Summer Vegetable Ragout with Exotic Curry Sauce

The impetus behind this meal came from a very special visitor who was not familiar with Indian flavors.

(please disregard terrible post-gym, pre-shower picture)

This recipe immediately popped into my head since I had run across it just the previous week and had already planned on making it in the very near future. Though this is very far from any sort of authentic Indian dish - the use of curry and some exotic spices (i.e. lemongrass) takes a relatively simple mix summer vegetables and brings it West (or East depending which way you fly!) to Asia.

The recipe is written out to be a vegetarian meal, however, comes with the suggestion of adding shrimp or lamb for those requiring a bit of meat. Rather than shrimp (Derek is "allergic") we chose to pan-fry some scallops to put on the side. Though I wanted to keep this dish vegetarian, you will never see me object to scallops - perhaps the best meat product known to man.

Derek started the meal off with a simple appetizer portion of spearfish (otherwise known as marlin) that was poached in a coconut, pineapple, curry liquid. It was good - but not great. I guess I'm not a huge fan of marlin, it's a bit fishy for my taste.

I took the lead on the main dish and followed the recipe (for the most part).

Summer Vegetable Ragout with Exotic Curry Sauce

Ingredients

Curry sauce:
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 small onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 small carrot, peeled, chopped
1 stalk lemongrass, coarsely chopped and pounded with meat mallet to flatten slightly
1 1-inch piece unpeeled fresh ginger, thinly sliced
1 small Granny Smith apple, peeled, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons curry powder (Derek made his own - our place reaked of Indian spices)2 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 cups fresh carrot juice

Vegetables (my comments in bold)

1 1/2 pounds eggplants (about 2 medium), peeled, cut into 1-inch cubes (used 1 "large" chinese eggplant)
5 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided (probably used a little less - maybe 3)
1 pound assorted summer squash (such as zucchini, yellow crookneck, and pattypan), cut into 1-inch pieces (used two squash - one green, one yellow)
1 pound green beans, haricots verts, and/or yellow wax beans, trimmed, cut into 2-inch lengths (used perhaps 1/2 lb)
4 ears of corn, husked (used 1 large ear)
1 15- to 16-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained (omitted due to scallops)
2 cups (packed) arugula
1/4 cup torn fresh basil (omitted)

Directions

For curry sauce:
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, lemongrass, and ginger; sauté until slightly softened but not brown, about 5 minutes. Add apple and curry powder; sauté until vegetables are tender, about 8 minutes. Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil, then flour and stir 1 to 2 minutes. Gradually pour in carrot juice; bring to boil, whisking constantly. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer uncovered until sauce is slightly thickened and reduced to generous 2 1/2 cups, about 20 minutes. Strain sauce through fine strainer set over bowl, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible; discard solids in strainer. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

For vegetables:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place eggplant cubes in large bowl. Add 3 tablespoons oil (I sprayed liberally with misto) and toss to coat; sprinkle with salt. Spread eggplant cubes in even layer on large rimmed baking sheet. Toss squash and remaining 2 tablespoons oil (again, used the EVOO holding misto) in same bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread squash in even layer on another large rimmed baking sheet. Roast until squash and eggplant are light golden and tender, turning occasionally, about 25 minutes for squash and 40 minutes for eggplant (I did both for about 25 minutes total - the chinese eggplant seemed done). Remove baking sheets with vegetables from oven and set aside. Fill large bowl with water and ice. Cook beans in large pot of boiling salted water until just crisp-tender, 2 to 4 minutes, depending on size of beans. Using tongs, transfer beans to bowl of ice water to cool. Drain. Maintain boiling water in same pot; add corn. Cook until corn is just tender, about 5 minutes. Drain corn. Cool slightly. Cut kernels off corn cobs; discard cobs.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix garbanzo beans into vegetables; bake until heated through, about 15 minutes. (omitted this step since I did not use beans)

Combine vegetables and hot curry sauce in pot, heat through. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in arugula and basil (omitted basil).

We served the dish with the seared scallops - EVOO, salt, pepper, hot pan, about 2 minutes per side - done - and some brown basamati rice.

I am a sucker for summer vegetables so any dish that combines them in some delicious way is A-OK for me. My only change and critique would be that it was super carroty with the fresh carrot juice. I would have maybe preferred a simple vegetable stock. It wasn't bad but you have to be a fan of carrots. The corn is a MUST - I loke the sweet pop of flavor amongst the tenderness of the eggplant and zucchini and the crunch of the green beans.

I'll keep this vegetarian next time I make it and will use the garbanzo beans. I'm not saying that the scallops were not delicious - they were - however, they were sort of a side item of the dish. For a complete one-dish meal, the addition of chickpeas and perhaps the exclusion (or maybe half/half with vegetable stock) of the carrot juice - it's expensive anyway - will be quite good.

Wine? Beringer Pinot Noir - nothing special.