Eggplant Tomato Curry / Vankaaya Tomato Curry

‘Egg Plant’ aka ‘Brinjal’ aka ‘Vankaaya’ is one of the exotic vegetables.  This is one of the vegetable that pop into the mind for even a non vegetarian that wants to have a vegetarian food. We can cook so many dishes with this vegetable and each will turn out to be a delicacy.

We can slow cook this vegetable with spices for a special occasion or do a simple dish with few ingredients and it is sure to satisfy your appetite.

There eggplants or brinjals come in different shapes and colors (white, green, purple). When I came to US, I remember the first time I went to grocery store, my husband showed  this big purple thing and asked me what it is.  I said it looks like brinjal but really big, is it a hybrid variety. He said this is the brinjal we get here. I was shocked disaapointed and though I could never eat my favorite brinjal curries.

Few of my friends told me that Chinese stores carry a brinjal variety that is lean but long. So we used to go to Chinese store just for brinjal.. Then eventually we got an  Indian store that carried small round brinjals.

Enough said, lets start the recpie

TIP

If you cannot find Indian brinjal, try this recipe with Italian brinjal or the long egg plant.

When the brinjal is big or fat, cook it in a wide pan so that the dish will not be mushy.

Today I am making a very simple dish out of this vegetable.

Ingredients:

• 4 Egg plants / Brinjals diced
• 2 medium Tomatoes diced
• 1 medium Onion diced
• 2 Green chilies slit length wise
• Optional,My Secret ingredient tomato ketchup 1 tbsp ( DO NOT use ketcup when cooking with Indian heirloom tomatoes, they already have sour taste. Use ketchup when cooking only with sweet / hybrid tomatoes like Roma tomatoes or any Hybrid variety)
• 1 tsp Red chilly Powder
• Salt  as per taste
• Oil  3-4 spoons
• 2 dry red chili
• 1 tsp each of Mustard seeds, Cumin, Urad dal, turmeric and Curry leaves.

Directions

1. Heat oil in a sauce pan and add mustard seeds, once they splutter add cumin, red chili, urad dal, turmeric and curry leaves.
   Once all of the above tempering is golden brown, add onions and green chilies. Tip- add little salt to onions to cook it fast.
2. When the onions are transparent, add chopped tomatoes and fry them till they are soft and mushy.
3. When tomatoes are soft, add ketchup (Optional) and fry it for a min. Add chopped Egg plant / brinjal and sauté it for a min. Add chili powder and salt according to taste.
4. Sauté till egg plant releases it’s own juices. Now cover the lid and let it cook on medium heat till egg plant is done. ( add little water if required)
5. Enjoy the curry with steamed white rice or roti.

Note- When using pressure cooker, cover the lid after step 3 and let it whistle 2 times. When the pressure is all released, open the lid and cook it to the desired consistency.

It tastes even better with white rice accompanied with some urad dal vadiyallu. umm!!! umm!!! delicious.