On previous occasions when I've cooked Thai-style food, I've usually done without lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves, as outside South-East Asia they're rather hard to come by in their natural form. Once I was wandering round a supermarket in Scotland marvelling at the technology that allows food to be preserved for millions of years in tins and jars when I came across some freeze-dried lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves. I bought them, wrapped the jars in socks and T-shirts to prevent them breaking and flew them, along with a litre of cask-strength Laphroaig whisky (wrapped in a wooly jumper) halfway around the world. This coconut and aubergine curry was the first recipe I tried using the dried herbs. When crushed, the lime leaves produced a hint of scent, which rapidly disappeared. The lemon grass could have been, and indeed might have been, any old grass from someone's backyard for all the taste it imparted. I was not impressed.
As I've said in the introductions to many other recipes, don't worry if you don't have all the ingredients, and for this recipe in particular I should add, don't imagine that being in possession of dried lemon-grass or kaffir lime leaves puts you at any advantage over those who possess neither in any form.
The best thing we could do with such well preserved ingredients is bury them in strategic places where they will stand a good chance of being dug up in the distant future. The archaeologists of the day, knowing that the organic matter inside the unearthed containers has been so expertly preserved as to remain completely unchanged and thus unsuitable for human consumption since the day it was sealed in its air-tight jar, will assume with grattitude that the whole process was carried out entirely for their benefit.
The Laphroiag, incidentally, was excellent.
Ingredients
500g of aubergines
1 green pepper
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
A 3 or 4 cm piece of root ginger
A teaspoon of white or black peppercorns
A half teaspoon of crushed red chilli
1 teaspoon of coriander seed
A half teaspoon of cumin seed
A piece of lemon grass
2 kaffir lime leaves
2 or 3 cups of coconut milk
2 teaspoons of sugar
Salt
Oil
Half of a lemon
A few sprigs of fresh coriander and basil
Pound all the dry seeds and spices then add the chopped ginger, lemongrass and garlic and pound everything to a paste. Fry the paste in a little oil until it starts to give off a nice strong smell, then add the coconut milk, sugar, lime leaves and some salt. When the mixture comes to the boil, add the aubergine, cut into 4 or 5 cm pieces, and roughly chopped green pepper.
Cook until the aubergine is tender but not until it's falling apart. About 20 minutes should do. Add a little boiling water if the sauce starts to dry up. At the end of cooking time, add lemon juice and chopped or pounded basil and coriander. Serve with rice.