leaves, if available.
Serves 2-5 depending on menu. Best served immediately.
We had this with the Masala Rice Noodles and Vegetables, but it was really too much filling food for one meal, and some simple stir-fried broccoli would have been a better choice. This dish is that rich.
This goes out to Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Graziana from Erbe in Cucina (Cooking with Herbs).
Chu Chee Eggplant
1 pound eggplant
1 cup rice flour (I used brown)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon oil
1 cup water
1 can full-fat coconut milk
1-1/2 tablespoons red curry paste (or 4 tablespoons if using homemade)
2 or 3 kaffir lime leaves, slivered, for garnish (optional)
Preheat oven to 375 F. Slice eggplant into 1/3-inch thick rounds.
Whisk together rice flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, sugar, oil and water. Dip each eggplant slice in batter on both sides and place on an well-oiled baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes and turn over the eggplant slices. Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes or until the eggplant is crispy and light brown.
Stir together curry paste and coconut milk and heat in a small sauce pan. Strain if using homemade curry paste. Dip the cooked eggplant in the curry sauce and serve on a large platter. Drizzle remaining curry sauce over the top and garnish with slivered kaffir lime leaves, if available.
Serves 2-5 depending on menu. Best served immediately.
Very interesting and really pretty
ReplyDeleteThey look so good that I guess they were a treat even without any filling! Thank you for joining to WHB.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, how brilliant is that! I have to try it.
ReplyDeleteFound your link on pintrest. Would this work with light coconut milk? It looks amazing. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSure! Light coconut milk would be fine.
ReplyDeleteHi! I made this before, but it was kind of a disaster. I tried to make my own brown rice flour like I often do with oat flour and chickpea flour, but I don't think I got it fine enough. The batter ended up being heavy and all dripping off of the eggplant. I ended up finishing it off by frying it. It tasted wonderful, but of course I had been trying to avoid the extra calories from frying! LOL I bought some brown rice flour and plan to make it again.
ReplyDeleteOne question, do I put the oven on 375 or 450?
Hi Keely, sorry about the double oven temperatures. Yes, preheat the oven to 375. The next line was a copy-paste error - I'll edit that out.
DeleteI think you'll like this with store-bought rice flour. The Bob's Red Mill brand I usually buy is very fine. The batter should be fairly thin, too. I'm glad you were able to save it by frying, though! Frying eggplant still cares me :-)
I used Bob's Red Mill this afternoon and it worked great! Of course, I open up the fridge to discover that my eggplant was no longer good! I have two toddlers and a husband who I needed to cook lunch for so I just reached for the zucchini instead. It actually worked really well. I had extra batter left so I mixed it in with some wilted spinach leaves and cooked little fritters in my trusty cast iron pan.
DeleteWe used to live within walking distance to Nidda Thai and I have been looking to healthfully replicate our favorite dish since we moved to a rural town outside Houston. Thank you!
Awesome! Now I need to try it with zucchini - that's a great idea.
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