Exquisite Eggplant!!

Eggplant is really exquisite. It has a unique taste and spongy texture and praised by everyone. Moreover, they are available throughout the year. It is available in many colors like lavender, jade green, orange, yellow-white and purple. It’s even available in different sizes and shapes. It has different names in different places like aubergine, eggplant, brinjal etc.

Eggplants are rich in Vitamin C and Potassium. They are also proved to contain some anti-bacterial and cancer fighting anti-oxidants. Apart from that, they are low in calories.

Picture Courtesy: The Cook’s Thesaurus

Now coming to the recipe, I have made a sambar like (not a sambar actually) curry with sambar qualities (I call it CURRY SOUP) with eggplant. It is so simple to prepare and tastes great. Let’s dig into the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 Japanese Eggplants or 1 American Eggplant (I used Japanese Eggplants)
• 1 medium Onion
• 2 small Tomatoes
• 5 or 6 small Green Chilies (Yes, it is spicy)
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Tamarind paste or pulp
• 1 tsp Rice Flour
• Some Coriander Leaves
• ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
• Salt as required

For Seasoning:

• 1 tsp Oil
• ½ tsp Mustard Seeds
• ¼ tsp Cumin Seeds
• ¼ tsp Asafetida

Preparation:

Wash and cut the eggplant, onion, tomatoes and the green chilies into medium pieces.

In a deep pan or bowl, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the cumin seeds and the asafetida and fry for a while.

Add the chopped vegetables and the coriander leaves to the pan with a little water enough to cook them.

When they become somewhat cooked add turmeric, tamarind pulp, sugar and salt and mix well and add more water as required to cook them. Cover with a lid and leave for some time.

Meanwhile, mix the rice flour with a little water and keep aside.

When the vegetables appear cooked add the rice flour mixture prepared above to the soup and mix well so that the consistency of the curry soup would be thick like gravy. Leave the curry soup for some time on medium flame. Later transfer the curry soup into a serving bowl.

This Curry Soup can be eaten with rice and ghee or Chapathis.

Variations: The same kind of Curry Soup can be prepared using the bottle gourd (Sorakaya or Dudhi) also.

This is my entry to Pooja’s “Vegetable Of the Week – Brinjal” event.

Here is one more variety of eggplant published by me long back: Gutti Vankaya Koora (Stuffed Eggplant Curry)