Brinjals, was the only English word known to me for "vazhuthananga", the purple egg-shaped vegetable when I lived in my home country. After coming to Canada its egg- plant everywhere, in the stores, restaurants..everywhere....but they r no more necessarily egg shaped, they come in different shapes....and the most common ones are the long egg plants, though long they pleased me well with their deep purple glossy skin and spongy flesh inside same as their Indian counterparts.
In my child hood eggplants were meant mainly for "mezhukkupuratty" and I simply disliked them. As a rule disliked foods were never discarded, so had to eat them very often. Amma was good at cooking but sadly she never experimented on eggplants. Brinjals occasionally decorated our table as "THENGAPALOZHICHA KOOTTAN", but that too was not very welcome to my tongue..though my sister thoroughly enjoyed all vegetables cooked in coconut milk.
Years passed by and on one evening as I came back from college, my eyes got widened at a welcoming sight. Amma was busy by the stove and on the fire was a fry pan with thin slices of eggplant bubbling in the hot oil.
That was a time when Amma bought vegetables from a vendor who came to our house once a week. He was thin with a dark beard covering half of his face and we thought he looked like Hareeshri Asokan, the movie actor or to be more truthful we thought the actor whose name we did'nt know at that time, looked very much like our vegetable vendor and when ever we saw him on screen we called him "PACHAKKARIKKARAN". And from this vegetable vendor Amma got the idea of frying brinjals. She offered me fried egg plant slices with rice and I wanted to finish it all in a minute. How come those cold .....emotion-less( vikaramillatha), that was exactly the word we used, become this interesting??? I was totally happy and Amma was also happy to see me happy. We felt indebted to our vegetable seller. Then on fried egg plants and morukoottan, that was the most acceptable combo, made my lunch box exciting. And finally driving inspiration from the fried egg plants I made an eggplant-tomato curry for which I got a grand applause from my family. Even now, after...many years of experimenting, discovering and inventing other recipes, I treat my guests with this easy-to-make curry, when ever I do so I'm confronted with a surprised "how did u.....".
Here I'm sharing two recipes of egg plant, the first one my own eggplant tomato roast and the second one egg plant in yogurt which I learnt from a Pakistani acquaintance.
Eggplant tomato roast.
Ingredients
1. Egg plant - 5 -sliced in to thin circles ( here I have used Indian egg plants....the long one will also do well)
2. onion - 1 large
3. tomato- 1 large
4 turmeric powder- 1\2 teaspoon
5 chilly powder- 1 teaspoon
6 salt -as required
7 oil - 1/2 cup
8. curry leaves
Method
1. slice egg plants in to thin circles.
2. rub them with some salt and keep aside for 15 minutes.
3. shallow fry them in hot oil at medium heat.
4. In a pan pour some oil and stir fry onions until golden brown. Add turmeric powder and chilly powder. stir well.
5. forget not to add your salt
6 now add tomatoes and curry leaves. close the lid.
7. when the tomatoes are cooked, add fried egg plants and mix well.
8. As the oil begins to come out....remove from fire
serve hot with rice or chapathi.or even bread.....!!
Eggplant in Yogurt
Ingredients
1. Egg plant (I have used the round ones...long ones are also ok)- sliced in to thin circles- 4
2. chilli powder- 1|2 teaspoon
3. turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
4 salt- as required
5. cumin seeds- 1 teaspoon
6. water- a little
7. yogurt- 1 1/2 cup
6. oil- for frying
how to prepare
1. mix well chilly powder, turmeric powder and salt using some water to make a smooth paste.
2. marinate the egg plant slices in this masala paste
3.keep aside for 15-20 minutes
4. heat oil in a fry pan and shallow fry the egg plant slices.
5. In a clean bowl take the yogurt , add some salt and stir well.
6. Now add the fried egg plant slices in to it and mix well using a spoon. let them soak in the yogurt and get softened.
7. In a small pan heat a little oil and splutter the cumin seeds.
8.when cool pour it over the yogurt-egg plant mixture.
In my child hood eggplants were meant mainly for "mezhukkupuratty" and I simply disliked them. As a rule disliked foods were never discarded, so had to eat them very often. Amma was good at cooking but sadly she never experimented on eggplants. Brinjals occasionally decorated our table as "THENGAPALOZHICHA KOOTTAN", but that too was not very welcome to my tongue..though my sister thoroughly enjoyed all vegetables cooked in coconut milk.
Years passed by and on one evening as I came back from college, my eyes got widened at a welcoming sight. Amma was busy by the stove and on the fire was a fry pan with thin slices of eggplant bubbling in the hot oil.
That was a time when Amma bought vegetables from a vendor who came to our house once a week. He was thin with a dark beard covering half of his face and we thought he looked like Hareeshri Asokan, the movie actor or to be more truthful we thought the actor whose name we did'nt know at that time, looked very much like our vegetable vendor and when ever we saw him on screen we called him "PACHAKKARIKKARAN". And from this vegetable vendor Amma got the idea of frying brinjals. She offered me fried egg plant slices with rice and I wanted to finish it all in a minute. How come those cold .....emotion-less( vikaramillatha), that was exactly the word we used, become this interesting??? I was totally happy and Amma was also happy to see me happy. We felt indebted to our vegetable seller. Then on fried egg plants and morukoottan, that was the most acceptable combo, made my lunch box exciting. And finally driving inspiration from the fried egg plants I made an eggplant-tomato curry for which I got a grand applause from my family. Even now, after...many years of experimenting, discovering and inventing other recipes, I treat my guests with this easy-to-make curry, when ever I do so I'm confronted with a surprised "how did u.....".
Here I'm sharing two recipes of egg plant, the first one my own eggplant tomato roast and the second one egg plant in yogurt which I learnt from a Pakistani acquaintance.
Eggplant tomato roast.
1. Egg plant - 5 -sliced in to thin circles ( here I have used Indian egg plants....the long one will also do well)
2. onion - 1 large
3. tomato- 1 large
4 turmeric powder- 1\2 teaspoon
5 chilly powder- 1 teaspoon
6 salt -as required
7 oil - 1/2 cup
8. curry leaves
Method
1. slice egg plants in to thin circles.
2. rub them with some salt and keep aside for 15 minutes.3. shallow fry them in hot oil at medium heat.
4. In a pan pour some oil and stir fry onions until golden brown. Add turmeric powder and chilly powder. stir well.
5. forget not to add your salt
6 now add tomatoes and curry leaves. close the lid.
7. when the tomatoes are cooked, add fried egg plants and mix well.
8. As the oil begins to come out....remove from fire
serve hot with rice or chapathi.or even bread.....!!
Eggplant in Yogurt
Ingredients
1. Egg plant (I have used the round ones...long ones are also ok)- sliced in to thin circles- 4
2. chilli powder- 1|2 teaspoon
3. turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
4 salt- as required
5. cumin seeds- 1 teaspoon
6. water- a little
7. yogurt- 1 1/2 cup
6. oil- for frying
how to prepare
1. mix well chilly powder, turmeric powder and salt using some water to make a smooth paste.
2. marinate the egg plant slices in this masala paste3.keep aside for 15-20 minutes
4. heat oil in a fry pan and shallow fry the egg plant slices.
5. In a clean bowl take the yogurt , add some salt and stir well.
6. Now add the fried egg plant slices in to it and mix well using a spoon. let them soak in the yogurt and get softened.
7. In a small pan heat a little oil and splutter the cumin seeds.
8.when cool pour it over the yogurt-egg plant mixture.
