Recipe: Curry Vegetable
Vegetable dishes are usually avoided by those who like to eat meat, but this tasty and healthy curry vegetable is popular due to the incredible flavours of herbs and spices. There are several types of Malaysian curry vegetables, for example, Malaysian Chinese vegetable curry and Sayur Lodeh. Vegetables such as long beans, tofu puffs, carrot, cabbage, and eggplant are the main ingredients, but the curries differ only in the types of spices used.
The beauty of this dish is that any combinations of vegetables can be used depending on one’s preference. Some examples of common vegetables used are potatoes, tomatoes, broccoli, pumpkin, and cauliflower. However, tofu puffs is a must-have ingredient in this dish as its act like a sponge and absorbs plenty of gravy. A bite of tofu puff can lead to an explosion of flavour that makes the diner crave more.
The flavour of the dish depends on the curry powder. Homemade curry paste is the best using individual spices, but it is time-consuming, and the flavour does not last long. On the other hand, curry powder or curry paste are easily available in any grocery stores and supermarkets. Most of the Malaysian curry powder tastes similar as they use the same set of spices. The vegetable curry is easy to prepare once all the ingredients available, so let’s get started!
Ingredients (5 servings):
For the homemade curry paste
- 10 dried chillies (soaked in hot water until softened and remove the seeds)
- 3 red chillies (chopped)
- 6 candlenuts (can be substitute with macadamia nuts or cashew nuts)
- 4 garlic cloves
- 6 shallots (chopped)
- 1 1/2 tbsp turmeric powder
- 30 g of dried shrimp (soaked in hot water)
- 5 cm of ginger
- 5 cm of galangal or 1 1/2 tbsp of galangal powder
- 2 lemongrass (chopped the white parts only)
*If you want to use store-bought curry powder, use 5 tbsp of curry powder and mix with 100ml hot water to make a paste.
Other ingredients
- 350 g of long beans or green beans (cut into 5 cm length)
- 1 carrot (peeled the skin and cut into 5 cm strips)
- 1/2 cabbage (cut into coarse pieces)
- 1 eggplant (cut into chunks)
- 10 fried tofu puffs (cut in halved)
- 400 ml of coconut milk
- 200 ml of water
- 5 tbsp of cooking oil
- 3 kaffir lime leaves
- Salt
Directions:
- Prepare the curry paste by blending everything into a fine paste.
- Heat the cooking oil in the wok, and then add the blended curry paste. Sauté the curry paste until fragrant.
- Add coconut milk, water and kaffir lime leaves to form a gravy and bring it to boil.
- Add the carrot, cabbage, eggplant, and long beans gradually and cook until tender. Add water if necessary along the way.
- Once the vegetables are cooked, add the tofu puffs. Adjust salt according to taste.
- Remove from heat once the curry boils again and serve with rice.