Baby Eggplant Roast

          Today's recipe is going to be another brinjal/ eggplant dish. I have used these mini baby brinjals for this curry. The masala that I have used here is actually used for stuffing these brinjals, but since these cuties were really small, I didn't stuff them. This is a slightly different masala with ginger, green chillies and peanuts (recipe source: one of my Andhra friends) which gives a very different flavor to this curry, goes very well with both rice and rotis..

Need To Have

• Baby Eggplants - 35
• Onion - 1 medium chopped
• Turmeric Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
• Chopped Coriander - to garnish
• Salt - to taste

To Grind 

• Roasted Peanuts - 2 tablespoons
• Coriander Seeds - 1 tablespoon
• Chopped Ginger - 1 tablespoon
• Green Chillies - 3 chopped

Method

          Trim the stem and slit the brinjals as shown and keep it soaked in water with some salt.

          Roast all the ingredients except the peanuts in a little oil and grind it coarsely with the peanuts, without adding any water.

          Heat some oil, add the mustard and cumin seeds, when it starts spluttering, add the asafoetida followed by the onions.

          Saute the onions for about 2 minutes, then add the eggplants, mix for a minute. Then add the turmeric powder, salt and about 2 tablespoons of water, cover and cook till the vegetable is done, keep stirring in between.

          Once the vegetable is cooked, remove the lid, add the ground masala, continue sauteing for another 5 minutes. Garnish with the coriander and switch off.

Note
If you don't get baby eggplants, you can use the bigger ones (sliced into big cubes), but the curry might not turn as dry. Also if the small eggplants are not really small, then after slitting, stuff it and then proceed the same way.
Before adding the ground masala, see to that all the moisture is gone.
You can also add some tamarind paste or a small marble size tamarind to the above masala while grinding.