Guthi vankaya (Stuffed Brinjal curry)

Friday, January 2, 2009

Ingredients

10 to 15 small & fresh brinjals (Egg plant)
1 cup peanuts (dry roast and remove the skin)
1 cup sesame seeds (dry roast)

4 to 5 dried red chillies
1 Tablespoon of coriander seeds
1 teaspoon of cumin
5 cloves, one small piece of cinnamon stick
10 fenugreek seeds (menthulu) (this seed tastes bitter so reduce if you don't like bitter taste)

1 medium sized onion
2 to 3 medium sized tomatoes
lemon sized tamarind extracted into paste

salt to taste
Method

1) Blend all the above ingredients to a think paste. Divide this paste into 2 portions 1 for stuffing and other for making gravy/sauce.

2) Cut the brinjals lengthwise into 4 pieces but without breaking them as you see in the picture. If you want you can remove the stems.

3) Stuff the paste inside each brinjal and keep aside (if the brinjals are too small and you decide not to stuff to save some time make a gravy of the ingredients by adding some water and pressure cook)

4) Heat Oil and splutter mustard seeds, add the stuffed brinjals and stir-fry for 3 to 4 mins. Add some water to the remaining paste and add it to the brinjals and cook until brinjals are cooked. At this point you can also pressure cook this gravy so that you don't have to keep stirring the gravy.