I confess that I am a bit of a lurker over at food blog, My Feasts. The recipes shared usually use either exciting ingredients or common ingredients in an exciting way. While searching for some dinner inspiration earlier this week, I was extra excited to find that she’d posted a recipe for Spicy Eggplant. I am always searching for ways to cook eggplant that don’t include breading and frying it or roasting and pureéing it into a dip.
She names this as a “dry curry,” a pirattal, meaning a dish cooked with very little liquid. I name this recipe as perhaps the best thing I’ve cooked in months. Every bite is satisfying. While the sauce is spicy and complex, the flavor and texture of the eggplant holds its own. This dish is heavy on ground coriander. I topped the finished product with fresh cilantro to accent that flavor.
I’m posting the recipe here, but I highly suggest visiting My Feasts, as that blog has many more recipes worth trying.
Also, I should warn you that I emerged from the library last week with a hefty cookbook full of similar recipes: Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian. (Yes, I took the plunge and am no longer eating meat.) I’ve got a jar of South Indian lemon pickle sitting in my window sill, just waiting to be opened and used in a lentil dish in the next two weeks.
Spicy Eggplant
Adapted from My Feasts
Note: Any time I’m cooking dishes with lots of spices such as this, I read through the entire recipe and measure everything out accordingly. For example, since the coriander, turmeric and cayenne will all be added at once, you can measure all three into the same small dish ready to be tossed into the pan. Andrew has taken this advice, to have everything ready before starting the recipe, and has subsequently become more and more comfortable in the kitchen.
Ingredients:
6 small eggplants, washed and quartered (or 2 long eggplants, cut into thirds and then quartered)
1/2 can of diced tomatoes
2 tb minced ginger (if you have a good blender, you don’t have to mince it too finely)
4 garlic cloves, minced (see above)
4 tb vegetable oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
4 small shallots, minced
salt to taste
1 tsp cayenne powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 Tb coriander powder
3 curry leaves (optional)
3 green chillies (serranos work well)
Fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish
Wash and quarter eggplants.
Heat 2/4 tablespoons of vegetable oil and saute eggplant quarters in a single layer until brown on all sides and set aside. (While I haven’t tried it, I plan to try grilling the eggplants next time in order to cut down the amount of oil used.)
While eggplant is browning, purée tomatoes with minced ginger and garlic.
Using the same saute pan that you used to brown eggplant, heat 2 tablespoons of oil on medium heat and saute minced shallots, curry leaves, whole green chillies, cumin seeds and black mustard seeds. Once the spices start to pop, add in coriander powder, chili powder, turmeric powder and a pinch of salt and saute for a few seconds. Pour in pureed tomatoes and stir well. Adjust seasonings and add in cooked eggplants. Stir gently and cook covered on medium heat until the mixture looks dry. This could take around 6 to 8 minutes. I actually had to lift the cover for some of the liquid to evaporate. This took about a minute. Serve with hot steamed rice or roti.
I suppose that homemade roti could be a future project of mine… I just served with rice and topped with fresh chopped cilantro.