Vankaaya Menthi Kaaram (Eggplants spiced with Fenugreek Seeds)

This is a different way to eat eggplants. Fenugreek seeds give a slight bitter taste to this dish, but it didn’t dominate the overall taste. The tamarind used in the recipe, subsides the bitterness to some extent. Try this curry and I hope you’ll like it. I saw this recipe on a TV show and jotted it down immediately. We liked it so much.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Eggplant, cubed
• Tamarind, gooseberry sized (soaked in little water for some time)
• A pinch of Turmeric Powder
• 2 or 3 tsp Black Gram (Minappappu, Urad Dal)
• ½ tsp Fenugreek Seeds (Menthulu, Methi)
• 3 dry red Chilies
• ½ tsp Mustard Seeds
• 3 tsp Oil
• Salt

Preparation:

Extract juice from the soaked tamarind and pour it in a pan. To this add the eggplant pieces + salt + turmeric, cover and heat on a medium flame until it comes to a boil and eggplant absorbs the tamarind water and becomes dry and soft.

While the eggplant pieces are cooking, heat another pan and add some oil. To this add black gram + fenugreek seeds + mustard seeds + red chilies and fry until they turn golden brown in color. Then grind this into a fine/coarse powder by adding little salt.

Add this powder to the boiled eggplant pieces and mix well. Pour a little oil on top, cover and allow it to cook for 2 minutes. Keep the flame on low.

Finally turn off the flame and enjoy the yummy eggplant curry with steaming hot rice. Yummy!!