Roasted eggplant with Petai beans (Terong Balado)
Who'd have known that eggplant is actually a relative of the tobacco plant. It even contains minute amount of nicotine, but not to worry, it is not harmful as what smoking does to you. In fact, it is good source of folic acid (also known as vitamin B9, vitamin Bc or folacin) and folate ) and Potassium.
But the best part is not in nutrition, but in the complex flavour eggplant takes especially after a period of cooking. I am very excited in exploring various South East Asian cooking and tweaking some of the recipes to make it Vegan. And so far it has been very successful. You see, most of South East Asian cooking are already flavourful with the myriads of spices and fresh ingredients used. You only needs to find substitutes or replace ingredients that are animal by products (scrimp paste, fish oil, pork lard). In most cases, all I do is not adding those ingredient and the dish still turns out beautifully. In this particular dish, like all my sambal, I am avoiding scrimp paste.
Another unusual ingredient in this dish is Petai beans or the unfortunate name it has got in the West as "stinky beans" (they could use some good Public Relations). Petai beans can be widely found in South East Asian cooking. I adore these beans and got to say, it is highly acquired taste. It got a crunchy bite when cooked right, and complex bitter flavour that plays very well with spicy dishes such as this Balado dish. Almost like asparagus however, the complex carbohydrate in these beans will stay in the body system for 1 or 2 days and gives off certain smell to urine. It is not surprising that Petai beans is knows to be a detox food among the community and studies has shown the importance of petai as a source of natural antioxidants. Try to look for it in your oriental supermarket, but bring courage and plenty of adventurous spirits to try it for yourself if you're having it for the first time .
Here is a recipe of eggplant Balado (Spicy sambal).
-Eggplants (cut up in blocks)
-Half cup of Petai beans (or asparagus)
- 6 shallots (or half onion)
-2 big/long chillies
-5 small bird's eye chillies (less if you'd like less spicy)
-5 cherries tomatoes (more if less spicy)
-3 cloves of garlic
-2 kaffir lime leaves
-3 kemiri (candlenuts) *or 4 raw Macademia nuts if you have to
-1 tspn of salt to taste
- 1/2 tspn of sugar to taste
- 3 tbsp of vegetable oil or coconut oil to slow fry the sambal later on
Make a package from aluminium foil and roast the ingredients for sambal for about half hour in the oven. Mince the ingredient in a mortal or food processor and add salt and sugar to taste. This paste is the main sauce of the Balado dish.
- Roast the eggplant and Petai (or asparagus) in the oven for half hour or until cooked. (you can do them at the same time while roasting the sambal ingredient)
- Time to assemble the dish. Fry the sambal sauce in vegetable oil in slow fire until fragrant. Make sure you watch it carefully and not burnt. When the sambal is fragrant, add about one cup of water to the sambal to make a thin liquid sauce.
- At this point, you can place in the roasted eggplant and petai into the pant. Slow cook the eggplant in sauce in slow fire for about 10-15 minutes, or until sauce is incorporated and absorbed by the eggplant. You can serve this dish hot or in room temperature, but delicious with warm brown rice.
*Notice I did not add salt and sugar during assembling of dish, as you have already added them to the sambal paste. But add them with discretion to taste if need to when assembling the dish. If you do not have a oven, all roasting can be substituted with shallow frying in vegetable oil)
Eggplant ready to oven roast.
Petai ready for oven roast.
Sambal ingredient for oven roasting.
Minced sambal in a mortal.
Slow frying the sambal sauce.
Add water and incorporate all the ingredients together.
