Spicy Kerela Eggplant

I am a doer not a talker, so I really resent wasting my time with endless, meaningless chats or meetings. I say let the action do the talking, instead of sitting around idly waiting for the elusive pot of gold or in this case a beautiful pot of eggplant to appear.... no it won't!

After my opening rant, I am not going to write a long post about this favourite vegetarian dish of ours except it is bloody delicious! If you are an eggplant lover, you might want to try making it at this very moment.

Happy cooking and have a marvelous Sunday!

recipe adapted from The Food Of India
serves 4 to 6 as part of an Indian meal
you'll need;
2 large eggplants (~1kg), cut into wedges
400g tin chopped tomatoes
4 cm knob of ginger, chopped
8 garlic cloves
1.5 tsp of fennel seeds
1/2 tsp of nigella seeds
1 tbs of coriander powder
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
1/2 tsp of chili powder
1/2 tsp of crushed black pepper
salt to taste
oil for frying

Soak eggplant for 20 minutes and drain well.

Blend ginger and garlic with half of the chopped tomatoes until fine.

Nigella seeds and fennel seeds. Crush the fennel seeds lightly if you are not a fan of bitting into whole spice.

Fry eggplant in batches until golden brown, remove and drain off excess oil.

Add 4 tbs of oil to a large pan or pot and add in the whole seeds. Cover and allow the seeds to pop for a few seconds. Add the blended ingredients, the rest of the chopped tomatoes and spices and cook until the mixture becomes thick and oil starts to 'split'.

Return the fried eggplant to the pot and gently mix through the sauce, cover and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Season well with sea salt before serving.

I served this beautiful dish with chicken masala, punjabi cabbage (recipe up next) and plenty of steamed basmati rice on the side.