Nasu to piiman no kareeraisu / curry rice with eggplant and green pepper

This, or something like this, was my favorite lunch when I was helping out in a curry rice cafe in Tokyo. The dish was so good and motivated me to cook the curry sauce myself.

<Ingredients>

(1 serving)

1/1-1 large or 2 small Japanese eggplant
1/3-1/2 green pepper (Ancho pepper in photo)
Handful (150 cc) curry rice sauce
1 tbsp dry white wine
2 tsp curry powder
1 red chili pepper (sliced)
Small thin piece (1/2-1 tsp) butter
1 tsp olive oil (not in photo)
A few stalks parsley

Steamed basmati rice with whole cloves (not in photo)


<Directions>
1.

Cook basmati rice. Add water (slightly less than when cooking Japanese rice) and cloves, and cook. When done, remove cloves and fluff up.

2.

Slice eggplant and green pepper in matching size.
Finely chop Italian parsley.

3.

In a frying pan, heat olive oil, and melt butter.

Add eggplant and green pepper, and saute on medium heat until somewhat tender.

Add curry powder, stir well to coat all vegetable surfaces, and cook until starting to look dry.

Pour white wine, and stir quickly.

Add curry sauce and red chili pepper, stir, and cook until sauce is somewhat thickened, while occasionally stirring to prevent burning at the bottom.

4.

Serve on top of basmati rice and garnish with parsley.

<Notes>

• Adding white wine is optional. Do not put too much, as the taste would be too fruity at the end.
• If curry sauce is very watery, saute vegetables halfway through and add spice and curry sauce, instead of waiting for vegetables to be almost done. This ensures that the green pepper is slightly crispy at the end. (You can always remove vegetables from soupy sauce, boil it down and put vegetables back toward the end.)
• Frying cumin seeds in oil adds a nice note, too.