Baby Brinjals
These are very hot little firecrackers from the orient. They can be used to add spice to almost any oriental dish. They dry very easily and can be stored and used this way for a long time.
Ingredients:
For the powder for stuffing:
Oil- a tsp
Coriander seeds / kothamalli – 1/4 cup scant
Bengal gram dal / kadalai paruppu – 1/4 cup scant
Red chiles/ kayntha milagai 4-5 numbers
Curry leaves / karuveppilai – 2 sprigs
Cumin seeds-1/4 tsp (optional)
To Season:
1-2 tbsps of oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
3/4 tsp urad dal
2-3 tbsps of thinly sliced small onions
2 sprigs of curry leaves
Instructions:
Drizzle a tsp of oil in your thick bottomed wok and fry the coriander seeds, dal, chillies and curry leaves all added together in medium heat until done. Pulse into a coarse powder adding salt.
You need to slit the baby brinjals as you see here. Check for worms while you do this and slice away the portions if you come across any!
Stuff the slits with the powder, as much as you can, and arrange them carefully on your steamer plate with the brinjals placed horizontally or the stuffed sides slightly up. I used my rice cooker and idly steamer plate combo for steam cooking. Close with an appropriate lid to lock the steam while cooking.
Check after 10 minutes. The brinjals should have turned soft and the purple ones would have turned ash green as well.
For seasoning, heat oil in the previous wok, crackle the mustard seeds, brown the urad dal, sauté onions and curry leaves and stir in the brinjals sautéing for a minute . The caramelized onions and the curry leaves coat the brinjals and the flavor is irresistible!
From spicy chilly.blogspot.com