Whenever I think of jungle curry, I automatically start singing ‘jungle boogie’ from Pulp Fiction in my head. Sorry! now you’ll have the same association.
The thing that makes a jungle curry different is that it’s not based on coconut milk and traditionally they relied only on peppercorns to give their legendary heat. Here we’re cheating a little and using green chillies as well as black peppercorns instead of trying to track down green peppercorns.
Jungle Curry
Ingredients
for the curry paste:
- 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 red onion peeled & chopped
- 5 cloves garlic peeled
- 5 large green chilli peppers
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
for the curry:
- 400 g ground (minced) chicken (14oz) or pork or beef
- 3 long baby eggplant (aubergine)
- 2 tablespoons fish or soy sauce
- 1 bunch coriander (cilantro) leaves picked
Instructions
- For the curry paste: Process pepper, onion, garlic, chilli peppers and cumin in a food processor with a few tablespoons water until you have a thick paste.
- Heat a little oil in a large pot. Cook the meat, stirring often until browned and no longer pink.
- Add the curry paste and stir fry for 2-3 minutes or until everything smells amazing.
- Chop eggplant into bite sized pieces. Add the eggplant, 1 1/2 cups water and the fish / soy sauce. Bring to a simmer.
- Cook, covered for 5-10 minutes or until eggplant is very tender. Taste, season and serve with coriander leaves on top.
Variations
pantry-friendly – Skip herbs. Eggplant = frozen greens. Dried chilli.
vegetarian / vegan – replace the fish sauce with soy sauce. Try doubling the eggplant or adding in other veg such as sweet potato, frozen peas or mushrooms and simmer until tender. You could also replace the meat with lentils, tempeh or chickpeas.
can’t find baby eggplant? – replace with a small regular eggplant diced into chunks. Or try different veg such as green beans, bamboo shoots, frozen peas, sweet potato or mushrooms.
red or green curry – skip the jungle curry paste and replace with 3-4 tablespoons home made or commercial curry paste.
fish-free – replace the fish sauce with soy sauce.
more substantial (carb lovers) – serve with extra rice.
more substantial (low carb) – serve with cauliflower rice. Add some roast cashews.
keto / ultra low carb – replace eggplant with baby spinach. And skip the onion.
pescetarian – use chopped white fish fillets instead of the meat.
Waste Avoidance Strategy
pepper, cumin, onion, garlic – pantry.
green chillies – freeze them.
lemon – keep in a plastic bag in the fridge for months.
chicken, pork or beef – freeze.
fish sauce – pantry.
coriander – best to use for another meal. Leaves can be frozen but will wilt when defrosted.
Problem Solving Guide
no food processor? – just finely chop the curry paste ingredients by hand. Allow a little longer for the paste to soften and cook.
bland – more black pepper and fish sauce please!
ground meat sticking to the pan – adding more oil can help but don’t worry about it too much as it will add lovely depth of flavour to the sauce when you add the water.
Prepare Ahead
Yes! Just cook as per the recipe but keep the herbs separately. Leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week or can be frozen. To serve, bring back to a simmer and top with herbs.
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Add to my Old Favourite Recipes
I decided not to bother making my own curry paste this time around, and although I wasn’t that impressed by the brand that I chose, I added extra cumin and pepper and it came out fine. I also went vegan for a change, and also because I have difficulty getting my eggplant soft enough, started cooking it with one zucchini (which to my tastebuds seems a reasonable substitute for eggplant anyway) and some halved button mushrooms before adding the curry paste, and a bit of leftover passata. I then added a tin of chickpeas for extra protein later. Good.
I think of zucchini and eggplant as interchangeable too Mark.
There are some good commercial curry pastes out there. I hardly ever make my own any more.
Tasty & really easy. I made it w/o onion & garlic, used green spring onions instead & garlic infused oil to fry off the chicken. My chilli tolerance has reduced with age (!), so a bit hot for me, but not my other half!! Great paste which could be used for many variations in the future 🙂 Thanks Jules
interesting that your chilli tolerance has reduced with age Deb – I would have thought as our taste buds get duller, it would go the other way 🙂
Really enjoyed this. Had some zucchini and broccolini in the fridge so put that in too.
Wonderful Lisa!
Can you do this without the chillies? I’m thinking about my kids. I don’t have curry paste but I do have curry powder….Thank you!
Yes of course Rachel – you could use bell peppers (capsicum) if you have them or leave them out.
And if you want some heat for the adults serve with some chilli salt or chilli oil at the table.
Enjoy!
Jx
Hello! Are you using serrano peppers, or some type of asian pepper? Would it matter?
Thank you, Jules!
I use Thai birds eye usually Samantha… they’re really close to Serrano… it doesn’t matter too much. Just as long as you get the heat level right xx
I had some beef stock to use and soaked some rice noodles in this. I mixed in some of the curry when I was finished. It all came together as a lovely soupy noodle dish. Just right for a cold day.
sounds lovely Jean!
Thanks for sharing