Aubergine & Toasted Coconut Curry

Name: Aubergine & Toasted Coconut Curry (Pajerie Terung)
Yield: Serves 2 or 4 as a side
Cuisine: Malaysia
Ingredients: 1 large aubergine (eggplant), cut into thin wedges; ½ tablespoon ground turmeric; 1 teaspoon palm sugar or brown sugar; ½ tablespoon ground fennel seed; 4 tablespoons grated coconut or rehydrated desiccated coconut; 1 cinnamon or cassia stick; 4 small shallots, roughly chopped; 5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped; 1½ tablespoons ground coriander; 1 teaspoon ground chilli (or to taste); 5 green cardamom pods, bruised; 2 star anise; 3 cloves; 2 tablespoons neutral oil; 2 teaspoons tamarind paste; ½ tablespoon ground cumin; 1 teaspoon fine sea salt; 3 cm (1¼ inches) ginger, peeled and chopped

Pajerie Terung

Preparation info

Serves
2 or 4
as a side

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Nutmeg Trail

By Eleanor Ford

Published 2022

About

This celebratory Malaysian dish is notable for its quantity of fragrant spices: cumin, coriander, turmeric and ginger provide supporting base notes, on top of which sweetly sing the sopranos: cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, fennel and star anise. The recipe starts with making a coconut paste called kerisik, toasted buff brown to bring a nutty, caramelised richness. I like the silky savouriness of aubergine, a gentle foil for the strident spicing, but wedges of pineapple could be used in its pla