Fenugreek and fresh Aubergine curry (methi ringna nu shak)

Today’s challenge by Darren Rowse on the ProBlogger Challenge Group was to  create a piece of content that is a ‘review’.  This challenge follows on perfectly from yesterday’s post as it gives me an opportunity to share a recipe using Shana’s frozen fenugreek.  I have often used Shana’s products but never really done a review about their products.  This  is NOT a sponsored review and all the opinions are my own.

Living in an area of UK where there are no Asian stores, I have to often depend on friends and relations to bring me the products when they are coming over to visit.  Recently, I found this frozen methi (fenugreek)  being sold at ASDA’s which is one of UK’s larger supermarkets. Methi is fenugreek.  Dry Fenugreek seeds (pictured below) are often used in tempering curries. A lot of people believe in its medicinal use and often soak them overnight and eat them to aid digestion. You can grow fenugreek and  it’s fresh green leaves are used to make curries, pakoras, theplas, dhebras etc.  It’s green leaves also have lots of health benefits and often given to mums who have just given birth and breast feeding.  Some people also dry the methi leaves to add to certain curries. Ready made dried methi leaves called kasuri methi are also sold in Indian stores.  They have quite a strong smell and taste and take a while to get used to.  

Fresh methi leaves have a slightly bitter taste that you get to like once you taste it with other flavours.  So when I found this frozen methi, I wanted to try it out to see if it was as good as the fresh methi.

The methi comes frozen in a block very similar to frozen spinach.  The back of the packet had a curry recipe which implied that the methi could be used straight from its frozen state. However, as the block looked quite solid, I added half a cup of water to the block and microwaved it for a couple of minutes until it was defrosted.   So here’s my recipe for methi and aubergine curry.  This is my sister’s favourite curry so it gets made quite often with fresh fenugreek but today I used frozen methi (fenigreek)

Ingredients:

• • 1 block of Shana’s frozen methi (fenugreek) or you can use 2 cups of fresh fenugreek or any frozen make.
  • 1 medium sized aubergine chopped into cubes.
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic
  • 2-3 tbls of sunflower oil (you can use any oil)
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp dhana jeeru (Coriander and cumin powder)
  • ½ cup passata or any tinned tomatoes

Method:

1.  Add half a cup of water to the methi (fenugreek) and cook it for 2 minutes or until it defrosts.

2. Wash and chop the Aubergine into small cubes

3.  Heat the oil and add the cumin seeds and the whole garlic.  Allow the garlic to just cook until soft and the cumin seeds go dark.  Remove the garlic, keep it in a clean plate.

3.  Add in the aubergine and the defrosted methi (fenugreek) – together with the water you had defrosted it in. Using a garlic press or  the side of a knife, blend the garlic and add it to the mixture . Add in the rest of the spices and passata.  Add half a cup of water and allow this curry to cook for 10 minutes, stirring in between and checking that the aubergine is softening

.

4.  The frozen methi (fenugreek) doesn’t take much time to cook. If you are using fresh methi (fenugreek) it may take a bit longer to cook. Once the aubergine softens, the curry is ready to serve with any Indian bread.  We served it with chappatis made with a mixture of millet and wheat flour. (Recipe to follow).  The frozen methi  tasted and smelt just like fresh methi and I will be buying these to keep in my freezer.  Fresh methi is great but sorting it and chopping and cleaning it is a big task especially if its muddy or gritty.  The frozen methi saves time as you can use it straight from the freezer.   

Please note that this is not a sponsored post and all the views in this Post are mine and I did not get paid to write them.

How you tried any unusual frozen vegetables recently?

Other similar curries you may enjoy from my blog are:

• Potato and fenugreek curry with chick pea flour (Besan vale Aloo)
• Potatoes and fresh green fenugreek in tomato sauce

If  you have a hunger for Authentic Vegetarian Food then subscribe to my blog and receive delectable recipes and new Innovative foodie updates! Hungry for more Vegetarian Tips ? LIKE us on facebook,  Follow us on Twitter,  Pinterest and Instagram.  All the recipes are with step by step instructions and photographs and all of them have been tried, tested, easy to cook and delicious.

If you are interested in one to one or group cookery lessons, or any corporate team building events  – email me on givemesomespice@gmail.com for more information.