Kathirikai Pitlai (Eggplant/Brinjal curry)

The eggplant is not one of my favorite vegetables. I rarely buy one and when I do, I end up making the one dish I am most familiar with- baingan bharta. I recently bought home a few baby eggplants with the intention of trying out something else for a change. As always, I looked toward Taste of India for some much needed inspiration and it came to me in the form of these two wonderful pitlai recipes. Pitlai, I understand, is a very popular preparation in the Tamil Brahmin community. This is how I made it.

Ingredients:
6-7 brinjals, cubed and placed in a bowl of salted water to prevent discoloration.
A big ball of tamarind soaked in hot water
1-2 tsp brown sugar or jaggery (optional)
½ cup cooked toor dal/split pigeon peas

For roasting and grinding:
1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp urad dal/white lentils
1 Tbsp chana dal/split chickpeas
1 ½ Tbsp coriander seeds
5-8 red chillies
2-3 Tbsp coconut

For seasoning:
I Tbsp Oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp urad dal/white lentils
4-5 curry leaves
A pinch of asafoetida

Method:
Cook the eggplant cubes with some salt in the tamarind extract. Add the jaggery. Cook till eggplants are soft.

Add the roasted and ground spice mixture to the cooked eggplants and cook on medium heat for 2-4 minutes.

Add the cooked dal to the above mixture. Add desired amounts of water depending on the consistency required. Cook for 5 minutes or so. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat.

In a small pan, heat the oil and add all the ingredients for seasoning. Pour the seasoned oil over the pitla.

Serve hot with some rice and appalams.

This is the first time I have used eggplants in this manner and I can’t say that I was too disappointed. It tasted really good!


This is my entry for Abby's Vegetables, beautiful vegetables.


On another note, Court Cooks considers me worthy of this.



Anjali has passed this onto me.



Thank you for thinking of me! I really appreciate the friendly gesture, Court Cooks and Anjali.
I’m going to be a spoilsport now, and selfishly hang onto these for as long as I can. ;-)