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. ;-)

Radish Kootu

Kootus are essentially vegetable and lentil based dishes which are semi-solid, i.e., less aqueous than sambhar, but more so than dry curries. Rice and kootu is a common and simple Tamil meal. In Tamil cuisine kootus are considered substitutes for both curries and sambhar.(Source: Wiki)


I’ve made kootu with a couple of different vegetables depending on what I have available. Most members of the gourd family- bottle gourd, chayote (chow-chow) to name a couple- are excellent choices for a kootu.

This is a very simple and tasty kootu that I often make with radishes.

Ingredients:
10-12 radishes cut into small pieces
1 ½ cups cooked toor dal/split pigeon peas (I pressure cook dal in large quantities and freeze in separate batches for later use.)
A pinch of turmeric powder
Salt to taste.

To be ground to a paste:
4 Tbsp coconut
1 tsp cumin seeds
5-6 red chillies

For seasoning:
1 Tbsp oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp fenugreek/methi seeds
4-5 curry leaves
A pinch of asafoetida

Method:
Cook the radish pieces along with a few curry leaves, salt and turmeric powder in some water on medium heat till the pieces turn soft.

Add the ground paste of coconut, cumin and red chillies to this and continue cooking for another 3-4 minutes.

Now add the cooked toor dal, mix and allow the mixture to come to a boil. Continue cooking for 2-3 minutes on medium heat.

Heat oil in a pan and add the ingredients for the seasoning. Add to the kootu and mix.

Serve with steaming hot rice.

Jaggery Dosa/Vella Dosai

Vella dosas are sweet dosas made with jaggery and wheat flour. I understand that this is a very common tiffin item in Tamil Nadu.
Ingredients:
1 cup wheat flour
½ cup rice flour
½ cup jaggery
2 Tbsp grated coconut
A pinch or two of powdered cardamom
6-7 cashew nuts, powdered
Ghee (to make the dosas)
Salt to taste
Method:
Melt the jaggery on medium heat in a cup of water till it dissolves completely. Let it cool.

Mix all the other ingredients together. Add the jaggery syrup to this along with the required amount of water and prepare a batter.

Heat a cast-iron skillet/griddle until hot and smear it with a little bit of ghee. Pour a ladleful of batter onto the skillet and spread in a circular motion starting from the inside, working your way towards the outside. Add a little ghee around the edges of the dosa and cook till golden brown. Then flip and cook the other side till done.

Serve hot with or without accompaniments depending on your preference.
We had our dosas with some spicy chutney to offset the sweetness of the jaggery.