I followed the recipe as given except for a few changes. I did not use asafoetida and instead add some cumin seeds and adjust spice level to my taste.  Vada can be served with some coconut chutney or eaten as it is, which is what I did.

Source: Dakshin, Vegetarian Cuisine from South by Chandra Padmanabhan
Total Time: 45 minutes (excludes soaking time of the dals)
Preparation: 10 – 15 minutes (excludes soaking time of the dals)
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Yields: 25 (subjective to the size of the vada)

Preparation:

• ½ cup Toor Dal ~ Pigeon Peas ~ Red Gram Dal
• ½ cup Chana Dal ~ Bengal Gram Dal ~ Yellow Split Peas
• ½ cup Urad Dal (I used husked whole urad dal) ~ Black Gram Dal
• 1 ¾ tsp. Salt (according to taste)
• 1 tsp. Cumin
• ½ Asafoetida Powder
• 6 Dry Red Chilies
• 1” Ginger chopped or about ½ tbsp. chopped Ginger
• 1 small Onion chopped or ½ cup chopped Onion
• 4 Green Chilies chopped
• 1 cup chopped Cilantro
• 8-10 Curry Leaves chopped
• ½ tsp. Chili Powder (if required)
• Oil for deep frying

Preparation:

• Wash and soak all the dals for at least 5-6 hours. I soaked it overnight for about 8 hours.
  Drain all the water and keep aside.
• In a food processor or a blender grind together the dals, ginger, dry chilies, cumin, half the onion and ½ the green chilies with salt. Add as little water as possible. I added about 40 ml of water. The batter need not be a fine flowing batter. It has to be as thick as possible.
• Add remaining onions, green chilies, coriander leaves, curry leaves and mix well. Taste the batter a little and adjust the seasoning.
• Heat oil to deep fry the vadas.
• Using your palm or on a plastic wrap make vadas. I placed a Ziploc bag on the counter top and made my vadas. Take a small lime size batter into your palm and make ball. Place this on the Ziploc bag and press it into discs using fingers.  Gradually drop the vada into hot oil.
• Deep fry on medium heat until the vada are golden brown in color, turning around once or twice in between  until the vadas are well cooked. It took about half hour to fry all the vada and I made 3 vadas at a time.

Recipes I posted this day in 2011: Sauteed Shrimp
Recipes this day in 2012: Oats Pulihora

Recipes I posted this month in 2008 , in 2009 , in 2011 and in 2012.
Blogging Marathon: To know more about the various themes and participating bloggers for this marathon, checkout the blogging marathon page on Srivalli’s blog

As it is said, some habits die hard. I tweaked or rather skipped a few ingredients to suit my palate. I skipped sugar, asafoetida, wheat flour and coconut in this recipe. Rest of the recipe I followed as given.  After tasting the fry, I think I can guess why Pedatha must have added sugar and wheat flour to the recipe.  Fenugreek is a bitter leaf and some people might not like it’s flavor.  My stir fry was a little bitter but I like fenugreek leaves in curries and stir fries, and in fact my mom and most of my maternal family add fenugreek leaves to pretty much all the curries & stir fries they prepare.  I am us to it’s flavor.  If one is trying this herb for the first time, I would strongly recommend adding little bit of sugar to the stir fry.

In the US, a bunch of fenugreek is usually pretty big. I used one bunch and it was about 3 cups of leaves after plucking the leaves from the bunch. The recipe called for 2 large bunches, which is about 4 cups of leaves after plucking. I proportionately scaled down the recipe and rest of the ingredients required for 3 cups of leaves.

Source: Cooking at Home with Pedatha
Total Time: 35 – 40 minutes
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 – 25 minutes (includes time to pressure cook dal)
Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

• 1 large bunch Fenugreek Leaf or 3 cup plucked Fenugreek Leaves
• 1/3 cup Toor Dal
• ¾ tbsp. Wheat Flour (I did not use it)
• 1 ½ tsp. Jaggery or Sugar (opt)
• ¾ tbsp. Oil (I skipped ghee and used 1 ½ tbsp. Oil)
• ¾ tbsp. Ghee ~ Clarified Butter (skipped this and used 1 ½ tbsp. oil)
• 2 tsp. Urad Dal
• 1 tsp. Mustard Seeds
• 4 Dry Red Chilies
• 4-5 Curry Leaves
• 1 – 2 Green Chilies split into two
• ½ tsp. Salt (adjust to taste)
• ¼ cup Cilantro

Preparation:

• Cook toor dal in a pressure cooker with ¾ cup water until cooked. Dal should not be mushy. I cooked it for 4 hisses on high flame. Dal can also be cooked on stove top but will take longer to cook.
• Pluck the fenugreek leaves with tender stems and chop it roughly.
• Dry roast wheat flour until its aroma rises. Add sugar or jaggery and keep aside. I skipped this step.
• Take 1 ½ tbsp. oil in a pan and heat it. I skipped ghee and instead used oil. If using ghee, heat only ¾ tbsp. oil.
• Add urad dal, mustard seeds and when urad dal turns brown, reduce the heat.
• Add curry leaves, dry red chilies and when chilies change color, add fenugreek leaves and green chilies. Cover and cook until fenugreek is cooked. This will take about 3-5 minutes.
• Add salt, dal, wheat flour & sugar/jaggery mixture (if using) and cook for another 4-5 minutes until the dal and greens are well incorporated and cooked.
• Add cilantro and turn off the heat. If using ghee, add it before turning off the flame.
• Serve hot with rice and may be some rasam.

Recipes I posted this day in 2008: Mutton Shorva
Recipes this day in 2011: Red Bell Pepper Chutney
Recipes this day in 2012: Flan ~ Caramel Pudding

Recipes I posted this month in 2008, in 2009, in 2011 and in 2012.
Blogging Marathon: To know more about the various themes and participating bloggers for this marathon, checkout the blogging marathon page on Srivalli’s blog
Event Entries:Sending this stir fry over Healthy Me & Healthy US, an event start by Priya and guest hosted by Kalyani.

As soon as I saw the recipe for this month, I knew I would like it  as has both chocolate and mango in it. And yes, we both liked and in fact, I baked it twice in a span of 3 days. In the past, I tried baking eggless cake and was never successful but this cake came out well. First time I under baked the mango chocolate cake but we did finish it off though.  And the second time I baked it a little longer for 57 minutes and it was perfect, moist and spongy.  Mr. U liked it a lot.  In fact this evening he asked me when I was going to bake this cake again.

Total Time: 70 – 75 minutes
Preparation: 10 – 15 minutes
Baking Time: 57 minutes
Makes: 8 ½ “ Loaf

Ingredients:

• 2 cups or 250 grams All Purpose Flour
• 1 ½ tsp. Baking Powder
• ½ tsp. Baking Soda
• ¼ tsp. Salt
• ¾ cup Sugar
• ¼ cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 2-3 tbsp. warm Water to mix cocoa (recipe called for 2 tbsp. but I had to use 3)
• 5 tbsp. Oil (I used Olive Oil)
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
• 1 cup Mango Pulp (I used stored bought mango pulp, Ratna brand)
• ¼ cup Milk (I used non-fat)
• ¼ Buttermilk (I used non-fat yogurt)

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
• The recipe says grease and line the pan with parchment paper but I did not grease the pan. I just lined it with a parchment paper.
• Add all the dry ingredients, except sugar in a bowl and mix them.
• In a large mixing bowl, mix sugar and oil.  I used an hand held mixer but can also  use a whisk for mixing the batter.
• Add mango pulp, yogurt, milk, vanilla and mix well.
• Gradually add flour mixture to mango mixture mixing it well to combine the dry & wet ingredients. Transfer half of the mango batter to another bowl.
• In a small bowl take warm water, add the cocoa powder and make a paste. Add this cocoa paste to one bowl of mango batter that was kept aside and mix it well.
• Transfer the batters to the loaf pan. For the marble cake, there is “n” number of ways to make a swirl. The first time I baked the cake, I made a checker pattern, dropping a tablespoon (tbsp.) of mango batter and cocoa batter in the pan as shown in the picture below.  For the second layer, I placed the tbsp. of mango batter on cocoa batter and a tbsp of cocoa batter on mango batter.  Complete rest of the batter alternating the batters to make a checker patter. Then make a swirl. For the swirl, I drew a vertical line from left to right, next line right to left an inch apart from the previous one and then left to right again, an inch part from the previous line. You get the idea. Similarly draw horizontal lines top to bottom, bottom to top, top to bottom an inch apart from each line.The second time I baked the cake, I alternated a layer of mango batter followed by cocoa batter. I think I did 3-4 layers of mango and 2-3 layers of cocoa batter. Then swirl the cake drawing lines vertically from left to right & then right to left. Similarly draw lines horizontally.
• Once the swirls are made, tap the pan once and bake the loaf cake in a pre-heated oven for 50-55 minutes or longer until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. I baked for 57 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Note:

• There are many videos on YouTube on how to get swirls on a marble cake.
• I used a loaf pan but can use any pan; round, square or even a blunt pan. Baking times vary depending on the pan used. Also, over temperatures vary from oven to oven and hence insert a tooth pick or a knife to check if the cake is done.

Recipes I posted this month in 2008, in 2009, in 2011 and in 2012.

Coming to the recipe, this is a three ingredient recipe, evaporated milk, sugar & the flavor. Yes, that’s all you need to make this ice-cream. No heavy cream, no eggs and no condensed milk either. And we don’t need an ice-cream maker either! All we need is a stand mixer… Well, not quite. I don’t have a stand mixer either and I used my hand held mixer and it worked fine.

Coming to the ice-cream, it is a low calorie, low fat ice-cream which is perfect if one is conscious about the calorie intake. This recipe yields about a quart or 1 liter ice-cream and the calories from 1 can of milk is around 250 calories. If using low fat evaporated milk, it is only 60 calories. I did not calculate the calories from sugar but, I am sure it still has fewer calories than the ice-creams made with any other milk or cream. This ice-cream is not dense and rich but it is soft and fluffy. Since I don’t have an ice-cream, I had to rely on my freezer and it took about 8 hours to set the ice cream. With an ice-cream, ice-cream is ready in a jiffy.

Last Sunday I made this ice-cream, one with vanilla flavor and other with blueberries. I used evaporated milk and confectioners’ sugar for blueberry ice-cream and low fat evaporated milk and granulated sugar for vanilla ice-cream. Although I used low fat evaporated milk for vanilla ice-cream, I liked this flavor the most. Blueberry ice-cream was also good but I felt I could have added bit more of sugar to it. I do not know if that was because I added blueberries or the recipe itself needs more sugar. Since evaporated milk has few calories, I think next I will go with regular one, instead of low fat evaporated milk.

Source: Crunchy Cream Sweet who followed Random Recipes
Preparation Time: At least 8 hours if not using an ice-cream maker
Yields: About 1 quart

I shall list the ingredients I used for both the ice creams separately. The preparation is same for both the flavors except for adding blueberries for blueberry ice-cream.

Ingredients:
Blueberry Ice-Cream:

• 1 12oz. can Evaporated Milk with vitamin D added (can use low fat evaporated milk too. I used it for Vanilla flavor)
• 1 ¼ c Confectioners’ Sugar or Powdered Sugar (I used ½ cup granulated sugar for vanilla flavor)
• 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 100 grams or ¾ c Blueberries pureed

Vanilla Ice-Cream

• 1 12oz. can Low fat Evaporated Milk with vitamin D added
• ½ c Granulated Sugars
• 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Preparation:

• Refrigerate evaporated milk for at least 3-4 hours or overnight. Before preparing it, open the can pour it into a 2 ½ quart bowl. Yes, you would need a large bowl as it is going to increase in volume once whipped. I never knew evaporated milk whips so well, just like whipping or heavy cream. While I was putting together the rest of the ingredients, I up this bowl in the freezer. More cooler the milk & the bowl, the easier it is to whip.
• Puree blueberries and keep aside.
• Whip the milk for 2 – 2 ½ minutes, I used my hand held mixer. If using a standing mixer, it takes 30 – 40 seconds.
• Add sugar and whip until sugar is nicely incorporated.
• Add vanilla extract and mix it.
• For blueberry flavor, add the blueberry pulp and whip until well mixed.
• If using an electric ice-cream maker, rest of the steps can be skipped. According to Random Recipes, if using an ice-cream maker transfer whipped milk to the ice-cream maker and churn for an hour, transfer to freezer safe container with lid and freezer.
• Put the bowl in the freezer and let it freeze.
• An hour later, pull the bowl out of the freezer and whip it again for another couple of minutes. If using a stand mixer, mix for 1 minute. Put it back in the freezer.
• Repeat the above step 3 more times every one hour. We will have to whip it 4 times including the above two steps. (I only whipped it for three. I whipped first time after 1 hour and the second time after 2 hours. It was late by then and the third time I whipped next morning. By then ice-cream was all set. I left it on the counter top for 10 minutes and whipped it. )
• Transfer to a container and freeze.

Recipes I posted this day in 2012: Melon Salad

Recipes I posted this month in 2008, in 2009, in 2011 and in 2012.

Blogging Marathon: To know more about the various themes and participating bloggers for this marathon, checkout the blogging marathon page on Srivalli’s blog

Event Entries: Sending this Ice-cream to Recipe Junction’s Spotlight: Summer Fruits

Well, I was a little upset after my shopping trip in the rain as I had to pick another recipe and there are always other options to cook with color green. I decided to cook with whatever I had on hand and made this quick & easy, delicious green bell peppers gram flour fry. This was my lunch yesterday with some left over stuffed fish and potato fry.

Total Time: 20 – 25 minutes
Preparation: 5 – 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 3 – 4

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized Bell Peppers or 300 grams Bell Peppers diced
• 2 tbsp. Oil
• ½ medium sized Onion chopped
• 5-7 Curry Leaves
• 2 tsp. Ginger Garlic paste
• 2 tsp. Coriander Powder
• 1 ½ – 2 tsp. Chili Powder (adjust to taste)
• ¼ – ½ tsp. Turmeric Powder
• 1 ¼ tsp. Salt (adjust to taste)
• 2 – 2 ½ tbsp. Gram Flour or Besan
• ½ tsp. Roasted Cumin Powder
• Cilantro to garnish

Preparation:

• Heat oil in pan, add onion, curry leaves and sauté for a minute or two.
• Add ginger garlic paste and continue to sauté for another minute or until raw smell of ginger disappears.
• Add coriander powder, chili powder, salt, turmeric and mix well.
• Add bell peppers and mix well. Cover and cook on medium high flame for 2-3 minutes until bell peppers are almost cooked and see some blisters on the skin of the bell peppers. Check in between to make sure the vegetable doesn’t burn.
• Reduce the heat to medium, sprinkle gram flour and mix well so that the gram flour doesn’t from lumps. Continue to stir and cook for another 3-5 minutes until the gram flour is cooked and turns golden brown in color.
• Sprinkle cumin powder and mix well. Cook for another minute are two and turn off the heat.
• Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with rice or roties.

Recipes I posted this day in 2008: Roasted Corn Kernels with Garlic Butter
Recipes I posted this day in 2012: Mango Corn Salad
Recipes I posted this month in 2008, in 2009, in 2011 and in 2012.
Blogging Marathon: To know more about the various themes and participating bloggers for this marathon, checkout the blogging marathon page on Srivalli’s blog

For this week I am doing the theme “cooking with color”. In this theme, “the color” is the color of the ingredient not the final color of the dish. For day one, I am cooking with color gray. My star ingredient today is fish which is gray in color. I made this recipe a few times when I got the book and we all liked the recipe. It is high time I share the recipe here.

Stuffing for this fish is prepared with Goan curry paste and I tweaked this recipe a little to suite my taste. I pretty much followed the rest of the recipe as given except for the Goan paste.

Source: Adapted from Anjum Anand’s New Indian
Total Time: 35 – 40 minutes
Preparation Time: 20 – 25 minutes
Grilling Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2

Goan Curry Paste

• 1 ½ tbsp. Red Chilies paste (Recipe called for deseeded Red Chilies)
• 1 tsp. Cumin
• 1 ½ tsp. Coriander Seeds
• 3 Cloves
• 1 ½ “Cinnamon Stick
• 6-9 Black Peppercorns
• ¾ Turmeric Powder
• 8 small to medium sized Garlic Cloves
• ½ “Ginger chopped or 1 tsp. chopped Ginger
• ¾ tsp. Salt
• 2 tbsp. White Wine Vinegar (I used Rice wine vinegar)

Grind all the ingredients to make a paste. This yields about 5 tablespoons of paste and this recipe requires only 2 tbsp of paste.

Stuffed Fish
Ingredients:

• 1.2 – 1.4 lbs. Whole Mackerel head removed and deboned (I used Spanish mackerel)
• 1 – 1 ½ tbsp. Lime Juice or Juice of a ½ small Lime
• 1 tsp. Ginger Garlic paste
• ¾ tsp. Salt
• 1 tsp. Oil

Stuffing

• 1 tbsp. Oil
• ½ medium sized Onion sliced
• 4-6 Curry Leaves
• 2 tbsp. Goan Curry Paste
• 1 small – medium sized Tomato chopped or ½ cup chopped Tomato
• ¼ tsp. Salt

Preparation:

• Wash the fish and pat dry inside the fish with a paper towel. I usually skip the pat drying part. Make deep slashes on  both sides of the fish.
• Mix lime juice, ginger garlic paste and salt. Apply all over the fish and also in the slits. Leave it aside and let it marinate for ½ hour.  Can refrigerate it but I usually leave it on the countertop itself.
• For the Stuffing; take oil in a pan and sauté onion until golden brown.
• Add the curry leave and Goan paste and cook on medium heat for 3-4 minutes until oil starts to separate. If the paste is burning, add a little water and keep stirring.
• Add tomatoes, salt cook for 6-8 minutes until tomatoes are mushy and the masala thickens. Let the masala cool.
• Once the masala is cool, rub it on the fish; inside, outside and in the slits. Stuff the remaining masala inside the fish or the cavity of the fish. Let it marinate for another 20 minutes. If marinating it put it back in the fridge. I usually cook it right away without marinating.
• Turn on the grill. I set my broiler to high.
• Line a baking sheet with an aluminum foil and place the fish on it. Grill it for 6-7 minutes, turn it around and grill for another 6-7 minutes are until the fish is brown on the outside and fully cooked.  Be careful when flipping the fish as it tends to break very easily.
• Serve it hot with rice.

Note:

• I get my fish cleaned at the grocery store. Most of the stores that have a big fresh seafood section clean and cut the fish as requested. I buy my fish from Citerella, a food specialty store in the city.  Whole Foods also carries whole fish and they too clean the fish and debone it, if requested. There are the two places where I buy whole fish from.
• I used red chili paste for the Goan paste. This red chili paste is nothing but a paste bad with red ripe chilies. My mom usually grinds red chilies to paste once a year, when those chilies are in season during winters. Green chilies can be substituted for the red chilies or red chili paste. I once tried green chilies and it tasted fine but I liked the red chili paste better than the green chilies.

Recipes I posted this day in 2012: Pasta Salad
Recipes I posted this month in 2008, in 2009, in 2011 and in 2012.
Blogging Marathon: To know more about the various themes and participating bloggers for this marathon, checkout the blogging marathon page on Srivalli’s blog

I followed the crust recipe as given but by pizza dough did not double in size even after an hour. Right then I knew something was wrong. I still went ahead with the preparation and the overall taste was good. I baked the pizza this afternoon for lunch and we loved the pizza. The recipe called for making two 10” crusts but I made one rectangular pizza. Store bought pizza crust would also work here.

Pizza Crust Recipe: Giada deLaurentiis Pizza without Tomato Sauce
Total Time: 1 ¾ hours
Preparation Time: 1 ½ hours
Baking Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• Pizza Crust recipe here
• 1 ½ tbsp. Coriander Chutney (store bought)
• 35 – 40 Pepperoni Slices
• 3 medium White Mushrooms sliced
• ¾ cup shredded Italian Cheese (as required. We do not like too much cheese and I used a little sparingly )
• 1 Jalapeno Pepper sliced
• 6 tsp. Olive Oil

Preparation:

• I followed the pizza crust recipe as given. Instead of two pizza crusts, I made one rectangular pizza. I sprinkled little beat of sooji instead of cornmeal on a baking sheet.
• Pre-heat the oven to 450F.
• Roll out the dough into a rectangle and transfer it to the baking sheet.
• Sprinkle 4 tsp. of oil on the pizza base and spread the coriander chutney.
• Arrange pepperoni slices and mushroom slices on the on the pizza base. Sprinkle the cheese and arrange jalapeno slices.
• Drizzle on tsp. oil and place the baking sheet on the middle rack. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes until crust is crisp, brown on the bottom and the cheese melts. I baked for 15 minutes and I thought I might have brunt the pizza. I was wrong the pizza was pretty good.
• Remove the pizza from the oven, cut it into small pieces and serve hot.
• I used pepperoni, mushrooms and jalapeno peppers toppings but can use any topping one wishes. That is the advantage of a homemade pizza, isn’t it?

Kashmiri Eggplant

Quick and easy ratatouille

Vankaya Fry with Koora Podi

Kathrikai Poriyal ~ Simple Brinjal Fry

Brinjal Chutney ~ Vankaya Pachadi

Thai Eggplants or Green Brinjals with Cilantro Green Chilies

Ratatouille with Poached Egg

This day in 2009 Strawberry Pistachio Pudding and
This day in 2011 Butternut Squash Soup
Recipes I posted this month in 2009, in 2010 in 2011 & in 2012

Total Time: 25 – 20 minutes
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 – 20 minutes
Serves: 3 – 4

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ tbsp. Oil
• 400 grams or 15 small round Green Brinjals ~ Thai Eggplants (can use round purple brinjals or long brinjals)
• Kothimeera Mirchi Masala ~ Cilantro Chili Paste:
  • ½ – ¾ cup packed chopped Cilantro ~ Kothimeera
  • 8 Green Chilies (adjust to taste)
  • ½ medium sized Onion chopped or ½ cup chopped Onion
  • ½ medium sized Tomato chopped or ½ cup chopped Tomato
  • ½“– ¾” Ginger or 1 tbsp. chopped Ginger
  • 3 – 4 Cloves Garlic or 1 tbsp. chopped Garlic
  • 1 tsp. Cumin Seeds ~ Jeera
  • 1 tbsp. dry roasted Sesame Seeds (opt)
  • 1 tsp. Salt (adjust to taste)
  • Turmeric Powder

Preparation:

• Grind together all the ingredients listed under paste and keep aside.
• Wash the eggplant and cut the stack. It is not required to remove the stack but the stacks of the eggplants were dry and I did not feel like keeping them. Make a plus slit vertically on the eggplant.
• Slightly rub a little cilantro chili paste in the slit, as if one would to stuff it. You will require less than a table spoon of the paste for all the eggplants. This step can be skipped but I do this step to slightly season the eggplant.
• Heat oil in a skillet and add the eggplants. Roast the eggplants for a minute or two in the oil until they turn light brown. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring it in between until semi-cooked.
• Remove the cover, add the cilantro chili paste to the pan and mix well. Cover and continue to cook for another 5 minutes until the eggplants are soft and cooked. Don’t forget to stir it in between.
• Remove the cover and cook for few more minutes until the paste or the masala and the eggplants are well cooked.
• Transfer to a serving bowl and serve with steaming rice.

Note:

• I recently bought a Calphalon unison nonstick pan. This pan heats up very fast. When cooking please use the cooking time as a guide line and please do not go by the cooking time. Use discretion on how long to cook.

Variation:

• Normally onion and tomato is not added in this curry. We like more masala or curry hence I add tomato, onion and sesame seeds for more masala.
• I made a slit to the eggplants but they can cut into 2 or 4 long pieces. In that case, cooking time will be less. Also, cooking time varies on the size of the eggplant.

Recipe posted this day in 2009 Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Cookies and in 2010 Cabbage Pachadi
Recipes I posted this month in 2009, in 2010 in 2011 & in 2012
Event Entries: This goes to Priya’s Veggie/Fruit a Month hosted by me and the theme is Brinjal.

Total Time: 20 – 30 minutes
Preparation Time: 5 – 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 3 – 5

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. Oil
• 8- 10 Green Chilies
• 3-5 Curry Leaves
• ½ tsp. Mustard Seeds
• ½ tsp. Cumin Seeds
• ¼ tsp. Fenugreek Seeds
• 1 tsp. Coriander Seeds
• 2-4 Garlic Cloves
• ¾ – 1 tsp. Salt
• Turmeric Powder
• 370 grams or 3 large long purple Brinjals
• 1 tbsp. Tamarind Paste (homemade)
• Cilantro chopped
• 2 tbsp. Sesame Seeds Powder (seeds dry roasted and then ground to powder)

Preparation:

• Wash and cut brinjal into semi circles. Put them in a bowl of salted water until ready to use.
• Grind mustard seeds, cumin, fenugreek seeds & coriander seeds to fine powder. I used by hand blender to grind the chutney and spices do not grind well with the hand blender. Hence I powdered the seeds. If using a regular blender, this step can be skipped.
• Take oil in a frying pan or a skillet and heat the oil.
• Once the oil is hot, add green chilies & curry leaves. Sauté until chilies are change color. If using whole spices, first add the seeds and when they splutter, then add the green chilies & curry leaves.
• Add spice powder (if using, otherwise add whole spices before adding green chilies in the above step) garlic cloves and sauté for few minutes.
• Add turmeric powder, salt and mix well.
• Remove the brinjal pieces from water and add to pan. Sauté brinjal pieces for couple minutes until brinjal changes color.
• Cover the pan and cook on medium high heat for 2-4 minutes or until the brinjal pieces are soft. Remove the cover and continue to sauté the brinjal for another 5 minutes until soft, mushy & finely roasted.
• Add tamarind paste and mix well.
• Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool completely.
• Transfer the brinjal mixture to a bowl, add sesame powder, chopped cilantro, and little water and blend it to a fine paste using a hand blender or transfer to blender jar and grind the mixture to a paste.
• Adjust salt and tamarind according to taste and serve with hot rice.

Variation:

• I used green chilies but can use ½ dry red chilies and ½ green chilies. Red chilies will give a reddish color to the chutney and the taste varies as well.
• I ground the chutney to a fine paste but it can also be ground to coarse paste too.
• Chopped onions can be added to ground chutney before serving.

Recipe posted this day in 2010 – Rasam ~ Chaaru
Recipes I posted this month in 2009, in 2010 in 2011 & in 2012
Event Entries: This goes to Priya’s Veggie/Fruit a Month hosted by me and the theme is Brinjal.