Thai Eggplants with Cilantro Green Chilies ~ Vankaya Kothimeera Pachi Mirchi Koora

Eggplant or brinjal is not a regular vegetable in my house. I don’t mind eggplants but my husband is a little picky. He eats once in a while does not want me to cook it regularly. I usually cook purple brinjal and few months ago I tried round green brinjals, also known as Thai Eggplants as my local Indian store carries them. To my surprise, I liked the green brinjals better than the purple ones.

I made vankaya kothimeera mirchi koora. If you follow my blog regularly, you know I tweak the recipe a lot to suite my palate. Unlike the traditional way of preparing this koora, I added some onion, tomato and sesame powder to suit my taste. Here is how I made it.

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 stalk. It is not required to remove the stalk but the stalks 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