Stuffed Brinjal Curry

   I love Andhra cuisine! Most varieties of 'pappus','podis','kuras' are mouth watering and very tasty mainly because of the famous Guntur red chilly and groundnuts, I suppose. My first brush with andhra style of cooking was when I got to stay with a very close telugu family friend of mine (my favorite Latha aunty), for an extended period of time. I got a taste of 'Meerakai Pacchadi', 'Pesarettu and Upma', 'Khaja from Kakinada' and a variety of Andhra specialities. Then again, when I moved to Bangalore, I stayed with my Aruna aunty (also from Andhra) and got to taste her awesome 'Stuffed Brinjal kura'. If you love spicy food, then tasting this is a must, in my opinion :) Aruna aunty always made her stuffed brinjals with the powdered stuffing from her native place. And it was always a dry fry, made with very little oil in a small cooker. She always used the freshest brinjals to make these. She would slit the brinjals, stuff them with the powder and place them in the cooker and allow them to fry without actually closing the cooker lid. After a while she would toss the brinjals gently. This kura or vegetable was a favorite of mine, especially with curd rice. Since then, it has always been my interest to learn to make this wonderful dish. As luck would have it, I found many recipes online, tried a few, but none came close to what my aunt used to make. The one I am writing now has become somewhat of a favorite of mine, as it evokes memories of the time I spent with both my aunt's. 

Stuffed Brinjal Curry

Ingredients:
Small brinjals - 6 to 8 (I prefer the purple ones to the green ones as they have lesser seeds)
Onions - 2 large ones
Tomatoes - 3 plum or 1 beefsteak tomatoes (add more if you want more gravy)
Tamarind - half lemon size (add a lime sized ball if you want a sour gravy)
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp for seasoning
Salt - to taste
Powder for stuffing - (dried coconut + roasted peanuts + roasted sesame seeds + urad dal + chana dal + cumin seeds + dried red chillies + cinnamon stick + cloves + salt)
(refer to the 'Stuffed brinjal powder' in the 'Powders and Pickles' menu item for full details)
Jaggery - small pellet
Mustard - 1/2 tsps
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - a few

Slit brinjals stuffed with wet paste

Method:

1) Chop the onions finely and grind the tomatoes into a fine paste. You can also use store bought tomato puree if you like. You can add chopped tomatoes if you wish, but I feel grinding them gives you more quantity of curry. Wash the brinjals and remove the green stem. Dry them on a paper towel and slit them vertically without breaking them. Take about 4 tbsps of the stuffing( I shall call it 'brinjal powder') add few drops of water to it to make a paste and stuff this paste into the slits of each brinjal. You can also stuff the brinjals with the dry powder instead of making a paste. Soak tamarind in water for half hour and extract the juice. Keep aside.

2) Heat some oil in a heavy bottomed vessel. I prefer to use the cooker for this curry as it is much faster. When the oil is hot, season it with mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves. Add the chopped onions, a little salt for the onions and fry till onions are translucent. 

3) Now add the pureed/ chopped tomatoes and fry till it is cooked. Add the tamarind extract and salt to taste. Any leftover brinjal powder paste can be added to the curry, together with another tbsp of the same.Gently place the brinjals one by one, the slit side facing upwards, into the curry. Add a small piece of jaggery for taste. Close the cooker and place the weight. Simmer the cooker for a minute or two when you hear the whistle and then switch off. Allow the cooker to cool a little before opening it. That way the brinjals would have been cooked just well enough. Serve this curry with hot rice.

Brinjals ready to be placed in the curry. The green one was a trial brinjal :) 

Curry with onion, tomatoes, tamarind extract and brinjal powder

Brinjals placed in the curry to be cooked

Brinjal curry done!

Note: This is a curry recipe and not a dry fry, but you could use the brinjal powder to make a dry fry. Slit the brinjals, stuff the powder and place it in a kadai with few tablespoons of oil. Season the oil and add the brinjals to the same. Allow it to fry, taking care to turn over the brinjals from time to time till done. In the above recipe, I have added a small piece of jaggery and it truly enhances the taste of the curry....giving the essential sweet-sour flavor. You can omit the jaggery, if you wish to savor only a sour taste.

Serving size: This curry will be enough for 2 people for 2 servings. Increase the quantity of all ingredients to serve more people.

Poondu Kulumbhu (Garlic Curry)

   Garlic or Poondu as it is known in South India, is a very strong smelling, pungent root. Peeling garlic in the kitchen is despised by most women, thanks to the smell that lingers in the fingers. But everyone will agree when it comes to the health benefits of the garlic clove, that it is one ingredient they would love to include in all their cooking. Garlic pearls are known to purify blood, improve blood circulation and serve as an anti-oxidant, promoting the well being of the heart and immune system. Mom used to use garlic in all her dishes in one form or the other. Sometimes it was garlic paste, garlic powder, chopped garlic, whole garlic..... the garlic pod was a staple in our kitchen and together with ginger, it was essential to create many a gastronomic delight ! Mom used to make poondu kulumbhu a lot, especially in garlic season. This was my Dad's favorite and together with plain dal, he used to have a feast. I never liked poondu kulumbhu in my younger years, but developed a taste for this once I learned to cook. Like my dad, now I love the combo of having hot rice with  plain dal, a dollop of ghee on top and the poondu kulumbhu as an accompaniment or mixed with the dal rice. Absolutely delightful !

Poondu Kulumbhu (Garlic Curry)

Ingredients:

Garlic cloves or poondu - 1 and 1/2 handfuls

Onion - 1 and 1/2 (finely chopped)

Tamarind - a small pellet (1/4 size of a lemon)

Tomatoes - 2 (pureed or finely chopped)

Fenugreek seeds (methi seeds) - 1/4 tsp

Sambar powder - 1 1/2 to 2 tsps

Grated fresh coconut - this is optional

Salt - to taste

Cooking Oil - 2 tbsps (use sesame/ gingelly oil as it is tastier)

Mustard - 1/2  tsp

Urad dal - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves - 3

Method:

1) Soak the tamarind in water for 20 minutes and extract juice by squeezing the pulp and straining. You can increase the quantity of tamarind in case you prefer a very sour flavor (pulipu flavor). You can also microwave the soaked tamarind in water for about 1 minute, cool it and extract the juice.

2) Heat some oil in a kadai or skillet. When oil is hot, add mustard seeds, urad dal, fenugreek seeds and curry leaves to season the oil. Take care not to add too much of fenugreek seeds, else the curry will turn bitter. These seeds are only added to enhance the flavor of the kulumbhu. Now add chopped onions, a little salt and stir fry till onions are slightly translucent.
3) Add the peeled garlic cloves. An easy way to peel garlic would be to microwave the garlic with the skin for about 30 seconds. Or else roast the garlic with the skin in a hot kadai/ saucepan for about a minute. The skin will loosen up and the garlic will become soft, making it easier to remove the skin. An advantage of this is the fact that the garlic cloves will fry faster and absorb the liquid curry better, making the kulumbhu tastier. If peeling garlic is not for you, then use the peeled garlic readily available in the freezer section in the Indian store or Costco. I am sure you get peeled garlic in India too, only I don't know the store names.

4) Now add the pureed tomatoes, the tamarind extract and the sambar powder to the fried onions and garlic cloves. Fry them for few minutes till the tomatoes are cooked. You can add chopped tomatoes too, but I feel adding ground/ pureed tomatoes increases the quantity of the curry and the garlic cloves blend well into the curry. You may need to add red chilli powder in case your sambar powder does not contain chilli powder in it. Since I use home made sambar powder already containing chilli powder in it, I have not added the same here. Add salt to taste. Add only required quantity of water to the mixture, making sure you do not thin down the consistency. This curry is usually an accompaniment to rice and dal, so should have a slightly thicker consistency. It can be eaten with rice as such too, not necessarily as an accompaniment. Watering down the curry would essentially ruin the taste. 

5) Bring the curry to a rolling boil till the raw smell of the sambar powder is all gone. You can add grated coconut before the curry starts to boil, in case you wish to tone down the sourness of the kulumbhu. I have had this kulumbhu with and without the coconut. I like the one without the coconut better as you get the actual sour flavor of the curry and the pungent but yummy taste of the garlic cloves.

Note:

  Try to use gingelly oil (sesame oil ) while doing seasoning as it enhances the flavor of the kulumbhu. You can also use regular canola, sunflower or vegetable oil. My mom says you should try grinding the tomatoes with 1/4 onion. Add a small pellet of jaggery to the kulumbhu before bringing it to a boil. This way you will sample a delightful combination of sweet, sour and spicy kulumbhu.

Serving size: Will serve 2 people for a single meal.