Ennai Kathirikkai Kara Kuzhambu: (Tamizhar Style)

Eggplant/Brinjal In Tamarind Gravy/ Vengaya Pulsu in Telugu. Engayi in Kanada. Baigan Masala in Hindi.......eventually 'Ennai Kathirikkai Kara Kuzhambu' in Tamil.

I prefer cooking it with'Vellore Mullu Kathirikkai' or 'Deep Violet Colored ones. It also turned good when I tried with white or light purple or italian green eggplants. It turned horrible, when I used...'Delhi-eggplant or the huge-violet' ones. So...stick to the variety for better results.

When I was a kid....my next door neighbours used to make this recipe! They said its 'Ennai Kathirikkai'!(Literally means Oilly Eggplants). I was very skeptical to try that at that time. When I aske mommy about it. She siad its nothing but our 'Brinjal Kara-Kuzhambu' and they people also call it as 'Ennai Kathirikkai'. I never knew(until I started cooking)why it got that name! As we always use oil in almost all the kuzhambu we make then why should we call this alone Ennai' was my question! Well.....when I started cooking, I saw that this brinjal veggie alone sucks the oil while cooking and lets it to go after cooking. So the vegetable hereby gets a nice oily coat and shiny appearance! Hmmmm.....now the name of this curry makes atleast some sense to me!:)

Ingredients:

Eggplant medium size 6-8(Vellore Mullu Kathirikkai/Deep Violet variety)
Cricket ball size tamarind or 1 spoon of thick tamarind paste
Red onion 1 large finely chopped
Garlic 1 large peeled and semi crushed
Tomato 1 large chopped
Jaggery or brown sugar 1 spoon
Salt
Turmeric powder 1/2 spoon
Chili powder 1 spoon
Rice powder 1 spoon
Sesame oil 1 cup
Mustard seeds 1 spoon
Cumin seeds 1 spoon
Fenugreek seeds 1/2 spoon
Chana dal 1/2 spoon
Urad dal 1/2 spoon
Asafoetida 1/2 spoon
Dry red chilies 3-5
Curry leaves few.

Method:

Trim the extrame peduncle of the eggplant.....while retaining a little. Then slitt twice the eggplant, maybe the vegetable should be still intact. Now wash and clean them thoroughly.

In a deep pan heat few spoons of oil. Add garlic, fry till its raw smell goes off. Further add onions, fry till they turn to golden brown color. Now add tomatoes, fry them till they loose their water content.

Now add salt, turmeric, chili powder, sugar and rice powder. Blend them together.

Add the eggplant now. Fry them for a while. Maybe till they are kind of decolored/roasted a little.

Then add tamarind paste and 2 cups of water. Cover and cook over medium flame.

Once the vegetable is done. Run the sesonning on the top. (In a separate pan, heat oil. Add mustard, cumin, asafoetida, fenugreek, chenna dal, urad dal, dry red chilies and curry leaves. Let them pop and splutter well.) Run this seasoning over the gravy.

Serve this along with plain steamed rice. Run a spoon full of ghee over it.....just before serving.