Brinjal Gravy/Katharikkai Chops

Ingredients

Small brinjals-8

Chopped onion-1/4cup

Chopped tomato-1/4cup

Green chilly-1

Cilantro- to garnish

Mustard seeds-1/2teaspoon

Turmeric powder-1/4teaspoon

Chilly powder-11/2teaspoon

Sugar-1/4teaspoon

Salt

Oil 

To grind

Coconut -3tablespoons

Coriander seeds-1tablespoon

Method

Chop the onions, tomatoes into small pieces. 

Grind the coconut and coriander seeds with very little water to a fine paste.

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and let them pop. Then add the onions and sauté.
Add the tomatoes after the onions become transparent and cook until the tomatoes become mushy.
Now add the turmeric and chilly powder, give it a nice stir.

Wash, pat-dry and remove the stem of the brinjals and make a deep "+" mark in each of them. Stuff the coconut paste in each brinjal..

Then add them to the onion-tomato masala..

Saute the brinjals for 2-3 minutes, then add the remaining coconut paste..

Add enough water and salt and let it boil nicely.

Once the brinjals are soft and the gravy reaches your desired consistency, switch off the stove, add the sugar and cilantro.

Simple and delicious brinjal chops is ready to serve. It goes well with roti as well as rice.

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Quick n Easy Brinjal Gravy

I never cook vegetables (other than potato and raw banana) in pressure cooker. But have seen many of my friends use pressure cooker to make vegetable curries. Just tried it with brinjals, the gravy turned out to be delicious and definitely its a keeper. Whenever you are running out of time or not feeling like cooking an elaborate curry, you can try this!


Ingredients
Brinjals - 6
Onion-1
Few curry leaves and Cilantro
Toamto-2
Sugar - 1/2teaspoon
Salt
Oil
To grind
Grated Coconut-3tablespoons
Red chilly-7 (adjust to your taste)
Roasted peanuts - 2 teaspoons
Sesame seeds - 1teaspoon
Small piece of Tamarind

Method
Grind the things given under "to grind" to a nice paste with little water.
Chop the onions and tomatoes into fine pieces.
Wash and cut the brinjals ( Make slits on the veggie, take care not to split them)
Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a small pressure cooker.
Add the onions, curry leaves and saute till they become transparent, then add the tomatoes and cook for a few minutes.
Now add the brinjals, give a quick stir, add the masala paste with enough salt.
Add 1/2cup of water, sugar and close the pressure cooker. Let it cook just for one whistle.

 

Open the cooker, garnish with cilantro and gravy is ready to indulge! It goes well with plain rice/biriyani/pulao/roti...what not?! ;)

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Spicy Egg fry

Ingredients
Hard Boiled eggs-3
Onion-1
Tomato(small)-1
Curry powder-11/2teaspoons [I've used MDH Madras curry powder]
Salt
Few curry leaves

To coarsely grind
Cumin seeds-1teaspoon
Coriander seeds-1teaspoon
Pepper corns-1teaspoon

Method
Heat oil in a pan, add the onions-curry leaves and sauté for a minute. Then add the tomatoes and cook till it becomes soft n mushy.
Add the curry powder-salt and mix it well.
Now add the hard boiled (eggs cut into half), mix it gently and cook on low heat for 3-4 minutes.
Finally add the powdered spices, gently mix it, reduce the heat to low, put off the flame after a minute or two.
Hot n spicy egg fries are ready! Enjoy it with your rice/roti/pulao of your choice.
We had it with vegetable biriyani.



Sending this recipe to Bachelor's Feast event happening at Jaleelaa akkaa's Samaiyal attakaasam

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Egg Korma / Muttai kuruma

Ingredients
Hard boiled eggs-3
Tomato-2
Coconut milk powder-2tablespoons
Turmeric powder-1/4teaspoon
Chilli powder-1/2teaspoon
Coriander powder-1teaspoon
Bay Leaf-1
Water
Cilantro to garnish
Oil
Salt

To Mince
Onion-1
Green chilly-1
Ginger-2"piece
Garlic-3 cloves

Coriander seeds-2teaspoons
Cumin seeds-1teaspoon
Pepper corns-1teaspoon
2"Cinnamon Sticks
Elaichi-1
Cloves-2
Fennel Seeds-1teaspoon
Red chilly-3 (adjust to your taste)

Method

1.Chop the onions,g.chilly..n keep the ginger-garlic ready.

2.Take all the dry ingredients to mince in a mixie jar and powder it.

3.Add the onion-g.chilly-ginger-garlic in the mixie and mince it.

4.Heat a tablespoon of oil and add the bay leaf once the oil is hot. Add the minced masala and cook till the raw smell of the onion is gone. Add another tablespoon of oil in between, and stir it so that the masala dose not get burnt. (will take 5-6minutes on low heat)

5.Now add the tomatoes with turmeric,chilly,coriander powders and salt. Continue cooking till the tomaotes become mushy, and the oil oozes out.

6.Add 1.5 cups of water and let it boil nicely.

7.Then add the peeled and sliced eggs. (We don't eat the yolk, so I didn't add. :) ) Cook for a few minutes.

8.Mix the coconut milk powder in 1/2cup of warm water and add it to the gravy, cook on low heat for 10minutes(or) the oil oozes out.

9.Garnish with cilantro and put off the flame. Spicy egg korma is ready to enjoy with parotta/biriyani/roti or any other rice variety!

Do adjust the quantity of pepper corns,green chilly,red chilly and cloves. We felt it little spicy, but being spicy eaters, we enjoyed this korma. :P

Recipe adopted from here.

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Stuffed Brinjals

I saw this recipe in Nithu's Kitchen..one sunday prepared this and had it with Tomato Biriyani. Enjoy this side dish for Biriyani! Thanks for the quick n easy recipe Nithu! :)

Ingredients
Gingely Oil-2 tablespoons (or more! ;) )
Brinjals-5
Salt
To Roast n Grind
Peanuts- 1 fist full
Urad dhal-11/2 teaspoons
Red Chilli-6
Dry coconut powder-11/2tablespoons
Sesame seeds-1 teaspoon
Daniya seeds-1teaspoon

Method
Roast and grind the items with enough salt to a coarse powder.
Wash n pat dry the brinjals,slit them and stuff them with the spice powder.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan, arrange the brinjals, close the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes.
Try to turn the brinjals once in a while to avoid burning.

Now add the remaining powder to the pan, and sprinkle the another tablespoon of oil, close the pan and cook for 4 minutes.

Thats all..yummy stuffed brinjals are ready to serve! The spice powder really really enhances the taste! :P :P

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Capsicum Gravy

One lazy evening, I wanted to make some side dish for roti's and did a google search! ;) This dish attracted me in the searched results! I've adjusted the ingredients according to our taste buds!

I used to make these kind of capsicum masala but adding little bit of new spices made a nice twist and the outcome was so aromatic n just perfect for roti's! You can check the original recipe here.

Ingredients
Capsicum -1
Onion(small)-1
Asafoetida- 2 pinches
Mustard seeds -1/2teaspoon
Turmeric powder-1/4teaspoon
Sugar-1/2teaspoon
Salt
Oil

To roast and grind:
Urad dhal-1 teaspoon
Methi seeds-1/4teaspoon
Coriander seeds-1/2teaspoon
Red chillies-6
Roasted peanuts - one fist full
Fresh coconut-1/4cup
Tamarind juice- little less than 1/4 cup

Method
Heat oil in a kadai, roast the urad dhal,methi & coriander seeds, red chillies carefully without burning. Grind them along with coconut and tamarind juice to a fine paste and keep aside.

Chop the capsicum into big chunks, onion into small pieces.

Heat a spoon of oil in a kadai, fry the capsicum for 2-3 minutes and keep aside. Add one more spoon of oil in the same pan, make the tempering with mustard seeds and asafoetida, followed by the onions.

Fry till the onions become transparent, then add the masala paste, adjust the water level, add salt and let it cook for 5-10 minutes.

Now add the roasted capsicum chunks along with the sugar and cook for few more minutes. Yummy capsicum gravy/ capsicum curry is ready! Enjoy it with roti's or rice.

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Empty Salna

I've heard the word "salna[aka kurma]" only a couple of years back, which is served with parottas in many parts of Tamilnadu. In our region, we make "kurma" only! :)

In this salna no veggie is added and thats why this is called Empty salna. Special thanks to Asiya akka for sharing this recipe.

Ingredients
Onion -1
Green Chilly -1
Tomato -2
Few Mint leaves,curry leaves and Cilantro
Grated Coconut - 5teaspoons
Cashew- 5
Cloves - 2
Cinnamon- 2" piece
Elaichi-2
Ginger-garlic paste -1 teaspoon
Chilli Powder-1 1/2teaspoon
Coriander powder-1teaspoon
Cumin powder-1/2teaspoon
Fennel powder-1/2teaspoon
Turmeric powder-1/8teaspoon
Salt
Oil

Method
Powder the cinnamon stick,cloves & elaichi.
Chop the onion,g.chilly,tomatoes and mint.
Grind the coconut and cashew with little water to a fine paste.
Heat oil in a pan and fry the onions,green chilly & curry leaves till onion changes in colour. Then add the cinnamon-clove-elaichi powder and G-g paste and fry for a minute. Add in the tomato pieces and mint.
Cook on low heat till the tomatoes become mussy. Now add the chilli-coriander-cumin-fennel and turmeric powders and fry till the oil oozes out. Then add salt and a cup of water, bring it to nice boil.

Add the coconut-cashew paste, add enough water(~11/2cups to 2 cups), cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes. By then the salna will be cooked nicely and the oil will be floating on top.
Garnish with cilantro and put off the flame. Aromatic and yummy empty salna is ready to serve. Its a perfect match for layer parathas-chappathi and poori. We had it with Naan,which will be coming soon.

Note
Cover the pan and cook through out the entire process.
Onions-tomatoes should be finely chopped so that,you won't find any pieces in the salna.
Chop the paratha/chapathi into small pieces, soak them in the salna, thats the best method of eating this dish! :)
You can see the original recipe here.

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Stuffed Brinjal Gravy

Ingredients
Small Brinjals-6
Onion-1
Tomatoes-2
Green Chilly-1
Cumin Seeds-1/2spoon
Mustard Seeds-1/2spoon
Few curry leaves and cilantro
Turmeric powder-1/4spoon
Chilli powder-1spoon
Coriander powder-1/2spoon
Tamarind Juice-1/4cup
Sugar-1/2spoon
Salt,Oil.

For the Stuffing
Roasted peanut-1tbs
Roasted sesame seeds-1ts
Roasted dry coconut powder-1tbs
Chilli powder-1spoon

Method
Grind the ingredients under "stuffing" to coarse powder..add little water and make a thick paste.Cut the stem of the Brinjals, slit them and stuff them with the paste.

Chop the onions,g,chilly,tomatoes finely. Heat oil,make the tempering with Mustard seeds,cumin seeds,curry leaves. Add the onion-g.chilly and fry for few minutes. Then add the tomatoes,chilli powder,turmeric powder,coriander powder,sugar and salt. Cook till the tomatoes become mushy.
Add the tamarind juice and let it boil.
Add the stuffed brinjals with the gravy.Close the kadai with a lid and let it cook on low flame for 5 minutes.
Gently turn the brinjals to the other side and cook for few more minutes. Take out the lid and let the gravy in simmer till the oil oozes out. Put off the flame and garnish with cilantro.
Tasty brinjal gravy is ready to serve.It goes well with Biriyani,pulav,jeera rice,white rice as well as roti's and dosa.

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