Guthi Vankai Koora - Andhra style stuffed brinjal

It has been a while since I blogged - reasons are many - sick, travel, too many other priorities.. but none justified for long absence.. so here I am back on track to start sharing my cooking..

Today I am going to share with you a favorite Brinjal dish I learnt from my telugu friend Jyotsna. It is stuffed Brinjal with spicy mix. However I tried this out without stuffing the masala in the Brinjal.

Guthi Vankai Koora - Stuffed Brinjal

Ingredients
Brinjal - Small Indian style - 1 kg

Peanuts - 1 cup
Bengal Gram (chana dal) - 1/2 cup
Black Gram (Urad dal) - 1/2 cup
Coriander seeds - 1/4 cup
Coconut (optional) - 1/4 cup
Red chillies - 4-5
Salt to taste
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
4-5 Tbsp
MusTa tard Seeds - 1tsp
Curry leamarind paste - 2 Tbsp
Oil -ves - 6-7
Coriander leaves - to garnish

Dry Masala
Dry fry the Bengal gram, Black gram, coriander seeds, red chillies and peanuts and grind them together with salt, asafoetida. Mix the masala with 1 tbsp of tamarind paste. Keep it aside for stuffing the brinjal (Method 1) or to add in the dish (Method 2).
 
Directions
You can do this dish two different ways - stuffed masala or non-stuffed. It is the taste of the masala (groundnut based) that is key signature for this dish. The second method is easier and less time consuming and gives the same taste and flavor as in Method 1. Both deliver same taste to the dish.

Method 1
Slit the brinjal into 4 pieces without cutting the vegetable completely so it is like a opened flower. Fill in the masala inside the brinjal and tie it up with a thread. Take oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and once it sputters, you add curry leaves and turmeric, add the Brinjal (stuffed). Mix the 1 tbsp of tamarind paste in 1/2 cup of water along with salt and sprinkle the tamarind water+salt on top of the brinjal and cover the pan. Let the brinjal cook in low heat for 20 min with occasional mixing. Once the brinjal is cooked, garnish with coriander leaves and the dish is ready to serve with hot rice or chapathi.

Method 2
Slit the brinjal into 4 pieces without cutting the vegetable completely so it is like a opened flower. Shallow fry the Brinjal until well cooked and keep it aside.  Take oil in pan (1 Tbsp), add mustard seeds and once it sputters, you add curry leaves and turmeric, add the Brinjal (fried and cooked in oil), add the dry masala and the remaining tamarind paste, salt and mix well. Let the brinjal cook in low heat for 20 min with occasional mixing. Once the brinjal is cooked, garnish with coriander leaves and the dish is ready to serve with hot rice or chapathi.

Puli Aval/Avil (Tamarind Poha/pressed rice)

 

This is a signature dish of my mom-in-law and heard from my husband that it is a Bangalore/Karnataka recipe. Well, it is quite unique in its spice combination and quite easy to make for a snack or a breakfast item. The thing that is different from other Puli Aval recipes is that the Poha is ground and looks more like Upma. My folks at work couldn't guess what it was made with.. they all thought it was made with Bajra grains! 

Puli Aval/Avil (Courtesy: Padma Boovaraghavan)
Ingredients
Ground Aval (Poha) - 2 cups (Grind the poha into a coarse powder in blender)
Tamarind juice -  2 cups (you can use fresh tamarind pulp or tamarind paste)
Peanuts- 1/2 cup (roasted)
Curry Leaves - 4-5
Black gram (Urad dal) - 1 tbsp
Bengal gram (Chana dal) - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds - `1 tbsp
Refined oil - 2 Tbsp
Asafoetida - 1 tsp 
Red Chillies - 2-3
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Salt - As needed
Rasam powder - 2-3 tsp (Recipe given in below blog)
http://servantlesscooking.blogspot.in/2013/07/poosanikai-mor-kuzhambu-ash-gourd.html


Directions
Grind the poha in a blender into coarse powder. Squeeze the tamarind pulp into 2 cups warm water (1 tennis ball size pulp) or 3-4 tbsp of tamarind paste. Paste varies in its sourness, so the bench mark is to taste the juice and adjusts the taste to one's pallet (like salt). It should not be too sour.

Add the ground poha into the tamarind juice, along with salt and rasam powder. Mix well so it soaks well into the poha. At the same time, take a pan, heat the oil, add the black gram, bengal gram and mustard seeds. Once the seeds sputter, add the curry leaves and red chillies broken into two halves along with curry leaves and asafoetida. Add the roasted peanuts in the end and saute for 1-2 min.

Add the soaked poha into the pan and mix the flavorful, roasted condiments with the poha. Keep the heat at low and mix for 2-3 min. In a separate pan, dry roast the sesame seeds and cumin and grind them together to garnish from the top. Serve hot ...

The dish has the tangyness from the tamarind and has an Upma feel (not like a typical Poha dish). The uniqueness is that it is made quickly with no cooking, the poha gets cooked when soaked in tamarind juice (warm water). My mom in law, pours the hot oil with condiments into the soaked poha and mixes it without cooking the entire mix.

Tips: To make the dish not lumpy, don't soak the poha for too long in tamarind juice and could add more oil. 

Enjoy!