bonellilou

         
          For the month of February, I was paired with Lakshmi Vimala for the ' Shhhh Cooking Secretly' event, she had given me eggplant and coriander leaves as the secret ingredients. I came up with this curry with the two ingredients, I made a masala with the coriander leaves and cooked the eggplants in it. It turned out to be very flavorful, and tasted very good with both rotis and rice..

Need To Have

• Small Purple Brinjals/Eggplants - 5, sliced
• Tomato - 1, chopped
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Sugar - 1/2 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Cashews - 4, broken into pieces

To Grind

• Chopped Coriander Leaves - 1 cup, packed
• Ginger - 1" piece
• Green Chillies - 3
• Shallots - 6
• Grated Coconut - 2 tablespoons

Method


          Grind together all the ingredients given under ' to grind '.


          Slice the eggplants and keep it in water along with a little salt for 10 to 15 minutes. Then saute it in a little oil with a pinch of salt, till it's 3/4th cooked, remove and keep.


          Heat some oil, toast the cashews and remove. Heat some more oil, add the cumin seeds, when it starts sizzling, add the ground paste and saute for about 5 minutes.


          Then add the tomatoes, sugar and turmeric powder and mix for another 2 minutes, then add the eggplant pieces and mix.


          Add about 1/2 cup of water, cover and cook for 5minutes, then remove the lid and cook till the mixture becomes dry, garnish with cashew pieces and serve.


Note
Make the paste slightly coarse, not into a smooth paste.
Soaking the eggplant pieces in salted water removes any bitterness from the brinjals.
Choose brinjals which doesn't have much seeds.