Spicy EggPlant

This is a wounderful dish in which eggplant is cooked with pickling style spices.The eggplant cen be served as part of an indian feast or as a spicy accopaniment.It is also good as a vegetarian main dish with rice and some yoghurt.

Ingredients:

800g eggpalnts,cut into wedges 5cm(2 inches) long

400g ripe tomatoes

piece of ginger grated

6 garlic,crushed

310 ml oil

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp kalonji(nigella seeds)

1 tbsp ground coriander seeds

1/4 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

Method of Preparation:

Put the eggplant pieces in a colander,sprinkle them with salt and leave them for 30 mins
to allow any bitter juices to run out.Rinse,squeeze out any excess water,then pat dry with paper towels.
If using fresh tomatoes,score a cross in the top of each and plunge into boiling water for 20 seconds.Drain
and peel away from the cross.Roughly chop the tomatoes,dicarding the cores and seeds and reserving any juices.

Puree the ginger and garlic with one-third of tomato in a blender or food processor.

Heat 125ml of the oil in a large,deep,heavy-based frying pan and when hot,add as many eggplant pieces as you can fit in a single layer.Cook over medium heat until brown on both sides,then transfer to a sieve over a bowl so that the excess oil can be drain off.Add the remaining oil to the pan as needed and cook the rest of the eggpalnt in batches.

Reheat the oil that’s left in the pan and add the fennel seeds and kalonji.Cover and allow to pop for a few seconds.Add the tomato and ginger mixture and the remaining ingredients,except the eggplant.cook,stirring regularly for 5-6 minutes,until the mixture becomes thick and fairly smooth.carefully add the cooked eggplant so the pieces stay whole,cover the pan and cook gently for about 10 minutes.

Store the eggplant in the sauce in the fridge.Pour off any excess oil before serving.The eggplant can either be served cold or gently warmed through.

Iam sending this recipe to Cooking with seeds-coriander seeds hosted by Food for 7 stages of lifeand Priya’s easy n tastyrecipe.