Tomato and eggplant cooked in roasted coconut gravy, delicious vegetarian curry…
Lately, I’ve been making a lot of vegetarian curries (Yes, using homegrown veggies) and having them with homemade chapati or rotis. I don’t seem to get bored of South Indian style vegetarian dishes. But my Man tend to always go behind non-vegetarian dishes and for that reason I’ve to make non-vegetarian dishes pretty much everyday. On days when I crave for a good vegetarian dish, I just ignore what my Man loves and will make a couple of vegetarian dishes and I will be seen enjoying them to the fullest.
I got excited seeing the first eggplant in my veggie garden, though many flowers bloomed only a couple of them produced the eggplant, I believe it’s due to lack of pollination.
Anyway, I happily picked the eggplant and decided to make a curry with it. Seeing the tomatoes sitting on counter top, I had to add them too. Eggplant and tomatoes were cooked in roasted coconut gravy, I loved this curry so much and served with chapati.
- Grated coconut or coconut slices- 1 cup
- Small pearl onions, chopped- 4
- Chili powder- 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder- ¼ tsp
- Coriander powder- 1½ tsp
- Ground cumin- ½ tsp
- Oil- 1 tbsp
- Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
- Whole dry red chili- 2
- Curry leaves- 1 sprig
- Eggplant, diced- 1 medium sized eggplant
- Tomatoes, cut into chunks- 5
- Fresh tamarind- 2 inch slice soaked in ¼ cup water
- Salt- to taste
- In a pan, roast the coconut along with small onions till coconut turns golden in color. I didn't brown the coconut. (I used coconut slices, roasted till they turned golden in color)
- Add the chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and ground cumin to the roasted coconut, saute for a minute.
- Remove the pan from the heat and let cool down.
- In a blender, puree the roasted coconut with ½ to ¾ cup water to a coarse paste. Do not puree to a very smooth paste. Keep aside.
- Soak tamarind in lukewarm water for 5 minutes, squeeze the tamarind in water with your hand and drain the juice. Discard the skin and seeds.
- Place a saucepan over medium heat, add oil, let it turn hot.
- Add mustard seeds, let it splutter.
- Add dry red chilies and curry leaves, saute for a couple of seconds.
- Add the diced eggplant and tomatoes, saute for a minute.
- Pour the pureed roasted coconut, add ½ cup water to thin down the gravy.
- Pour the strained tamarind juice and add salt to taste.
- Cover the pan with its lid and cook over medium heat for a few minutes till the eggplant and tomatoes have cooked. Do not over cook the veggies.
- Open the lid, cook over low heat for a few minutes.
- Taste, add more salt if needed. If more spice is needed add more chili powder as well.
- Remove the pan from the heat and keep it covered for sometime.
- Serve with chapati or rice.
