Since my exams have finished I’ve had lots of time on my hands for the winter break. So I decided to tackle a slow cooker recipe; something I’ve never done before and it was a little scary. When it comes to curry, I’m a little bit picky and there should be lots of thicker sauce, veggies and tons of flavours. This isn’t exactly a traditionaI curry because there’s no curry powder or paste in it, but with the cumin and fresh ginger it makes up for it.

Slow cookers are great if you’re short on time as well. If you prep ingredients the night before, you can toss everything together in the morning, cook it for hours and hours, then come home to a ready dinner.I was afraid that if I cooked it too long it would dry out and all the ingredients would be a little gross, but to my surprise they turned out really well.

I got the general idea for this from a cookbook that’s been sitting around my house for a few years called 125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes by Judith Finlayson. Her recipe called for sweet potato and portobello mushrooms, but I was working with what was in my fridge so this is the recipe that turned out.

2012 is almost over, and the bombardment of top 10 lists are being released. I’ve come across quite a few lists for trending things next year as well, and here’s what I can tell you. Apparently silken tofu is going to make a comeback (if it was ever really popular in the first place), gourmet doughnuts will be rampant, and eggs will be put on everything. Huh.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 large eggplant, peeled, cut into 1-inch cubes and sweated (See method to learn how to sweat an eggplant)
• 3 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 8 white button mushrooms, quartered
• 2 small white onions, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 cup red pepper, chopped
• 1 540mL can of tomatoes including juice, chopped
• 1 tsp. lime juice
• 2 tsp. fresh ginger, grated
• Salt to taste
• 1 bay leaf

Method

How to Sweat an Eggplant: Once it is peeled and cut into cubes, lightly salt them. Let rest for an hour, then press out excess liquid with a paper towel. This brings out the bitterness in the eggplant.

In a large skillet, heat vegetable oil. Cook eggplant until lightly brown, then move eggplant to slow cooker. Mix in the potato and mushrooms with the eggplant.

In the same skillet, add onion. Use extra oil if necessary. Cook for roughly 3 minutes until the onions begin to soften, then add garlic, cumin and pepper. Cook for another minute, then add red pepper. Let sauté until all the ingredients look softened, then add tomatoes with juice, lime juice and ginger. Bring to a boil, then mix in with the rest of the vegetables in the slow cooker. Add salt to taste and place in bay leaf.

Cover the mixture and set the slow cooker to “low” and cook for 8 hours, or set to “high” and cook for 4 hours. The curry should be ready once the potato is easily pierced with a fork. I cooked mine on the high temperature.